This thesis is pided into five parts. The first part starts with a general introduction of this study. The second part reviews some recent studies of non-intellectual factors. The third part presents the classification of non-intellectual factors. The forth part will be some feasible advice given to remove students’ negative effects of non-intellectual factors and help teachers improve their class teaching. The last part will be the conclusion of this thesis.
2. Literature Review
Non-intellectual factors have been very attractive for experts all round the world, because a better understanding of non-intellectual factors can improve the learning efficiency. So a great number of experts and scholars from different areas of the world exchanged their views about the functions of non-intellectual factors and their roles with each other. How to make present English teaching more successful than ever before was becoming the most popular topic among them. Therefore, the study of non-intellectual factors in foreign countries has been taken rapidly recently, especially in some developed western countries. They have made great progress in this field, and America was a typical example: many experts of America have their quiet mature thoughts and systematic equipment on the study of non-intellectual factors in English teaching and learning. Wechsler (1974) pointed that non-intellectual factors is a necessary part in the development of intellectual behaviors. In addition, some experts integrated their theories with teaching practice, in their non-intellectual factors of experiment of in English teaching, the concept of motivation should be placed in first place, they presented that motivation is centered in teaching, if the students can understand both intellectual and non-intellectual factors in language learning, there would be no difficulty in learning English.
The researches of non-intellectual factors both in English learning and teaching in China also make a progress. Since China opened to the world in 1978, the process of English teaching became very fast, and there are two reasons, one of which is that the Chinese Ministry of Education pays special attention to the English education in china. Their purpose is to integrate English with the practice of China’s economy and make it better than before. The other reason is that more and more Chinese realize the importance of non-intellectual factors in their English learning. At the same time, some Chinese experts are very fond of discovering intellectual factors and non-intellectual factors which affect learning efficiency. For example, Yan Guocai (2006) thought that non-intellectual factors aren’t directly involved in the process of cognition. What’s more, experts took advantage of some beneficial factors and avoid the disadvantages. At last, experts found some important factors, such as the study motivation, emotion, interest, and a good habit of study and so on. Because of this, some English learners succeeded in doing well in mastering English, and some famous experts and scholars have formed their unique views on this subject and made them famous around the world. 源:自'751.·论,文;网·www.751com.cn/
3. Non-intellectual Factors
Non-intellectual factors have been a very popular subject for experts from different countries, because a better understanding can help teachers and learners a lot.There are many factors which have effects on English learning, and in this part, enough information will be presented to show the importance of non-intellectual factors.
3.1 Definition
Intelligence is an important factor affecting learning, which is a comprehensive cognitive ability, refers to attention, observation, memory, imagination and thinking ability of organic combination of five basic elements.What are non-intellectual factors? In recent years, it has become one of the “hot issues”. There are a number of definitions of non-intellectual factor, and the following are two of them: