I.Concepts of Emotion and Attitude

Psychology research shows that all human activities are accompanied by an emotional experience, and emotional experience, in turn, can influence human activities. If an activity leads to a pleasant emotional experience, it will be actively and repeatedly imitated. If the activity leads to an unpleasant emotional experience, it will be stopped or changed. The support of emotions is vital to teaching. The former Soviet Union educator Л• В• Ванков once said, “a teaching method can play an effective role as long as it takes into account students' emotions and will, and satisfies their emotional needs.”

(I) Definition of teaching emotion and attitude

In teaching emotion and attitude, the teacher takes the cognitive factors fully into account, while stimulating, motivating and satisfying student's emotional needs, by using certain teaching methods to attain the teaching objectives and to enhance the effectiveness of teaching. The teaching process is not only transmission and feedback of information between teacher and learners, but also a process of emotional communication between them. The learning process of the students is a process in which cognitive and emotional activities interact and balance each other.

Emotion and attitude teaching is people-oriented. The teacher consciously uses psychological theories to foster positive emotions, cultivate student learning interests, and enhance their learning motivation, self-confidence, initiative and purpose, so that teachers and students can all participate and develop themselves harmoniously, and the overall quality of students can be improved and their personality can be developed.

(II)The content of emotion and attitude

In the Curriculum, the goals of teaching emotion and attitude are divided into five parts; interests and motivation, self-confidence and will, the spirit of cooperation, national identity and international perspective. These are the positive emotional factors in foreign language learning. On the other hand, there are still many negative emotions that may be triggered during foreign language learning, such as excessive anxiety, introversion, shyness, lack of motivation and interest, fear of difficulties and so on. J. Arnold（1999）divided emotional factors into two categories; one is the learner's individual factors, including anxiety, inhibition, personality, motivation, etc.; the other is the emotional factors between teachers and learners, including empathy, classroom exchanges, intercultural awareness, etc.

The emotional factors affecting foreign language teaching are complex, as they are interrelated and they interact with each other. Thus it is difficult to attribute an emotion to a particular factor. Generally, the emotional factors that have a direct impact on foreign language learning include the following; （1）Anxiety. This refers to the psychological fear or distress when learners need to communicate in the foreign language. It usually happens when the learners worry about being criticized by the teachers or laughed at by fellow learners, or when the learning task is difficult, and the result is important to them.（2）Inhibition. This refers to not taking actions for self-protection.（3）Motivation. This is the driving force of language learners. It is related to the students' purpose or reasons for learning a foreign language.（4）Self-esteem. This refers to the learners' assessment and awareness of their own values and capabilities.（5）Empathy. This refers to the understanding of other people's thoughts, feelings and feeling for them. Empathy does not mean giving up their own emotional experience, nor does it mean to agree to the views of others, but it means respecting, understanding and accepting other people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

(III)The significance to ELT

Compared with other subjects, language is more closely related to emotions and attitudes. Emotions and attitudes are expressed by language to a large extent. Therefore, English classes play a unique role in developing student's emotions and attitudes. Emotions and attitudes have been taken as one of the goals of the current English curriculum, and this has important practical significance. Firstly, solving emotional problems contributes to language learning. Negative emotions affect the realization of one's latent potentiality. If learners are too affected by negative emotions, even the best teachers, teaching materials and methods will not help. Conversely, positive emotions such as self-esteem, confidence, empathy, motivation, pleasure, surprise, etc. can create a mental state that is conducive to learning. Brown（1987）concludes from his own and other research that emotional factors play a decisive role in second language learning and any unsuccessful foreign language learning can be attributed to emotional barriers. Secondly, solving emotional problems is also a way to promote human development. In this sense, emotion is not a problem in language teaching, not even in education itself, but a means for human development. But education in the past put too much emphasis on the development of the rational brain and cognition, and ignored the non-rational aspects of human development, resulting in an “emotional gap”. Foreign language education should also take the nurture and growth of all-round human development as its ultimate goal. In teaching, the teacher should constantly stimulate and enhance students' interest in learning and help them gradually transform their interests into stable learning motivation. The aim is to build their self-confidence; strengthen their determination; enable to them to know their own strengths and weaknesses; and be ready to cooperate and develop a balanced and healthy character. Through learning English, we can also enhance their awareness of China and expand their international perspective.

II.Emotion and Attitude Teaching

(I) The goals of teaching emotion and attitude

The National Curriculum Standards for ELT points out that English teaching should take students' interests, life experience and cognitive ability into consideration. It advocates employing experience, practice, participation, cooperation, and a task-based approach. Making use of student's comprehensive language competence, we can make the language learning process into a process in which students form positive emotional attitudes, build their ability in proactive thinking and in self-learning, and boldly practise their skills.

In line with the emotional development of students of different ages, the National Curriculum Standards for ELT also breaks down the goals of teaching emotion into different stages. At the elementary school stage, the key is to enable students to experience the fun of learning English, and make learning English a part of the mental development of young children. Teachers should not emphasize the practical effect of learning English, nor see it as a tool. In the junor middle school stage, students can be gradually guided to understand the purpose and significance of learning English. They should also be guided to realize that emotions and attitudes and learning English are closely related. Special attention should be paid to students who have difficulty in learning English. In the senior middle school stage, the aim is to improve their capacity for independent thinking and judgment; develop their ability in communication and cooperation; enhance their understanding and ability in inter-cultural communication; establish a correct outlook on life, the world and values; develop their social responsibility; and encourage overall self-improvement.

Table 13-2 The emotion and attitude goals of Level 2, 5, and 8.

(II) The implementation principle of teaching emotion and attitude

The impact of emotion and attitude on teaching is complex. Emotions are closely linked to the students' intellect, but they do not form an independent unit in the learning content. Emotions are only a factor which affects student's learning activities indirectly. Therefore, the teachers should follow the following implementation principles;

1.Establish an amicable teacher-student relationship

The relationship between the teacher and students is a special social relationship based on “transmitting wisdom, imparting knowledge and removing doubts”. A good, compatible and consistent teacher-student relationship is necessary to efficient education. In the first instance, a cooperative, mutual and harmonious relationship between teachers and students should be established. There is an old Chinese saying（“亲其师, 信其道”）that says students can only follow the teacher and imitate his words and deeds after they have accepted their teacher and respect their teacher's character. The teacher's trust and belief in the students are a prerequisite for developing a good teacher-student relationship. A teacher should always be generous, smiling, affable, courteous and graceful so as to maintain a respected image among the students. When students encounter difficulties or setbacks, in learning or in life, the teacher should inspire them to overcome the difficulties and help them to learn from their past experiences and lessons. Teachers should never frighten or blame the students as this can make them lose their confidence or create undue pressure. The teacher should take note of students' academic achievements and problems as well as their state of mind and family situations. The teacher should also be able to share his/her troubles and happiness with their students and be their close friends. The aim is to guide students in a rational way and build a new teacher-student relationship in which there is mutual respect, understanding and trust.

2.Create a pleasant learning atmosphere to stimulate students' interest and motivation to learn

Humanistic learning holds that learning should be a spontaneous, purposeful and enjoyable process of self-development and learning. In the teaching process, a teacher should cultivate continual student interest, and effectively promote physical and mental development. Interest is the most direct and most active driving force behind learning activities. Interest can enable students to maintain positive emotions, good spirits and strong learning motivation. Their learning interest can become consistent motivation and develop their intelligence, wisdom, and potentials, thus enhancing their learning effectiveness.

Motivation has always been considered the key to effective English teaching, whether in cultivating listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, or in the teaching of English knowledge. If the students' motivation is not activated, it is impossible to achieve the desired teaching outcome. In classroom teaching, creating a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere of learning is an important factor to stimulate students' interest. If the teacher is cordial and humorous in his/her teaching, the students will be interested and enthusiastic, and learn actively. In this way, the teacher and the students can communicate intellectually and emotionally, and connect spiritually, thus stimulating students' learning interest. What's more, if the whole teaching process is full of variety in demand, students will be kept on their toes and remain excited to learn and to explore. Creating a proper socio-linguistic situation is another way to stimulate their learning motivation. There can be no communicative activities without social context. Psychology studies have proved that the learning that results from the combination of visual, vocal and text perception is much better than merely from listening and reading.

In addition to creating situations to stimulate their interest, we also need to attach importance to their emotional experience in learning. Children all have a strong sense of self-expression and are imaginative. Teachers should respect students' unique points of view and encourage them to express their feelings freely and boldly. Teachers should create a relaxed and happy “independent learning” atmosphere so that students can feel they are driving their own learning. In classroom teaching, the teacher should spark their thinking and touch their souls, and give them a positive emotional experience to stimulate their inherent enthusiasm.

3.Seize the opportunity to use emotional factors in teaching materials to cultivate students' positive emotions and attitude

In the teaching process, one's intellect and emotions develop at the same time. The two influence each other, and are inalienable. Therefore, teachers should combine the cultivation of emotion and attitude with the teaching of English, and try to cultivate emotions and attitude through the process and content of English learning. This requires teachers to study the teaching materials thoroughly when preparing the lessons. The teachers should take advantage of the subtle yet rich emotional content in the textbook and make use of it in class to cultivate students' emotions and attitude and to raise the effectiveness of classroom teaching. Textbooks compiled to the National Curriculum Standards are lively, interesting and relevant to students' life and are illustrated with pictures. The themes chosen are diverse, from family to society, from basic necessities of life to major social events. The topics cover friendship, language, travel, science, environmental protection, civilization, rituals, sports, music, art and architecture. Based on the teaching materials, the teacher can incorporate emotion and attitude teaching goals into classroom teaching. For example, the middle school English teaching materials introduce many successful people. The teacher can guide the students to study these successful people's qualities. This study may bring great surprises to the students as they find out that the success of these famous people not only depends on their intelligence level, but more importantly on their courage, determination, confidence and other factors.

4.Improve the evaluation system and make full use of emotional evaluation

Traditional evaluation of English teaching focused on the summative assessment, and this was true particularly in high-stakes examinations. In the examination, the focus was on pure linguistic knowledge, and the emphasis was on the results and scores to separate out the weak students. Students with unsatisfactory performance would feel anxious, have low self-esteem; and their confidence in learning would be badly hurt. The new curriculum reform advocates formative assessment. Through assessing student's interest, attitude, and participation in the learning process, the teacher can gather reliable feedback on their teaching, and can diagnose, encourage, and strengthen students' learning. Also in formative assessment, students can see every small increment of progress and success and enjoy the satisfaction brought by this new way of evaluation.

5.Improve teacher emotional literacy and influence the student with their charisma

In everyday classroom teaching, positive teacher emotions have more influence on their students than knowledge. An outgoing, influential teacher can certainly change the students' attitudes and affect their learning interests. The teacher should establish a good relationship with their students using his/her own positive emotions and share his/her emotions to create a positive atmosphere to learn English in. In the teaching process, only after the teachers are aware of their own emotions can they better know students' emotional needs.

Teacher charisma includes faith, character and everyday behavior. It is demonstrated in good character traits, amicable interpersonal relationships, strong willpower, creativity and practical ability. Teacher charisma can be described as “the gentlest mercy, the most fearless determination, the tenderest feeling, the noblest love of virtue, all that makes her heart filled with energy and strength.” A teacher's personality, words and deeds have a subtle yet powerful effect on the minds of the students and directly affect students' souls and their inner world.

6.Enrich the use of multimedia content

Multimedia provides a rich material environment for English teaching. It has both the characteristics of a computer and the advantages of audio-visual equipment. Its rich content, diverse formats and vivid images make it a remarkably expressive force in English teaching. It can stimulate students' visual and auditory senses through vivid images and interesting sounds. It can also attract students' attention and leave them with deep impressions. It transforms boring, monotonous teaching points and enhances the vitality, dynamic and appeal of the class. It constantly generates excitement in learning and guides the students' observation and thinking to what the courseware designer intended, and thus the students can easily grasp the difficult and important points in the course. It can create a good language environment and satisfy their curiosity and cater to their shorter attention spans. Clever use of the multimedia can stimulate student's curiosity and interest in learning and inspire them to be active thinkers. Animations and pictures, in particular, can raise their interests and their desire to perform and thus raise the efficiency of classroom instruction.

A learning environment with a network of multimedia materials provides rich, open learning resources. Learners can surf the Internet to choose their own learning content, learning methods, and learning path according to their own needs and interests after they have mastered a certain amount of computer skills. They can also do self study, discussion and cooperative learning. Multimedia with interactive features can provide timely feedback for their personalized learning and independent study, and thus makes it possible for the students to help each other and share their learning resources. Therefore, teaching based on a network of multimedia materials can unleash their enthusiasm and initiative, and promote the attainment of the emotional goals.

The methods of teaching emotion and attitude that are introduced in Chapter 2 include Suggestopedia, the Silent Way, and the Community Language Learning Method, which is also known as Counseling Learning.

III.Chapter Summary

Culture and emotion and attitude are the new English teaching goals in the curriculum reform. They have something in common; as teaching content they can promote student self improvement and enhance their development.

Culture and language are inseparable and require teachers to merge cultural factors while teaching language knowledge and language skills, so that the student can master the language and simultaneously form relevant cultural awareness and intercultural communication competence.

In emotion and attitude teaching, teachers should make the students become close to their teacher and believe in what they say. To establish a good teacher-student relationship, teachers can use a variety of flexible teaching methods and means, and strive to improve their own emotional literacy, so that the process of teaching is not only a process of language learning, but also emotion and attitude formation and development, reaching the aim of “using love to promote education.”