Maslow"s Hierarchy of Need Theory and English Teaching in Junior High School

Abstract：This paper aims at exploring the correlation between Maslow's hierarchy of need theory and English teaching in junior high school. Special discussion is focused mainly on the satisfaction of students safety needs， social seeds and needs of self-actualization by offering some practical methods to conduct English teachers in their teaching.

Key words：Maslow's hierarchy of need Theory； English teaching in junior high school； correlation

中圖分类号：H315.9 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1672-1578（2017）05-0002-02

1 Introduction to Maslow's Theory of Hierarchy of Need

As founder of American humanistic psychology， Maslow proposed in 1943 the hierarchy of needs theory in his paper A Theory of Human Motivation. From the perspective of individual psychological structure， he divides peoples needs into five levels， namely physiological need， safety need， social need， esteem need and self-actualization need. Among them， the first level， physiological needs， is the most primitive and basic needs， including the need of food， clothing， shelter， sex ，air and water， etc. The second need is safety needs， as the security of living environment， stability of employment， health insurance， safe neighborhoods and so on. The third one is social needs for belonging ， love， and affection. The fourth needs is esteem needs which reflect on self-esteem， self-respect， personal worth， social recognition.？The last one is the self-actualization needs to achieve individual potential. In these five needs， a person cannot meet the second need until the demands of the first need have been met， nor the third need until the second need has been met， and so on. This paper will discuss its application in the English teaching in junior high school.

2 Satisfying Students Safety Needs

To release students anxiety in class is vital important to satisfy students safety needs. Anxiety is thought as a part of normal human experience. In junior high school， students tend to suffer from language anxiety in class. One case is that as foreign language beginners， junior high school students tend to be sensitive about their safety of their self-esteem， and identity. With such anxiety， they are afraid to lose face because of classmates ridicules， teachers criticism. The situation is that they are exposed to a quite new subject--English， although they might have had some experience in English learning before. However such kind of learning is unsystematic and interest-oriented. Confronted with this situation， they feel suddenly to be thrown into a state of apprehension， discomfort， and anxiety precipitated by the new changed situation. This surely dissuades the students from active study.

As teacher， it is our responsibility to release students psychological burden and provide them a safe learning environment. First， the teacher needs to greet his students warmly and addresses their names one by one the first time they meet in class or to ask students to introduce themselves to the whole class. In this way can the teacher accustom his students to the new learning environment as soon as possible. Second， the teacher should be tolerant of students different learning backgrounds whether they have contact with English or not before.Third，The teacher should give positive assessment for the students class-room performances by saying “Excellent”，“Its great”，“Wonderful”，“Fantastic”，“Well done”. If the student doesnt give the correct answer， the teacher would comfort him or give him some suggestions to correct the mistake. Fourth， the teacher can put students in group activities. It is known that anxiety level can be influenced by the size of audience. The greater the size is， the stronger the potential impact of the audience on the performer is. So when they speak in front of a small group of students， they may feel more relaxed than before the whole class.

3 Satisfying Students Social Needs

To establish a harmonious relationship with students is the most effective way when the teacher hopes to satisfy students social needs. As Long qianfei said，“If this（love， affection and attribution） can not be offered to him， the individual will strongly feel abandoned by his classmates， friends， teachers or family. So he desires to establish a relationship with others and have a place in his community and family than anything else in the world.” The following suggested ways will benefits the teacher mostly.

One way is to teach students in humanistic approach. First the teacher could gain students trust by befriending his students sharing their joy and sorrow， communicating with them about their likes or dislikes. Second. The teacher should be thoughtful in and tolerable of students errors， and try to find their unique virtue instead. Especially， with more affection and care should the teacher teach the poor –performed students by giving them timely encouragement since they are easy to feel inferior and other peoples rejection. Another way is to organize various activities， such as hobby groups related to conversation practice， role-play ，singing English songs， game. When participating in these activities， students may find it easy to make friends with each other and gain the sense of belonging and love.

4 Satisfying Students Needs of Self-actualization

As the highest level of a persons needs， Maslow's self-actualization theory stresses the importance of an individual's wish to develop as a whole person. As adolescent students， Junior high school students self awareness has developed rapidly. They are eager to be accepted by others and care much about what others think about them. They begin to put more emphasis on their study and grades hoping to make a favorable impression on their teachers and classmates. As Zhangmin says，“Everyone including the junior high school students has a desire to present himself， earn reputation and self-worth to achieve the need of self- actualization.”The following suggestions can be applied to serve this purpose.

For one thing， teachers can create opportunities for them to presents their ideas in English about their future dreams when doing duty report or delivering speech . For another， the teacher can involve his students in various activities like writing competition， speech contest， theater performance and surveys & problem-solving activities， information gap activities. And then give proper rewards to make them experience the feeling of success. By taking these activities， teachers can help students realize their own social status， accept themselves with favor and turn to love their life， people around and even English learning.

Reference：

[1] 亞伯拉罕·马斯洛.动机与人格[M].北京：中国人民大学出版社，2007.

[2] 叶伯范，如何激发学生英语学习的兴趣[J].教育理论与实践，2008（28）6.

作者简介：刘娟（1964-），女，四川内江人，内江师范学院外国语学院，副教授，主要研究方向：英语语言学和英语教学。