Affective Factors for Acquiring Language

Positive Factors

There are both positive and negative affective factors for second language acquisition. Some of the positive factors can be listed as: the student’s positive attitude towards learning the new language, the teacher’s motivational attitude, and discipline during the learning process, proficiency in the student’s first language, and the student’s discovery and application of similarities between the first and the second language.

Negative Factors

Some of the negative factors can be listed as: a poor attitude towards learning a new language, lack of motivation, lack of discipline, negative influence of teachers, and the habit by some students to constantly resort to concentrating on translating literally from his or her first language.

Similarities

There are some languages which can be considered really difficult to learn depending on how different they are to the learner’s first language. A native English speaker for example; depending on his attitude, discipline and desire to learn, would need less time to learn Dutch or Spanish. This is because these are Indo European languages with the same writing system as English. Even though many people regard German as a difficult language to learn, by the same token as Dutch and Spanish, the native English speaker would find German easier to learn than Arabic or Chinese, for example. This is because Arabic and Chinese belong to other language families and their writing systems are different. A native speaker of French should find Portuguese and Spanish easy to learn, while a native speaker of Spanish should find Italian easy to learn and vice versa.
Proficiency in the Native Language



If the student has a high level of proficiency in his or her native language, he stands a good chance of understanding and learning a second language. This does not mean that Students with a low level of proficiency in their language cannot learn a second language. Low level proficiencies are however affective factors for second language acquisition, and in these cases, students need a deeper immersion into the new language than those with high level proficiency. Living in the country of the new language for a period of time is an absolute must for lower level native language proficient students to feel comfortable with the new language.
Language Learners

Language learners come from different backgrounds and have different needs and goals they also have different styles of learning. Teachers of second languages should consider these among the affective factors for second language acquisition. The social and cultural contexts of the new language can also affect language learners, especially younger immigrant students, many of whom struggle at the same time to maintain their native language, and not lose it in the process of integrating in the new culture. Immigrant students, while happy to mingle with others of their own language and culture, should make an extra special effort to associate with speakers of the new language, and use this to their advantage to practice as much as possible.

Some articles on affective factors

http://www.esp-world.info/Articles_21/Docs/Age.pdf

http://www.celea.org.cn/teic/78/08070227.pdf

http://www.linguist.org.cn/doc/su200505/su20050501.pdf

http://www.antonellapavese.com/papers/timeperception.pdf

http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/33/3300029.pdf

http://www.ses-online.jp/ronbun/30/b-kimura-5-20.pdf

Self-Efficacy: Helping Students Believe in Themselves

Self efficacy is commonly defined as the belief in one's capabilities to achieve a goal or an outcome. Students with a strong sense of efficacy are more likely to challenge themselves with difficult tasks and be intrinsically motivated. These students will put forth a high degree of effort in order to meet their commitments, and attribute failure to things which are in their control, rather than blaming external factors. Self-efficacious students also recover quickly from setbacks, and ultimately are likely to achieve their personal goals. Students with low self-efficacy, on the other hand, believe they cannot be successful and thus are less likely to make a concerted, extended effort and may consider challenging tasks as threats that are to be avoided. Thus, students with poor self-efficacy have low aspirations which may result in disappointing academic performances becoming part of a self-fulfilling feedback cycle.

How can students gain self-efficacy?
There are four sources of self-efficacy. Teachers can use strategies to build self-efficacy in various ways. 
Mastery experiences - Students' successful experiences boost self-efficacy, while failures erode it. This is the most robust source of self-efficacy.
Vicarious experience - Observing a peer succeed at a task can strengthen beliefs in one's own abilities.
Verbal persuasion - Teachers can boost self-efficacy with credible communication and feedback to guide the student through the task or motivate them to make their best effort. 
Emotional state -A positive mood can boost one's beliefs in self-efficacy, while anxiety can undermine it. A certain level of emotional stimulation can create an energizing feeling that can contribute to strong performances. Teachers can help by reducing stressful situations and lowering anxiety surrounding events like exams or presentations.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Engaging students from urban backgrounds

Educational psychology has identified two basic classifications of motivation - intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation arises from a desire to learn a topic due to its inherent interests, for self-fulfillment, enjoyment and to achieve a mastery of the subject. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is motivation to perform and succeed for the sake of accomplishing a specific result or outcome. Students who are very grade-oriented are extrinsically motivated, whereas students who seem to truly embrace their work and take a genuine interest in it are intrinsically motivated.

Motivating Students

This chapter from the book Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis (Jossey-Bass Publishers: San Francisco, 1993) is a great place to start for ideas and tips about increasing student motivation in your classes. The author presents a handy distillation of research on motivation and uses examples and anecdotes that bring this material to life. In addition to general strategies, this chapter addresses successful instructional behaviors, how to structure a course to motivate students, de-emphasizing grades and responding with other types of feedback to students, and tips to encourage students to complete assigned readings. A reference list points the way to more specific information. 

Excerpts from this chapter:
Give frequent, early, positive feedback that supports students' beliefs that they can do well.
Ensure opportunities for students' success by assigning tasks that are neither too easy nor too difficult.
Help students find personal meaning and value in the material.
Create an atmosphere that is open and positive.
Help students feel that they are valued members of a learning communit

My students aren't motivated - how can I help them?
Teachers have a lot to do with their students' motivational level. A student may arrive in class with a certain degree of motivation. But the teacher's behavior and teaching style, the structure of the course, the nature of the assignments and informal interactions with students all have a large effect on student motivation. We may have heard the utterance, "my students are so unmotivated!" and the good news is that there's a lot that we can do to change that.

Further reading on the topic

http://www.di.uniba.it/intint/UM05/WS-UM05.html

http://www.scribd.com/doc/7753203/Age-as-an-Affective-Factor-in-Second-Language-Acquisition

http://www.supercamp.com/links/student-attitude-motivation-------------------------.html

http://www.nadasisland.com/motivation/

Today we discussed a few articles studying the connections between affective factors and language proficiency. This is an often discussed topic in SLA. And if you discuss this topic, you’ve got to mention Gardner. He published and used the AMTB (see Word doc below) to gauge and measure the effects of “affective factors” (including anxiety, attitude, and motivation) on language learning outcomes. Krashen also included the “affective filter” in his Monitor Model.

Svane’s article’s conclusions were rather startling, though not all seemed to agree with all the interpretations of the discussion section. Svane concluded that there was a negative relationship between attitude and language outcomes, or in other words, that those with a more critical eye (Western culture students) had better grades and those with a more compassionate eye (Asian culture students) had worse grades.

Dr. Jiang’s comments on the Gardner et al (2004) article were humorous, but pointed. He, as a cognitive scientist, who looks into how the brain deals with language, was not interested in the article. He said that it presented nothing new for the field and he was disappointed with it. It proved a basic point with 37 pages of poorly written research, showing that “A” students experience little change in motivation and attitude over the academic year, but that “B” students start well, but then have a slight decrease in motivation and attitude at the end. “Less than B” students start with poor motivation and end up even lower.

SOCIOAFFECTIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES

A particular action research study examined critical reflection, teacher autonomy and learner autonomy by focusing explicitly on affective factors and socioaffective language learning strategies among learners in a monolingual EFL classroom at the Centro Colombo Americano in Bogota, Colombia. The overall purpose of this action research was to explicitly teach affective factors and socioaffective language learning strategies in order to make them more accessible and usable for beginner EFL students (See appendix B). Seventeen beginner EFL students participated in this action research study. An initial semi-structured questionnaire and a rating scale gave first data on factors and strategies that needed to be addressed. Observation and teaching logs provided information about how affective-based instruction was conducted and how students responded to it. A post-questionnaire was used to determine the effectiveness and usefulness of this type of instruction.

This action research aimed at contributing theoretical findings and pedagogical suggestions to the investigation of socioaffective matters in the ESL/EFL field. It did it by first identifying and describing the beliefs, attitudes, anxieties and motivations of a group of beginner students in a three-month course. Afterwards, it analyzed what affective factors seemed to play a greater role in the language learning process of this group of beginner students. Subsequently, it implemented strategy-based instruction on socioaffective language learning strategies through affect-related activities. Then, it assessed the usefulness of affect-based instruction. On the whole, this study sought to promote a critical consciousness, which exhibited itself in new educational as well as practical actions for beginner foreign language teachers, students and classrooms.

This study adopted Anne Burns" (1999, p. 35) model of action research because it allows for practical, but critical classroom enquiry and self-reflection which provide a sound source for pedagogical planning and action (See appendix C). It also enables EFL teachers to easily frame the local decisions of the classroom within broader educational, institutional, and theoretical considerations. This study also followed and adopted Whitehead"s (1993) set of reflective questions to help the teacher-researcher to be as critical and reflective as possible because, as McNiff (2002) claimed, these questions also entail a methodology of action research in which one wants to assess and reflect about what one is doing (See appendix D). In doing this type of reflective research, one is not only giving an account of oneself, but also one is showing that one can justify what one is doing with good reason.

The results of the study suggested that explicit strategy instruction in socioaffective language learning strategies is helpful in heightening learner awareness of the importance of paying attention to their own feelings and social relationships as part of their learning process. This increased awareness about the socioaffective dimension of foreign language learning seemed to ultimately improve the frequency and the quality of students" participation and interaction in class. The results also showed that when teachers reflect on their practical pedagogical know-how, it becomes rich personal pedagogical knowledge.

I believe that action research studies on language learning strategies and affective factors make it possible for EFL students to become agents in their own learning process. Such studies can lead them to see that language learning is mainly the result of their own self-initiated interaction with their teachers, their classmates, their materials and their own personal, social, affective and cultural attributes. On the other hand, this type of studies can allow EFL teachers to critically and systematically analyze their students, identify potential problems, modify their teaching practices, and evaluate the results. EFL teachers can even face and transform their daily practices in ways which let them respond adequately to their students" needs and sociocultural agendas. In the end, action research studies on language learning strategies can help EFL teachers and students realize that they can and should be active, reflective and autonomous agents of their language teaching and learning processes.

Affective Factors and Language Learning Strategies

The affective domain or dimension of learning has been neglected by traditional methodologies. According to Feder (1987), affective factors have habitually depended on the teacher's temperament. That is to say, considerations for beliefs, attitudes, anxieties and motivations have been incidental rather than integral to the teaching methodology and have not been grounded in a conscious philosophy of pedagogy. Affective factors should not continue being considered the Cinderella of mental functions, since they "link what is important for us to the world of people, things, and happenings" (Oatley & Jenkins, 1996, p. 122 cited in Arnold, 1999, p. 2).

Concerning affection, Caine & Caine (1991, p. 82) noted: "We do not simply learn. What we learn is influenced and organized by emotions and mindsets based on expectancy, personal biases and prejudices, degree of self-esteem, and the need for social interaction[...]". Consequently, Colombian EFL teachers need to focus on tackling problems created by negative emotions and developing more positive, facilitative mind- sets in the EFL classroom.

One effective way to work with affective factors in EFL classes is the teaching of language learning strategies (LLS). According to Oxford (1990, p. 1), language learning strategies are specific actions, behaviours, steps, or techniques that students (often intentionally) use to improve their progress in developing L2 skills and communicative ability. The past three decades have seen a growing interest in studying how language learning strategies help students acquire a second or foreign language (Stawowy, 2004). LLS theorists attribute students' success rate in language learning to the varying use of strategies. Furthermore, they believe that these strategies are teachable skills, meaning that teachers can help in the language learning process by getting students aware of strategies and encouraging their use.

Thus, Colombian EFL teachers can heighten learner awareness about affection and other relevant issues (memorization, cognition, metacognition, etc) by providing strategy training as part of the foreign language curriculum

Factors & Filters

Affective factors relate to the learner's emotional state and attitude toward the target language. Research on affect in language learning is still strongly influenced by Bloom's taxonomy, which describes the affective levels of receiving, responding, valuing, organization, and self-characterization through one's value system. It has also been informed in recent years by research in neurobiology and neurolinguistics.

Affective Filter Furthermore, researchers believe that language learners all possess an affective filter which affects language acquisition. If a student possesses a high filter they are less likely to engage in language learning because of shyness, concern for grammar or other factors. Students possessing a lower affective filter will be more likely to engage in learning because they are less likely to be impeded by other factors. The affective filter is an important component of second language learning.

Affective factors

Affective factors are emotional factors which influence learning. They can have a negative or positive effect. Negative affective factors are called affective filters and are an important idea in theories about second language acquisition.

A learner's attitude to English, to the teacher, to other learners in the group and to herself are all affective factors and have impact on how well she learns.

Affective factors may be as important for successful language learning, if not more so, than ability to learn. Teachers can reduce negative factors and develop positive ones by doing activities to build a positive group dynamic, by including students in deciding aspects of the course and choosing activities that are motivating for the age and interests of the learners.-