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.