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.