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A Qualitative Study
25/01/2015
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ABSTRACT
The study will be conducted to examine the impacts of affective filters in adult
English language learners and also to find out the best ways to reduce them from
adult ELL programs. The students who are in English Preparatory School from level
A to level D will be the participants for this research. Qualitative method is the
appropriate method for this research. The findings will portray how adult students
block their learning due to affective filter and will sort out the ways to reduce those
filters from the different level of students comprising of level A to level D. The paper
also includes how teacher use strategies and tactics in the classroom to overcome
learners from these affective filters which hindrance their learning. Students from
four different levels will be chosen randomly to generate productive and authentic
results. There will be 15 students from each level whom I will monitor under my
observations and different output will be drawn from their interviews, observation
many ways that will be proved useful in lowering the affective filters from adult ELL
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programs. Interviews from both teachers and students will be taken into account
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………...…3
2. LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………..………..7
2.2 Motivation…………………………………………………………..…………9
2.3 Attitude………………………………………………………………….……10
2.4 Anxiety……………………………………………………………………11
2.5 Self-Confidence………………………………………………………….11
3. METHODOLODY……………………………………………………………..…13
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3.3 Research Site and Participants……………………………………………..14
4. LIMITATIONS…………………………………………………………………….17
5. APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………..18
6. REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………21
1. INTRODUCTION
Affective filters are the most prominent and vital factors in Second Language
Acquisition and other English teaching programs. It is very essential for every
teacher to recognize the symptoms of affective filters among their students in order
to lower these factors at an early stage so that it cannot hamper students’ learning.
Factors like emotion, feeling, manner, attitude, mood and attitude are some of the
Beside these, there are some other factors like motivation, anxiety and
motivation, which are solely responsible in deciding the intake and outtake of the
second language. Affective filters have bestowed their great impact among learners
also and also in their learning. People with high affective filter will not grasp the
information as the people with low affective filter will grasp. Learners get blocked by
the learning and become the victims of these affective filters. Affective filter
hypothesis is first put forwarded by Dulay and Burt (1977), and is integrated by
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Krashen as one of his five input Hypotheses in 1985. Krashen also pointed out that
learners can acquire second language if his/her affective filters are low and are
capable to get the access of the input ‘in’. There are many types of affective filters
but I will mention only four major filters, which have very hazardous and have
The four types of affective filters, which will be mentioned in this research, are
learning language.
The second most important affective filters are Attitude that is something that you
feel or react about something or to someone. Learners with positive attitude tend to
learn L2 very rapidly whereas learners with negative attitude learn very slowly.
Positive attitude create or ignite the enthusiasm among learners to achieve their
destiny very fast. So, it is recommended to stay in a company of good and moral
people to adopt positive attitude. Anxiety is third most pivotal affective filter in
There are three types of foreign language anxiety and they are communication
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apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. It is sort of fear or
anxiety that is seen in communicating with other person and its traits are mainly
quietness and shyness. In order to get rid from these filters, learners should keep
another type of affective filters, which usually occurs before, during or after the
exams. This anxiety appears when students’ think that they are not well prepared
about the exam or may have written the wrong answers. Fear of failure and lack of
confidence are also some of the reasons that students encountered with this type of
anxiety. The third and last type of anxiety is the fear of negative evaluation and
opinions and views. They might think that the person sitting in front of them may
evaluate or assess them negatively. It happens when L2 learners realize that they
others. The fourth type of affective filters is self-confidence. It is one of the most
important and effective personality factors that help us in building the good rapport
with others. Due to self- confidence, leaners, lose the opportunity to practice to
interact or practice their target language with native speakers as well as also with
The main objective of this study is finding out the appropriate ways to reduce
the affective filters in adult ELL programs. Effects of different types of affective filters
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on students will also cover in this research. It is obligatory on every teacher to
reduce high affective filters from their students as soon as they realize that their
students become the victims of the affective filters. The earlier affective filters detect,
the earlier they can lower down from the learners. But nowadays, it is very common
among learners that they become prey of different kinds of affective filters. Various
students from different age group of different level from English Preparatory School
were chosen randomly as a participant to draw a genuine and valid output from the
study. The rationale behind choosing different age group students is that how
affective filters exert influence on students based on their age. Students who are
young will deeply affected by these filters while adult students will not be affected
that much as young students. This study will provide a comprehensive and
explanatory understanding to teachers how to deal with high affective filter students
and low affective filter students in order to make the learning process more cozy and
snug. Students are voluntarily free to share their ideas, thoughts and opinions to
Central question: How to reduce affective filters among English language learners
Q.1 What is the effective ways through which students get motivated?
Q.2 How can we make students to gain self-confidence in their learning process?
Q.3 How can we lessen anxiety among students while they are learning a
language?
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Q.4 What is the attitudes of students with their teacher and in the classroom?
These above mentioned questions would be answered with the help of the
findings of the study by using qualitative method. All types of tools of qualitative
surveys, field notes and observational notes for participants so that they can freely
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The affective filter is like a mental wall that rises in a students’ head reducing or
effectively shutting of their ability to learn (Dualy and Burt, 1977). It means affective
filters are such psychological disease that presents learners’ to learn anything. One
of the most solely responsible factors that gives birth to a learner’s affective filter is
anxiety. This literature review is categorized into four different sections, which will
give brief overview of four different types of affective filters such as motivation,
attitude, anxiety and self-confidence. First let me shadow what others have said
about the affective filters. Krashen (1988) argues that affective filters are a sort of
psychological hurdles that refrain language learners from grasping the available
comprehensible input accurately. Thus, affective filters are accountable for the
distribution of language learner’s input and intake. One thing is pretty sure that
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psychosocial barriers that spoil learners’ learning. Arnold (2000.P.2) gives out two
language teaching and even beyond what has traditionally been considered the
academic realm.’’ It suggests that teacher should teach or present their lessons in a
way that are sensitive to students’ affective filter. Teachers are the primary sources
that can reduce affective filters. They should plan such classroom activities and
create safe and secure atmosphere in classroom so that students can learn
smoothly without any hesitation and fear. Al-Shammari (2008) describes direct
instruction ‘’as a process that breaks down the pedagogical task into components.’’
It concludes that direct instruction can often make lesson tedious and lower their
motivation. Tools that have been suggested to reduce affective filter are movies,
games and music, as they can reduce anxiety, while increasing motivation and self-
confidence (Krashen 1983: Lin, 2008). Classroom activities, which are full of
affective filter. It is obligatory on every teacher to find out the way to decrease
affective filter and one of the way is to teach through natural approach in which
lessons are taught through the students’ natural processes of learning. It means that
teach students with their own way and methods. Krashen argued that learner get
input and if his affective filters are fragile enough to absorb the input ‘in’. Thus, input
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can produce productive output. Krashen (1981) found that a high level of stress and
anxiety give birth to a filter that hinder learning, blocks the intakes and reduces
second language acquisition. It is also found that students can’t concentrate on their
studies when they are nervous, embarrassed or rebuked by some other extrinsic or
intrinsic factors.
2.2 Motivation
to help them in achieving their goal. On the other hand, it is not that much easy to
motivate students and it requires a lot of hard strategies and tactics to bring them in
that motivation is that important factor through which ‘god-gifted’ learner cannot
accomplish his goal of learning no matter whoever the teacher he has. It means,
that motivation plays very significant and influential role in second language
which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do
struggle more to get what he has desired or dreamed. The more motivated learner
your are, the easier you can get your objectives. H. Brown (2001,P.34) defines,
‘’Motivation is the extent to which you make choices about goals to pursue and the
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effort you will devote to that pursuit.’’ Learners who are either internally or externally
motivated become serious and actively engaged in the path of learning and get
success.
2.3 Attitude
Attitude means the abstract ideas and the perceptions and the way you look,
behavior towards someone in which you love or abhor him. Learners with positive
attitude learn rapidly and effectively, which produce more effective output. It is
someone attitude which decide how much he or she is dedicated and devoted
towards his goal. Active class participation is depended with positive learning
attitude and can score high grades. Teachers have to do role modeling so that their
students can follow their footsteps to achieve something meaningful and productive.
Attitude is not something that child learn from his mother womb but from his
surroundings, family, friends, relatives and schools. So, teacher should teach them
positive etiquettes, moral behaviors and ethics that can bring good attitudes among
them.
2.4 Anxiety
One of the most crucial, responsible and prevalent factors, which are a great
cause of increasing high affective filter, is anxiety. Krashen (1988) states that ‘’low
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students, teachers have to create warm welcoming classroom environment in which
students feel secure and safe from every aspects. They get anxious because
everything seems new and strange for them like building, culture, classroom,
It is duty of teachers to support and encourage students all time and help them to
get mastery on certain areas of language like speaking, reading, writing and
listening. They should help them in way that they should feel that there is someone
who cares for them. This builds the bridge of trust between them. Gardener and
situation requires the use of a second language with which the individual is not fully
proficient.’’ It infers that it is a type of insecure and awkward situation when learners
are supposed to communicate in second language but they do not feel ready and
competent to utter their words. According to Arnold (2000, P.59), language anxiety
‘’ranks high among factors influencing language learning, regardless of whether the
2.5 Self-confidence
mistakes and encouraged to commit more and more mistakes promotes their self-
because students will learn from their mistakes and at the same time he will muster
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self-confidence. Praising or appreciating students’ performance helps teacher to
communicate more in foreign language without any hesitation and achieve more. It
creates effective impact on learners’ language skills. H.Brown (2001. P.23) phrased
this factor as ‘’I can do it’’ which means learners are ready, confident and competent
There are various ways through which we can lessen affective filters in adult
English Language Learners. Different teachers apply different types of methods and
ways to decrease affective filters from their learners. Some common ways of
magazines; popular fiction, etc. should use more than ESL course book. Teacher
should make the learning atmosphere in which students do both learning and
enjoyment at the same time. They should not behave as a dictator but as a guide or
classmates and work as their group partner or mentor but not as a tester or judge.
Anxiety can be reduced and utilizing drama in the ELL classroom can increase
confidence and motivation. Wagner (1998) states, ‘’Drama is powerful because of its
relevant to real life concerns and enjoyable’’ (p.9). It means that drama is a creative
and amusing activity in which students show their hidden talents and intellect
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Stern’s (1980) study showed that drama helped ESL students gain self-
confidence and they felt less nervous speaking English in front of group. Drama is
practical activities in which students get better practice and students have panache
and competence to communicate with group of people. The more they practice, the
less they hesitate with others. Students are voluntarily and actively engaged in
drama activity, which as a result increases their motivation and feel students to
forget that they learning only for the sake of learning but for the sake of acquiring
something meaningful (Burke and O’ Sullivan, 2002). Here, the point that researcher
made is very worthy and carries importance that teacher should not realize students
that they are learning but they are enjoying and entertaining in order to acquire
something. Many researches have been done on drama and it is concluded that
students can learn visually from the charts, flash card, magazines, cartoons, signs
and other written materials. Teacher is solely responsible to break down the
affective filters from his learner and guide them to right path in which they learn
3. METHODOLOGY
This research methodology section will comprise information and details for
choosing the qualitative method. In other words, it will reflect upon the rationale of
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research site, method of data collection and their interviews and observations will be
given.
problem, based on building a complex, holistic picture, formed with words, reporting
means that qualitative research portray the intentions, thoughts and perspectives of
the people that they have about particular issues. Data is usually recorded in the
form of words, pictures, sentences and objects. Factors like motivation, attitude,
anxiety and self-confidence are abstract things and often defined descriptively. So,
qualitative research collects evidential, concrete and authentic data. Further, it gives
more heed and care to participant’s opinions and perceptions which play significant
role to make research more reliable and durable. It also gives more attention in
interacting with people face to face with words, pictures and videos. Merriam (1998)
has defined qualitative research as ‘’an umbrella concept covering several forms of
inquiry that help us understand and explain the meaning of social phenomenon with
as little disruption of the natural setting as possible’’. It implies that there are various
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quantification" (Strauss and Corbin, 1990, p. 17). It is a that type of research, which
draws conclusion or findings based on the real life experiences of the people. Life of
people and their own personal experiences are better understood by qualitative type
qualitative research which gives them full freedom to speak no matter either they
The research site of this research will be the Zirve University, a university in
School in Zirve University. English prep school comprises of four different kind of
level ranging from level A to level D. Thus, the participants will be chosen randomly
from all level. Participants will be both male and female. The school contains almost
900 students comprising of both male and female. Ten students from each level will
unique and meaningful. Participants are implored to show their honesty while
observations and reviews of documents (Crewell, 2009). Data will be gathered once
in a month with different techniques of qualitative method. Both male and female will
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be chosen as a participant from all four level of English Preparatory School. There
will be a group of four in which ten students will be placed in each group. Some
eight teachers will also get opportunity to participate in the research. Interviews will
be done regularly from both teachers and students side. Reflective notes will be
actively use in order to note down my personal reflections and thoughts during the
and Bikler, 2003, p.121). Surveys with Likert scale will be distribute to each
participants so that they can rate their responses based on five different standards.
Use of interviews from teachers helps me to know the strategies and methods they
Qualitative validity and qualitative reliability are some of the important process
that researcher have to taken into consideration while researching. Validity and
Reliability are two important ingredients that any qualitative researcher should focus
while designing a study, analyzing results and assessing the quality of the study,
participants have to work mutually on the bridge of trust with the full cooperation and
motivation to yield meaningful output. Creswell and Miller (2000) suggest that the
‘’validity is affected by the researcher’s perception of validity in the study and his
choice of paradigm’’. Validity in qualitative study means that researcher checks for
the exactness of the findings and study that he has been going through. In order to
implement the validity and reliability, I will spend my ample time at the research site
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so that I can go deep inside the findings in order to achieve something concrete and
process, which involves continuous reflection about the data, asking analytic
those perceptions and presenting results yielded from those circumstances. I have
topic. Research site suits my research topic that will bring more efficiency and
effectiveness in my research.
Ethics are very prominent and essential factors that researchers need to take into
account while doing qualitative research method. Researcher should not even think
of fabricating, manipulating and misrepresenting data and also not try to play with
participants’ feelings, emotions, attitudes and so on. He can build trust with
participant by welcoming their culture, norms, ethics and traditions in a positive way.
that he will be doing research. Burden of ethical reviews and procedures is balanced
or discriminated on the basis of their gender, nationality, race, caste and other
factors. The school’s name, participants’ names should not be mentioned within the
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3. LIMITATION
This study can be prove beneficial and essential for ELL teacher for providing
guidelines and strategies to breakdown the affective filters that hamper learners’
learning. As every research paper has some shortcomings, as my research has also
some. Instead of researching on multiple schools, I have to stick only in one school
due to time deficiency. One of the most important problems that I encountered
during the research is that students communicate in their native language that is a
5. APPENDIX
5.1 SURVEYS
speak English.
I fear when I
make mistakes in
speaking English.
I feel frightened
while speaking
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English.
I feel comfortable
when I speak
English.
I am scared when
friends of mine
laugh at me when
I speak English in
front of them.
I think speaking
English will be
useful to me in
future.
I think speaking
English is full of
fun.
I think English is
difficult o learn.
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INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS
3. What are the different reasons that distract your concentration from learning?
5. Do you fear most from your friends or teacher when speaking English?
3. Which activity does you use most to lessen students’ affective filters?
4. How do you motivate students when they are discouraged and inactive in the
classroom?
5. How far do you think that using drama will be effective to make them more
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References
Burke, A.F. and O ‘ Sullivan, J.C. (2002). Stage by stage: A handbook for using
introduction to Theories and Methods (4th ed.). New York: Pearson Education
Du, X. (2009). The Affective filter in Second Language Teaching. Vol- 5, No. 8
Dulay, H. C., & Burt, M. K. (1977). Natural sequences in child second language
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Horwitz, E.K. (2001). Language anxiety and achievement. Annual Review of Applied
Krashen, S. & Terrell, T. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the
Classroom. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ni, H, (2012). The effects of Affective Factors in SLA and Pedagogical Implications.
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University Press.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory
Shand, J.W. (2008). The use of drama to reduce anxiety and increase confidence
and motivation towards speaking English with two groups of English language
Singleton, D. (2002). The age factor in second language acquisition (2nd ed).
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Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Wagner, B.J. (1998). Educational drama and language arts: What research shows.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
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