When our students are learning English as a second language, they are undergoing the hard

process of language acquisition. Their internal feelings can certainly affect how they progress and
this lesson gives you an overview of those factors in learning.

Definition of Affective Factors

Fernanda recently moved to the US with her parents. She misses her life back home and feels lost
at her new school. In short, Fernanda goes through a lot of feelings of anxiety and homesickness
every day. Fernanda's emotions affect her school progress.
Affective factors are the set of emotions and attitudes people have about themselves or the
surrounding environment. In second language acquisition, these factors play an important role. Let's
analyze the main affective factors.

Main Affective Factors

There are a few affective factors that impact learning of a second language. The impact can be
positive or negative, which directly depends on the emotion or attitude the student has. Let's explore
those factors.

Inhibition
Students who have high levels of inhibition often choose not to participate. Inhibition is the
mechanism a person uses to protect themselves from exposure to others. Inhibited students usually
feel vulnerable or even less capable than their peers. Thus, inhibition has a negative impact on
performance but not necessarily on learning. For instance, due to the fact that Fernanda would
prefer to be back home, she feels vulnerable. While her peers participate in class, she remains
silent. Fernanda's refusal to participate means she is not practicing speaking and pronunciation
skills, but she still learns from what her peers say because she listens to them and the teacher.

Attitudes
A positive attitude towards anyone or anything that has to do with learning, can have a positive effect
in second language acquisition. Attitude includes the way a student feels about the teacher,
classmates, classroom, school, and even learning materials. For example, Fernanda likes her ELL
teacher, which can positively influence her learning. However, Fernanda hates the reading textbook
in her ELL lessons. She finds the material too complicated and boring. This, in turn, negatively
affects Fernanda's reading skills. Sometimes, ELL students dislike learning materials because of the
topic, the voice, and even the physical appearance.

Levels of Anxiety
Feelings of anxiety are obviously uncomfortable and our students in the process of second language
acquisition can feel anxiety due to diverse factors, such as immigration situation, social pressure to
academically perform, school tests or assignments. For example, Fernanda often feels unhappy
because her father made it clear she must learn English to succeed in school. Meanwhile,
Fernanda's inhibition and negative attitude towards learning material in English are affecting her
academic performance.
Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is the self-confidence level and self-respect a person has and it can influence learning.
For instance, Fernanda does not have any confidence that her speaking abilities in English are
good. On top of this lack of confidence, Fernanda compares her low grades to others' in the class,
which affects her self-esteem. This whole scenario puts Fernanda academically behind her
classmates.

What Teachers of English as a Second Language Can Do

Since it is clear negative affective factors negatively influence second language acquisition, let's talk
about what teachers can do. Here, you have several strategies.

Lowering Students' Affective Filters

An affective filter is a mechanism of defense a person adopts to protect themselves. The right
approach is to lower the student's affective filter by encouraging communication. For instance, the
teacher asks questions like 'What did you do last weekend?' and Fernanda never volunteers an
answer. Sometimes, Fernanda's response is 'I didn't do anything.' The teacher insists: 'But you had
a lot of time this weekend. I, for example, watched TV with my husband. Did you watch TV by any
chance?' The teacher's approach encourages Fernanda to finally tell a bit about her weekend, which
means the student lowers her affective filter.

Providing Supportive and Constructive Feedback

Our students benefit when we, teachers, are supportive of their work and give them constructive
feedback, praising their strengths and helping with their needs. For example, Fernanda's teacher
tells her 'Thank you for sharing about your weekend' when the student participates. Also, the teacher
helps Fernanda to correct mistakes so Fernanda is not stuck with classwork. This whole approach
helps students feel more at ease and, thus, learn.