Affective Variables in Second Language Acquisition

It is a fact that second language acquisition, and even more its pronunciation, presents a challenge for most people.

My passion for languages from an early age led me into a career in teaching my native language, Spanish.

As a Spanish instructor, I had the opportunity to see how apathy, motivation, attitude, and anxiety can affect second language acquisition and its pronunciation.

The affective filter can have devastating consequences especially on pronunciation, given the importance of oral communication in these present times as an instrument of identification of a specific and cultural community.

My interest in maximizing my students’ performance took me on the search for the relationship between the affective factors and second language acquisition. The study of Krashen’s hypothesis on the affective filter, Larsen and Smalley’s Becoming Bilingual, Gardner and Macintyre’s “Social factors in second language learning and ethnic relations,” plus “Attitudes, motivation and anxiety in second language learning,” convinced me of this affective phenomenon that affects more or less to every second language learner.

The purpose of this blog is to offer a reference point on what the defenders of the affective filter present, and to verify or to refute this theory with empirical analysis of observed behaviors in the classroom or informal settings.

I would like the findings to be used as a platform for future research in the field of second language acquisition and its affective variables.

In this context, we will define the affective variable as the emotional aspect, sentiments, and attitude that can condition our behavior and learning process toward the target language.

Is there a relation between our competence in the second language and the affective variables?

Can preconceived ideas that one might have about the language, or about self, affect positively or negatively the acquisition process?

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