Analysis of Affective Factors in SLA.doc

浅析情感因素对二语习得的影响analysis of affective factors in slacontentsabstract.1key words.1i. introduction.2ii. literature review.21. the significance of affective factors in sla.22. some views on affective factors.33. the relationship between affective factors and sla.3iii. reasons for study .41. current statement.4 2. the five factors of affective factors.53. the influence of affective factors in sla.8iv. research methods.81. subjects.82. instruments.83. results and analysis.94. some strategies.10v. conclusion.12appendix.14references.16analysis of affective factors in slaanalysis of affective factors in slaabstract: affectivity is one of the most important factors that influence the process of sla. a learners affective disorder has a great negative influence on both the process and the result of the sla. therefore, it is very important to prevent affective disorder in sla. and it is also necessary to help the learners to develop and maintain the positive affective to fullest extent. this paper mainly analyzes that the process of second language acquisition is greatly influenced by motivation, attitude, anxiety, empathy and personality. accordingly, to bring into full play positive learning emotions in the second language acquisition, this paper proposes some relevant strategies, that is, to understand foreign language learning well and have a correct attitude, to develop an inspiring motive and interest, to create a good atmosphere in classroom and develop harmonious relationship and to develop a strong will and an optimistic open mind.key words: affective factors; sla; influences; language learners 摘 要：情感是影响二语习得的最主要因素之一， 学习者的情感障碍对二语习得的过程和结果都有很大的消极影响。因此，在二语习得过程中，预防和消除情感障碍，开发情感动力，充分发挥情感的积极作用，保持最佳的情感状态是十分重要的。文章主要分析了对第二语言习得产生重要影响的5种情感因素：动机、态度、焦虑、移情和个性，并针对在二语习得中如何充分调动积极情感提出了一些相关的对策：正确认识外语学习，端正外语学习态度；激励外语学习动机，培养外语学习兴趣；营造良好的课堂氛围，培养融洽的人际关系；培养坚强的意志品格和乐观豁达的胸怀。关键词：情感因素；二语习得；影响；学习者i. introductionthe process of learning is not only influenced by psychological and physical conditions, but also influenced by some emotional conditions, especially the affective factors. affectivity is one of the important factors in the learning process, which helps to determine the level of proficiency achieved by different learners. with the development of second language acquisition (sla) research, people have gradually come to realize the importance of rediscovering the essence of sla and the influence of the correlated factors in order to learn more efficiently. in the late 1960s, humanism began to emerge in teaching. the focus of western sl teaching began to be transferred from teaching to learning. in late 1970s to 1980s, more and more linguists and researchers focused their attention to the development of affectivity in the process of language learning. and then silent way, suggestopedia and community language learning began to emerge into the language teaching, especially the affective factors in the language learning. according to noam chomsky, universal grammar in each persons brain enables them to acquire language from birth. but language learners do not take in every thing they hear and read. their motives, needs, attitudes and emotional states filter what they hear and therefore affect the rate and quality of language learning (duly, 1982:45).affective factors are believed to be substantially related to language acquisition. students with strong affectivity are able to learn the second language and take part in learning activities initiatively and they can achieve greater success. duly and burt (1977) called unfavorable attitudes “socio-affective filter”. their affective filter hypothesis embodying krashens view that various affective factors, including motivation, self-confidence and anxiety, play a key role in sla. ii. literature review1. the significance of affective factors in slapersonality factors within a person that contribute in some ways of the second language learning. ernest hilgard was well known for his study of human learning and cognition. he said “purely cognitive theories of learning will be rejected unless a role is assigned to affectivity” (ernest hilgard, 1963:267). alexander guiora was a researcher in the study of affective factors in second language learning who proposed the language affectivity influence the result of sla. guiora suggested that the language affectivity may account for the difficulties that the learners have in learning a second language. for any person the language affectivity involves interaction of native language and the development of affectivity. the affective factors include many factors: motivation, attitude, anxiety, empathy, personality and so on, and which relevant to the second language learning. from some phenomena in language learning, it seems clear that negative factors can influence successful language learning.2. some views on affective factors1) the view of jane arnoldjane arnold published affective in language learning, in which he claimed that affectivity is produced by persons emotion. in his opinion, during the process of learning, the affectivity concludes feelings, attitudes and motivations and these factors influence the process and result of language learning.2) the view of altmanin 1980, altman put forward the theory of individual differences. he said the individual differences include the variables such as age, sex, language learning experience, attitudes and motivation, iq, cognitive styles, and learners strategies. in his theory, he proved the importance of affectivity which was a more powerful predictor for the learners in sla.3) the view of benjamin bloomaffective refers to peoples emotion or feeling. in 1964, benjamin bloom and his colleagues (krathwohl, bloom, and masia) provided a useful extended definition of the affective factors that is still widely used today. they defined affective factors from five levels. according to the benjamin blooms definition, we can easily know that the definition is good for understanding of affective factors in human behavior. 3. the relationship between affective factors and slaenglish learning, in china, has been given great concern and investment for many years. however the fact of “longperiod, large-input, low-repaying, and poor -effect” has been always perplexing the foreign language learners, and increasing the number of the researchers in foreign language teaching. there are many factors affecting the second language learning, of which the affectivity is the most important one that each language learner must face and experience. if we could efficiently deal with the relation between the affective factors and language learning, we would surly improve our foreign language learning to great extent. therefore, the affective factors should not be neglected in the second language learning. in the second language learning, many teachers complain about students lack of motivation, lake of enthusiasm during the process of learning. it is true that in china, students begin to learn english not because they are willing to learn it but because they have no choice. english is a required course in school and parents expect them to learn it well. high school students have to learn it well in order to be able to enter a good university. college students have to learn well in order to pass examination in university, especially cet-4. it seems that passing all kinds of examinations is the major reason for chinese students to learn english.iii. reasons for study1. current statementkrashen pointed that comprehension was necessary condition for language acquisition but it was not sufficient. “something more than comprehensible input is needed. for acquisition to take place, the learner has to be able to absorb the appropriate parts of the input. there can be a mental block that prevents acquires from fully utilizing the comprehensible input they receive for language acquisition” (krashen, 1985:66). the bloke is called the affective-filter which might be because the acquirer is unmotivated, lacking in self-confidence, or anxious (krashen, 1985:3). earliest linguists has tended to focus on cognitive ability without providing much personal factors. with the development of teaching research, the influence of affective factors has been attracted more and more attention. in 1955, gerlman said affective factors are more important than intelligent factors in personal success. the term affective factors are generally accepted even though it is not defined to scientific satisfaction. when we ask why acquisition is not equally successful for all second language learners and why some students learn the second language more efficient than others. we believe that the answers reveal something about individuals differences. these differences, along with many others, are usually considered to make up affective factors. some affective factors may be beneficial and energizing, but excessive affectivity may cause poor performance and even failure. as different learners handle affective factors in different ways, many studies demonstrate that for high-ability students, affective factors can facilitate their learning, while for low-ability or average-ability students, affective factors may hinder them to make progress. however, on the whole, the learners with high level of affectivity often do better than low level of affectivity.2. the five factors of affective factors1) motivations “given a motivation, anyone can learn a language” (skehan, 1989: 49). motivation is one of the important factors in learning process, which helps to determine the level of proficiency achieved by different learners. different researchers have different views on the exact meaning of motivation. motivation has been defined as inner drive or desire that moves one to a particular action, such as certain needs to attain the goal, a complex construct related to learners attitude towards the target language, the extent of learners effort, learners confidence and learner autonomy. gardner and lambert introduced two types of favorable motivation in a series of books and papers: integrative motivation and instrumental motivation (gardner and lambert, 1972; gardner, 1985). integrative motivation is seen in language learners whose desires to learn are rooted in wanting to become part of the l2-speaking community, want more contact with it, or is genuinely interested in it. instrumental motivation means that motivation for learning language is as a tool used by native speakers, such as passing an examination, getting a certain kind of job, and so on. the differences between these two motivations have been used by many researchers as a point of reference. integrative motivation is more helpful in sla and proficiency because there is more desire for language learners to interact with the community and the language that helps acquisition. this paper believes that students need to be motivated, even the cleverest student. it means that students can learn as long as they motivated because motivation is the thing that can keep learners going.2) attitudesgarden and lambert (1972) defined attitude as the persistence shown by the learner in striving for a goal. later, garden (1979) suggested that attitudes are related to motivation by supporting the learners overall orientation. he claimed that a linear relationship of attitudes is affected by motivation which in turn affected sla. thus, based on correlations, attitudes were said to have an important but indirect effect on sla. it is true that the second language learners with a positive attitude and interest in sla can be consistently stimulated by the learning tasks. therefore, learners motivations are enhanced and they are not afraid of the difficult tasks. they keep exerting themselves for a solution. to them, difficulties are not obstacles but rather stimulation for higher-level tasks. most of research in the area of attitudes and sla deals with the language learners views. however there are other sources and targets for attitudes which come into play when people are engaged in sla. spolsky (1969) said in a typical language learning situation, there are a number of people whose attitude to each other can be significant, such as the learner, the teacher, the learners peers and parents and the speaker of the language. each relationship might well be shown to be a factor controlling the learners motivation to acquire the language. 3) empathyempathy is the process of “putting you into someone elses shoes,” of reaching beyond the self and understanding and feeling what others understand and feel. it is probably the major factor in harmonious coexistence of individuals in society. language is one of the primary means of empathizing, but nonverbal communication facilitates the process of empathizing and must not be overlooked. generally speaking, empathy is usually described as the projection of ones own personality or others personality that is good for us to understand him or her better. empathy relates to an individuals ability to put oneself in anothers place. hogon (2002) who is one of the leading researchers in the studies on empathy points out that empathy are awareness, knowledge of ones feelings and the identification with another person. guior (1972) has given the role of empathy in sl leaning a decidedly psychoanalytic interpretation (心理分析的说明) . he defined empathy as a process of comprehension in which a temporary fusion of self-object boundaries permits an immediate emotional apprehension at the angle of others affective experiences. according to guior, those students who are able to empathize with the feeling of others are better at learning l2 pronunciation; though this depends to some extent on the language the students are acquiring (guior, 1972). when the child is young, the ego boundaries are relatively flexible, but they become more rigid with age. when the language ego boundaries are flexible, a new accent is more readily adopted than when the boundaries are more fixed. some adults, presumably those who are more empathic, are likely to have more permeability of language ego boundaries, since they are able to temporarily suspend the separateness of their identity, and that should in turn result in their having an advantage sla. if indeed a high degree of empathy is predictive of success in language learning, it would be individual to discover how one could capitalize on that possibility in language teaching. 4) anxietyanxiety has been studied in the psychological domain. it plays an important role in second language learning process, which is associated with feelings of uneasiness, self-doubt, apprehension or worry. scovel (1994) defined “anxiety as a state of apprehension, a vague fear”. in fact, we all know what anxiety is and we all experienced feelings of anxiousness. the researchers on anxiety suggest that anxiety can be experienced at various levels. generally speaking, trait anxiety, which refers to the apprehension associated with a relative stable personal attribute, is a more permanent predisposition to be anxious. the relationship between anxiety and foreign language learning is complicated. different students handle anxiety in different ways. many studies suggest that anxiety causes stress and impairs learning achievement. some researchers show a tendency for anxiety to be facilitating for high-ability students, but for low-ability students, and especially average-ability students, anxiety is associated with poor performance or failure. the high-ability students are anxious because they think they have not grasped the language well. this leads to making great efforts to catch up with others. therefore, the students are competitive, and as a result of this competitive spirit the students work even harder, and become more successful in learning the second language. when students experience anxiety, the nature of tasks plays an important role in their performance. “on tasks of low complexity or on tasks in which the learner is already skilled, anxiety seems to facilitate performance; on tasks of high complexity or on tasks in which the students are not well practiced, anxiety appears to lower the level of performance” (hansen, 1977). scovels comments on facilitating anxiety motivate the leaner to fight the new learning task. it gears the learner emotionally to approval behavior. debilitating anxiety, in contrast, motivates the learner to flee the new learning task. it stimulates the individual emotionally to adopt avoidance behavior (scovel, 1978:139).5) personalitypersonality may affect the types of learning behavior the learners engage in their language process. as brown observed “the construct of extroversion is beyond adequate definition, but there is a general understanding of what is meant by extroversion” (brown, 1994). people often use outgoing, adventuresome, and sociable and talkative to describe a typical extrovert student. extroversion is the extent to which a person has a deep-seated need to receive ego enhancement, self-esteem, and a sense of wholeness gained from other people. extroverts actually need other people in order to feel “good”. however, extroverts are not necessarily loudmouth and talkative. they may be relative shy but still need the affirmation of others. krashen (1985) suggested that extrovert contributes to the devel