The Affective Filter hypothesis

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My belief: 

 Making a safe, comfortable learning environment including

      - Identifying each student's name and face within one/two class session(s).

      - Making a respectful relationship among students

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Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis, which claims that a learner’s affective variables such as motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety are connected to success in second language acquisition (Krashen, 1985), can reinforce my belief of making a safe, comfortable learning environment. The Affective Filter Hypothesis is a part of the Input Hypothesis proposed by Krashen in 1982. In the Input Hypothesis, Krashen claimed that when the learner was exposed to input slightly beyond the learner’s current level (i+1), comprehensible input occurred. However, when the learner has anxiety or feels stressed in certain learning contexts, his/her affective filter can block access to the language acquisition. Actually, this affective filter hypothesis was criticized for being too vaguely defined and not being testable for the existence of such filter (Hummel, 2014). I think, however, many people who have learn a second language can easily imagine that learners’ anxiety affects their performance in class from their own experience. All students have various kinds of daily stress and anxiety in and outside the classroom. As a teacher, making an effort to reduce such students’ feelings at least in the classroom is essential work. In regard to this point, Gregg (as cited in Hummel, 2014) pointed out the important role of a teacher who tries to lower students’ filter as much as possible. Being conscious of the idea of the affective filter is helpful to teachers who hope students’ healthy learning.

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References

Hummel, K. M. (2014). Introducing second language acquisition: Perspectives and      

      practices (1st ed.). Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

Krashen, S. (1985). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. New

      York: Pergamon.