二语习得与个人性格关系

J I A N G S U U N I V E R S I T Y 课程期末论文
Affective Factors and Second Language
Acquisition
课程名称：二语习得理论与应用
学院名称：外国语学院
专业班级：英语（师范）1202
姓名学号：陈彦君 3121702042
2014年12月
Affective Factors and Second Language Acquisition Abstract:
This paper is brought into four parts, the four affective factors: motivation, self-esteem, anxiety and empathy, which relate to each other closely, each one can not depart the others to exist independently. When facing a new language, not everyone has interest, if he has interest he may have confidence, motivation or anxiety or may not. If self- confidence is enhanced, motivation maybe more intense, anxiety may be reduced; if anxiety is reduced, confidence may be higher, motivation may be consolidated. For the teachers and students, empathy is embodied in every aspect of teaching.
Keywords: Second Language, Affective Factors, Teaching, Anxiety
Instruction
The definition of second language acquisition is the process by which people learn a second language. Second-language acquisition (often abbreviated to SLA) also refers to the scientific discipline devoted to studying that process. Second language refers to any language learned in addition to a person's first language. Although the concept is named second-language acquisition, it can also incorporate the learning of third, fourth, or subsequent languages. Second-language acquisition refers to what learners do. It does not refer to practices in language teaching, although teaching can affect acquisition.
The development of second language acquisition in emotional domain
In the early stages, that is the common sense of academic circle that second language acquisition is susceptible by emotional factors in the learning process. The pioneers who made a great contribution in this field are Stephen D. Krashen, Rod Ellis and H.H.Sten. According to the research achievement of psychology and sociology, Krashen put forward the Affective Filter Hypotheses which combines the studies of emotion into his famous work Five Hypothesis Theory. And in Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching made by Stern in 1983, he gave an idea that a positive correlation between learner’s attitude about the target language and learning outcomes. In other words, it is important to also notice the affective factors just like cognitive factors to second language acquisition.
Since 1990s, with the broadening of the research situation, research direction and research space, more and more scholars began to pay more attention to affective factors. Ellis published the second book about SLA The Study of Second Language Acquisition which further articulates the differences between personal emotions, physiology and constructs. He thought that changeability and individuality of effective states lead to could not to have a systematic study in affective factors. Ellis made a comprehensive induction of study motivation. His new ideas about resultative
motivation, motivation as intrinsic interest and machiavellian motivation are based on the Instrumental & Integrative Motivation published by Gardner and Lambert in 1972. That is to say, learners who make higher scores in assessment for cognitions, emotions and general satisfaction have the stronger motivation.
In the late nineties, Affect in Language Learning worked by J.Arnold and H. Arnold discussed that the influence of affective factors on second language acquisition. Research shows that In foreign and second language classroom, the success of the learning activity is dependent on strong and vital connections between learners and teacher, as well as among learner themselves. Humanistic acknowledge and emotional teaching plays an significant role in class, making students to have a positive impact on attitude of target language.
Besides that, in this period of study, There are other scholars concentrated on the influence of the emotional factors in language acquisition in different ways. Oxford said that if students do not have enough exercise, the development of second language will be strained by comparison between classmates or their ideal self-image.
All in all, throughout the 1990s, the research of affective factors in the study of SLA has rich achievement .Also, due to the restriction by various factors and conditions, the study of emotional factors need further exploration. I believe that emotional research in second language acquisition will have a great promotion and development because of more attention of the society in the near future.
Definition and Categories of Affective Factors
We must have a clear idea of affective factors before studying on the relationship between the emotional factors and language learning. The word affect is the root of such words as affection, our feelings for those people who are particular special in our lives and it has been part of the language of emotion for a long time. As usually defined, affect refers to the simple pleasant or unpleasant tone of a feeling. And it does typically not involve complex cognitive activity. The author uses the terms affect, emotions and feelings almost interchangeability, without explicitly distinctive definitions. The development of affective states involves a variety of factors, feelings both about us and about others with whom we come into contact.
There are so many affective factors influence the English teaching, such as motivation, self-confidence and anxiety, Krashen calls them ‘the affective filter factors’. But in the practical English teaching, there are some other factors influence the English teaching, including attitude, inhibition, self-esteem, extroversion and introversion, empathy, classroom transactions and cross-cultural processes and so on. The following will show the four main factors of them which affect the foreign language teaching.
1.Motivation
Motivation, in more technical terms, refers to ‘the choices people make as to what experiences or goals they will approach or avoid, and the degree of effect they will exert in that respect.’On one hand, motivation is a crucial force that determines learners to do their works, how much energy they dedicate to it, and how long they
persevere. On the other hand, it is just a thought as inner drive and emotion that moves one to meet their own goals. For the second language learner, their learning motivation is certain needs and drives of learning a foreign language.
2.Empathy
In second language acquisition fields, empathy has two kinds of meanings. First, teachers put their student‟s affection in their mind in order to better understand them. Second, students need to keep up with teacher‟s thoughts, comprehend what are teaching purposes or aims, and adapt to teacher‟s teaching method. It will discuss the positive and negative effects of empathy on second language acquisition from this two means
3.extroversion and introversion
Extroversion and introversion are also potentially important impacts on second language acquisition. The extroverted person is outgoing and more sociable than introverts. Conversely, introverted people are just shy and quiet. Such views of extroversion and introversion are misleading, and it is stereotyped points. According to Brown, ‘extroversion is the extent to which a person has a deep-seated need to receive ego enhancement, self-esteem, and a sense of wholeness from other people as opposed to receiving that affirmation within oneself…Introversion, on the other hand, is the extent to which a person derives senses of wholeness and fulfillment apart from a reflection of this self from other people.’
Man‟s personality decides his behavior, attitude, and the way of thinking from the inner. In other words, the impact of learner‟s character is an essential factor for their learning activities. Meanwhile, it is one of the main causes of individual difference among learners. So, what is the relationship between personality and second language acquisition at all? The next parts will talk about their relation.
4.Self-esteem
Self-esteem is probably the most universal aspect of human behavior. According to Coopersmith, ‘By self-esteem, we refer to the evaluation which the individual makes customarily maintains with regard to himself; it expresses an attitude of a approval or disapproval, and indicates the extent to which and individual believes himself to be capable, significant, successful and worthy. In short, self-esteem is a personal judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes that the individual holds towards himself.’ That means self-esteem is knowledge of yourself and belief in your own ability. Learner‟s self-esteem comes from the accumulation of language learning experiences and the evaluation from the outside of their performance and achievement in learning process
Research Methods
This article has designed a questionnaire including motivation, empathy,extroversion and introversion and self-esteem. Because of time limited, I just get 25 questionnaires from my classmates. Their data were collected for statistic analysis, among which 18
were females, 7 were males and the age ranged from 19 to 21 with the average being 20 years old. There are two parts in the examination paper: multi-choice and essay questions.
Results and Analysis
According to the data I collected, a phenomena has been found that most of learners’motives are to get a high mark and hunt a good job. There are few learners to learn second language because of their interest. Pass the examinations and find a good job are the main reasons for them to learn second language.
Learners could not learn second language well due to anxiety make up the majority of students. They want to learn the second language well, but they do not know how to improve their language levels and are afraid of making mistakes. Learners who experience intense anxiety often lose heart.
Though exact anxiety can help the learners in language learning, anxiety indeed makes learners nervous and afraid and thus contributes to poor performance; this, in turn, creates more anxiety and even worse performance. Consistent negative correlations have been found between foreign language anxiety and various measures of foreign language achievement. Much of the anxiety is associated with understanding and speaking the foreign language. Speaking publicly in the target language has been found to be particularly anxiety provoking for many learners, even those who feel little stress in other aspects of language learning. With respect to understanding the foreign language, some learners report an indecipherable buzz whenever they are asked to listen to the foreign language. Most language researches show a negative relationship between anxiety and performance. The negative kind of anxiety is sometimes called …debilitating anxiety‟, because it harms learners‟performance in many ways, both indirectly through worry and self-doubt and directly by reducing participation and creating overt avoidance of the language. Harmful anxiety can be related to plummeting motivation, negative attitudes and beliefs, and language performance difficulties.
Conclusion
This paper is brought into four parts, the four affective factors: motivation, self-esteem, anxiety and empathy, which relate to each other closely, each one can not depart the others to exist independently. When facing a new language, not everyone has interest, if he has interest he may have confidence, motivation or anxiety or may not. If self- confidence is enhanced, motivation maybe more intense, anxiety may be reduced; if anxiety is reduced, confidence may be higher, motivation may be consolidated. For the teachers and students, empathy is embodied in every aspect of teaching.
All above four affective factors illustrate their influence to the English teaching and the solution from the perspective of motivation, self-confidence, anxiety and empathy, the writer does not analysis it very deeply and comprehensively, in fact they are some other affective factors influence the foreign language teaching, such as inhibition, introversion/extroversion, classroom transactions and so on. Because Krashen
advanced the theory of ‘affective filter hypothesis’, some researchers set about studying it, but this is only a simple analysis on the basis of theory and practice, the affective factors are not carried out much in teaching or are not carried out at all , so this is one of directions for the teachers to develop.
Reference
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