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KEYWORDS
Affective filter,
Motivation,
Self-esteem,
Anxiety
ABSTRACT
First put forward by Dulay & Burt in 1977, the affective hypothesis aims to illustrate the affective factors' influence on the process of foreign language acquisition. Later, it became an indispensable part of Krashen's SLA theory. This article mainly puts its emphasis on the following: motivation, self-esteem and anxiety. Based on the illustration of these three aspects and the current educational situation in colleges, the author points out that during their teaching process, teachers should make their best to optimize students' emotional factors, lower their affective filters that is, high motivation, low anxiety, and self-esteem.
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1 Introduction
In 1977, Tracy Terrell, a teacher of Spanish in California put forward a new philosophy of language teaching, which he called the "Natural Approach". In other words, the Natural Approach grew out of Terrell's experiences teaching Spanish classes. Later, Terrell joined forces with Stephen Krashen who is an applied linguist at the University of South California in order to explain the theoretical rationale for the Natural Approach. What Stephen Krashen contributed to the Natural Approach is his influential theory of second language acquisition. Krashen's theory is actually an amalgam of five hypotheses: 1) The acquisition/learning hypothesis which claims that learning and acquisition are separate processes; 2) The natural order hypothesis which says that there is a natural order of morpheme acquisition; 3) The monitor hypothesis which claims that one may call upon learned knowledge to correct himself when they communicate or write; 4) The input hypothesis which assumes that the comprehensible input is crucial for acquirers advanced second language acquisition; 5) The affective filter hypothesis which states the importance of the right "affect" for acquisition to take place. In this article, emphasis will be laid on the affective filter hypothesis and its implications to the current college English teaching in China.
2 The Affective Filter Hypothesis
Though an indispensible part of Krashen's SLA theory, the affective filter hypothesis was first raised by Dulay & Burt in 1977. The principal purpose of this hypothesis is to illustrate the affective factors' influence on the process of foreign language acquisition. And Dulay defined the affective filter as an innate processing system which subconsciously impedes the learners'...