Affective and Cognitive Factors in SLA

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Affective and cognitive factors in

SLA
Methods in teaching English as a
foreign language
The structure of the affective domain
• In the taxonomy of educational objectives
(Krathwohl et al. 1964), the affective domain is
presented as comprising five levels, starting with
the fundamental level of receiving, followed by
responding, valuing, organisation of values and,
finally, constructing a value system, or a total
worldview, which reflects human’s beliefs, ideas
and attitudes.
• Besides this comprehensive worldview, a number
of personality factors have their impact on the
process of language learning (see them below)
Self-esteem
• Self-esteem is “a person’s judgement of their own worth or
value, based on a feeling of ‘efficacy’, a sense of interacting
effectively with one’s own environment”.
• It is related to the need of what Malinowski (1923) called
‘phatic communion’ – defining oneself and finding
acceptance in expressing that self in relation to valued
others.
• Douglas Brown (1987: 102) differentiates between three
levels of self-esteem – global, which is relatively stable in
an adult, situational or specific, related to certain life
situations, and task-related self-esteem – which depends
on one’s self-evaluation in specific tasks. The last two are
thought to be directly involved in second language
acquisition.
Risk taking
• Learning and especially speaking another language are considered
risky undertakings by a lot of people.
• Risk-taking is a personality factor which depends on self-esteem
and concerns the degree to which a person is willing to undertake
actions that involve a significant degree of uncertainty.
• It is important in second language learning because successful
learners have to be willing to take risks in making guesses and
hypotheses about how the new language works.
• However, high risk-taking is not always a prerequisite for success.
Moderate risk-takers are generally more successful, because their
guesses are more likely to be based on careful thinking and control
of previous knowledge.
• Lack of willingness to take risks in using the new language might
lead to fossilisation of mistakes.
Inhibition
• Inhibition, which is defined as “building sets of defenses to
protect the ego”, is closely related to self-esteem, in the
sense that those who have a weaker self-esteem tend to
have more inhibitions which serve as a protective wall for
their fragile ego or lack of confidence in different life
situations in general, and situations and tasks related to a
second language learning.
• One example of a situation which poses threats to our
language ego is making mistakes and the fear of losing face,
which is more typical of adult learners and adolescents
than children. That is why teachers should try and find
appropriate ways of removing inhibitions as much as
possible.
Language anxiety
• It is connected with the “subjective feelings of apprehension
and fear associated with foreign language learning and use”.
• These feelings can be more deeply seated, or global, and are
known as trait anxiety - a permanent predisposition to be
anxious. The situational, or state anxiety, is experienced in
specific situations, such as for example language learning.
• Another distinction is made between facilitative and
debilitative anxiety (see Alpert, Haber 1960). The first one
has a positive effect - it helps learners concentrate and brace
themselves for a task or test, whereas the second one is
closer to excessive nervousness which might lead to a mental
block and poor performance.
Empathy
• Empathy is “the quality of being able to imagine
and share the thoughts, feelings and point of
view of other people”.
• It is thought to contribute to the attitudes we
have towards a person or group with a different
language and culture from our own.
• It is believed to be related to achieving success in
foreign language learning and acculturation, and
is an important principle in the so-called
humanistic methods in language teaching, e.g.
Community language teaching.
Extroversion and introversion
• These are related to the extent to which a person has a
deep-seated need to receive ego enhancement and a sense
of wholeness from other people (extroversion) as opposed
to receiving that affirmation within oneself (introversion).
• Sometimes these two variables in language learning are
misunderstood in teachers’ perceptions of students’
intelligence and learning capacity, especially when it is
judged by their oral participation in class.
• The research does not provide clear evidence whether
extroversion or introversion help or hinder language
learning, so the teachers should be sensitive to both
student personality types and cultural norms and
expectations.
Motivation
• Defined as “the driving force in any situation that
leads to action”, it is a combination of the
learner’s attitudes, desires and willingness to
learn.
• As a complex construct, it is associated with
humans’ essential needs: for exploration,
manipulation (operating on and changing the
environment), activity (both physical and mental),
stimulation (by other people’s ideas, thoughts,
and feelings), knowledge and ego enhancement
(Ausubel 1968).
Types of motivation
• Motivation in language learning can be integrative,
characterised by a willingness to be like valued members of
the language community, and instrumental – oriented
towards more practical concerns such as getting a job or
passing an exam.
• These two types of motivation can either stem from within
the person (intrinsic/internal motivation derived from
enjoyment of language learning itself), or from other
people or factors (extrinsic/external motivation resulting
from parental pressure, societal expectations, academic
requirements, etc.).
• In order to be successful motivators, teachers should be
able to identify the type and the source of their students’
motivation.
The structure of the cognitive domain
• The cognitive factors, or variations, which affect
second language learning, fall into three major
types which are described as processes, styles
and strategies.
• Cognitive processes are universal and
characteristic of all human beings.
• Cognitive styles are consistent and enduring
tendencies or preferences.
• Strategies are the most specific and task-oriented
procedures used in thinking and learning, which
help us achieve certain aims.
Cognitive processes: transfer and
interference
• Transfer refers to the carryover of previous performance or
knowledge to subsequent learning. When prior knowledge
benefits the learning of new knowledge, the transfer is considered
to be positive, and when the effect of this carryover is diverse, the
transfer is negative.
• Negative transfer is known as interference, because old knowledge
is incorrectly associated with the new material and thus interferes
with its acquisition. In second language learning, mother tongue
interference is the most noticeable source of mistakes. For
example, the common mistake made by Bulgarian learners of
English in the phrase *I am agree can be traced to its Bulgarian
equivalent Аз съм съгласен. However, these mistakes should not
lead to underestimation of the beneficial role of positive transfer,
without which learning a second language would present a
daunting and virtually impossible task.
Cognitive processes: generalisation
and overgeneralisation
• Generalisation is the principle which underlies
meaningful learning and retention, as all new items
which we encounter have to be ‘anchored’ and
subsumed under a more inclusive conceptual system
(Ausubel 1968). It is the principle which is at work
when we learn and remember concepts and words
which belong together, such as colours, animals, days
of the week, numbers, etc.
• Overgeneralisation occurs when a particular rule or
language item in the new language is generalised, i.e.
considered valid beyond its legitimate bounds, which in
turn leads to mistakes (e.g. *goed, *writed in the
manner of worked, helped).
Cognitive styles
• Cognitive style is defined as the particular way in which a
learner tries to learn something. Learners vary in their
preferences: some prefer grammatical explanations and
rules, others want to discover how language works on their
own; some write words down, others look for mental
associations with words from their first language, etc.
• There are different dimensions of cognitive style which are
frequently presented as dichotomies, or contrasting
entities such as:
• analytic versus global
• visual versus auditory versus hands-on (tactile)
• intuitive/random versus concrete/sequential.
Cognitive styles and FLL: Field
independence vs field dependence
• The ability to see the relevant items or patterns is defined
as field independence which is a factor in efficient language
learning. Field independent students are faster than their
field dependent classmates, who need more time to do the
task because they are distracted by the background field.
However, seeing the whole field or picture is also important
in language learning, especially with younger learners.
• Field dependent learners are better communicators,
because of their empathy, social orientation and
perceptiveness
• Field independent learners perform better at discrete item
tests where attention to detail, abstract deductive
reasoning and analysis are particularly important.
Cognitive styles and FLL: Left- versus
right-brain functioning
• This cognitive style shows learners’ preference for left or
right brain functioning which are thought to differ across
individuals and across cultures.
• Left-brain dominant learners are considered to benefit
more from deductive teaching and explanation of language
specifics, abstraction, classification, labelling and
reorganisation.
• Right-brain dominant learners are considered better at
inductive reasoning, whole images, generalisations,
metaphors, emotional reactions and artistic expressions.
• Both hemispheres operate together in the neurological
activity of the brain (see Douglas Brown 1987).
Cognitive styles and FLL: Tolerance of
ambiguity
• This style is related to the idea that in the process of
language learning people encounter a great number of
contradictory facts and ideas, commonly known as
exceptions to previously learnt rules and explanations.
• Tolerance of ambiguity indicates the degree to which
learners are willing to tolerate ideas and facts which run
counter to their own knowledge or beliefs. Usually these
presumed contradictions are resolved in the process of
learning.
• Although some intolerance of ambiguity is productive as a
demonstration of critical thinking and analysis of language
material, excessive intolerance of ambiguity can be harmful
to language learning.
Strategies
• Two types of strategies are identified in the
field of second or foreign language learning:
learning strategies, related to processing
language input, and communication
strategies, used in producing language output.
The learning strategies are the concrete
procedures used in processing, storage and
retrieval of the received language input. They
are divided into three major groups:
metacognitive, cognitive and socio-affective.
Types of strategies
• Metacognitive are the strategies used for planning,
monitoring and evaluating a learning activity, e.g. advance
organisers, directed attention, selective attention, self-
management, functional planning, self-monitoring, delayed
production and self-evaluation.
• Cognitive strategies operate directly on the input,
manipulating it so as to enhance learning, e.g. repetition,
resourcing, translation, grouping, note taking, deduction,
recombination, imagery, auditory representation, keyword,
contextualisation, elaboration, transfer and inferencing.
• Socio-affective strategies are used for handling emotions
or attitudes and for cooperating with others in the process
of communication. They include strategies of cooperation
and asking questions for clarification.
Strategies and good language learners
• Research shows that successful language learners
use strategies which are appropriate to the
material, to the task, and to their goals, needs
and stage of learning. Rebecca Oxford (1989: 4)
points out that “more proficient learners appear
to use a wider range of strategies in a greater
number of situations than do less proficient
learners, but the relationship between strategy
use and proficiency is complex”. Teachers should
be particularly aware of the role of strategies and
strategy training for effective learning and exam
preparation.
Strategic investment and learner
autonomy
• Learner training is often associated with strategy training.
Douglas Brown (2007: 69) claims that “Successful mastery
of the second language will be due to a large extent to a
learner’s own personal investment of time, effort, and
attention to the second language in the form of an
individualized battery of strategies for comprehending and
producing the language”.
• Learners have to understand the purpose of learning,
accept responsibility for their learning, share in the setting
of learning goals, take initiatives in planning and executing
learning activities and regularly review their learning and
evaluate its effectiveness (see Holec 1981; Little 1991).
Recommended reading
• Douglas Brown, H. 1987. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• Douglas Brown, H. 2007. Teaching by Principles. An Interactive Approach
to Language Pedagogy. San Francisco: Pearson Longman.
• Ellis, R. 1992. Second Language Acquisition and Language Pedagogy.
Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters.
• Genesee, F. 1982. Experimental neuropsychological research on second
language processing. TESOL Quarterly, 16, 315321.
• Little, D. 1991. Learner Autonomy 1: Definitions, Issues and Problems.
Dublin: Authentik.
• Oxford, R. 1989. Use of language learning strategies: A synthesis of studies
with implications for strategy training. System. 17(2). 235-247.

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