The Enlightenment of Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis in TeachingEnglish to Young Learner（TEYL）

XIE+Rong++DING+Desheng

【Abstract】There are many factors that affect English acquisition in the second language acquisition， such as： age， environment， mother tongue interference， culture， cognition， teaching methods/models， affective factors and and so on. The affective factor has the same important status as cognition factor， and it plays an important role in TEYL. This study aims to carry out questionnaire and experiment to identify how the affective filter hypothesis influences the pedagogy and what Krashens affective filter hypothesis can enlighten in teaching English to young learners. Through exploring theoretical foundation， the result of the author's experiment shows that affective filter hypothesis theory is an efficient way for the young learners to know how to learn and for the teachers to know how to teach English. In addition， by comparative analysis， the results are obtained from the experiment and questionnaires. The conclusion can be seen that to a large extent， the degree of learners motivation， self-confidence and anxiety have influence on the learners. Finally， on the basis of previous studies and the author's own ideas， the majority of suggestions are proposed in the article.

【Key words】Krashens Affective Filter Hypothesis； young learner； English

1. Introduction

There are many factors that affect English acquisition in the second language acquisition，age， environment， mother tongue interference， culture， cognition，affective factors and so on. The affective factor is an important part of linguistics， and it has the same important status as cognition factor. It affects the second language acquisition directly and indirectly. Therefore， Affective factors play an important role in TEYL. Whereas， a large amount of young learner English teachers who with particular emphasis on teaching materials， teaching methods and cognitive development of students in teaching reform， ignoring the affective factors of young learners. At the same time， the cognitive factors of language learning and acquiring are more welcomed by researchers in the academic market. On the contrary， the study of affective factors is relatively weak and poor.

According to “Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standard” pointed out： Teaching English to Young Learners must follow the orders for physical and psychological development of the young learner. The young learner must be to stimulate interest and cultivate a positive attitude to learning and acquiring， so that they formed initially the confidence in learning and English acquisition （Ministry of Education of the PRC，2011，Pp.1-27）. Whereas， so many parents have high expectation to their children， majority of parents expected that she/he cannot fail at the beginning line. There are numerous training institutions in the market， the main purpose of the training institutions to a large extent in order to obtain profits . Furthermore， teaching facilities are limited. The great majority of them dont understand young learner's English instruction theory.The purpose of this paper mainly put forward what the young learner teacher should put the affect and cognition on the same important position in TEYL. Try our best to spend less time to learn more English. This paper will answer the following three questions：

A. How does the affective filter hypothesis influence the pedagogy？

B. What are the enlightenments of Krashens affective filter hypothesis in teaching English to young learner？

2. Literature Review

The concept of the second language acquisition ，namely， relate to the systematic study of how one learner acquire a second language successfully to catch up with his /her first language proficiency level.

In the process of the second language acquisition of the degree of cognition that efficiency is restricted to a large extent by the affective factors. Since the 1960s， with the emergence of humanistic psychology， a lot number of domestic and foreign scholars began to pay attention to the role of the affective factor in linguistics.

2.1 The definition of affect

The concept of affective filter is defined as “an internal processing system” to prevent learners from acquiring the language（Dulay&Burt，1977.cited in Gass&Slinker，2008）.Stern pointed out that the impact on the affective filter is as large as that of cognitive factors of language learning， even more serious effects on SLA （Stern，1983，pp.355-365）. The researchers have confirmed that the affective factors development should go to the first place in SLA， affective and cognitive factors should be complemented each other in the second language acquisition process， which become an integral part of the organic. When learners are in a negative state of emotion， the cognitive activities will receive a serious strike in teaching and learning. On the contrary， when learner is in a positive state of affective， cognitive activities have been a great positive impact.

2.2 The definition of motivation

Motivation is an inner driving force of human being heart， which is a kind of affective factor， a desire to urge the learner to take the certain actions to get her/his success and SLA（Brown，1987）.After 12 years of research， Lambert&Gardner have proved that the rational use motivation can help to learn L2 successfully.the motivation is divided into “integrative motivation and instrumental motivation”， integrative motivation is that the learner has a strong interest in the target language community and culture， and expect to participate or join the community where she/he lives in. Instrumental motivation is the learner who takes a conscious purpose to learn the target language. Such as： the entrance exam， looking for work， further study（Lambert & Gardner，1987）.According to numerous literature sources， motivation can be generally divided as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation， intrinsic motivation is free of any ulterior purpose while extrinsic motivation that an explicit purpose is involved. For instance， intrinsic motivation motivates people who will want to learn L2 for her/his own sake， rather than for the “extrinsic” reason that they with integrate into community or classroom which speaks that L2，or wish to benefit of substance （Johnsona， Gardnerb&Sweetserc.2016 pp.805-812）.Motivation was defined by linguist which is the internal driving force that encourages a person to achieve an action. If we want to achieve a goal that is very attractive， and we try our best to achieve it （Harmer，2000）. Harmer's theory had a certain flaw， he claimed that the motivation is a typical tool-based motivation， his thought was not comprehensive.

2.3 The definition of anxiety

Linguists separated anxiety into two parts： Facilitative anxiety and debilitating anxiety. Facilitative anxiety learners are always kept vigilant in SLA where she/he can motivate or challenge new learning tasks. In contrast， debilitating anxiety has a strong negative impact on learners （Kader，2016， pp40-46）.

Horwitz pointed out： Anxiety is the trouble of human inner heart world. It can cause a sense of tension. He divided anxiety into three types： communicative apprehension， the negative social evaluation， test anxiety. Communicative apprehension means that cannot be expressed fluently or accurately when communicate with each other in the target language. Negative social evaluation means that learner worry about losing face during using language. Test anxiety means that learner presented the state of concern in the examination process.（Horwitz，1986，pp125-132）

2.4 The definition of self-confidence

Self-confidence is a sense of the self-efficacy， it means that a person can successfully or effectively complete the tasks with his/her beliefs. A lot number of anxieties that to some extent is too concerned about their own learning performance the evaluation of others， worried about their failure， cannot overcome obstacles to get self-confidence ，self-esteem and self-image .（Ellis.1999.p42）

2.5 The main content of Krashens Affective Filter Hypothesis

Since the 1980s， Krashen claimed that in the second language acquisition process was influenced by many factors，so he proposed five hypotheses： acquisition-learning hypothesis ，the natural order hypothesis ，the monitor hypothesis， the input hypothesis ，the affective filter hypothesis.The affective filter hypothesis and the input hypothesis are the most important hypotheses than any other his theories. This section mainly introduces the affective filter hypothesis. Krashen stressed that affective factors play filter role towards input of the language. Motivation， anxiety， self-confidence needs to go through the affective filter.Krashen regarded affective filter as a door， when the motivation of the learner is weak or poor， no confidence， more anxieties， the valve will be closed more， many languages will be filtered out， language input is very difficult to enter the language acquisition device. Ability and effect of learners' acquisition of language will be reduced. In a word， the more obstacles， the worse the language will be acquired . On the contrary， if learner has high motivation， adequate self-confidence and less anxiety， the valve will be opened more， there will be a small amount of filter or nothing to be filtered out. Therefore， learner can learn more language. It can be seen that if teachers only provide learners with a large amount of comprehensible input but regardless of the affective factors of the learners， it is very difficult for them to promote them to learn foreign languages. Krashen argues that the young learner can acquire language better than adolescents and adults because their affective filter is weaker than the adults and adolescents. They think that adults and adolescents often have high self-consciousness， emotional fragility and low self-image. At the same time， young learners are on the opposite.（Krashen，1983，pp31-141）