Overcoming the universal affective filter
In 1982, Stephen Krashen, a linguist at the University of Southern California, published Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Central to this work is the ‘Monitor Model’, a schema outlining five principal factors or hypotheses, that influence second language learning. The fifth hypothesis is known as the ‘Affective Filter’, a set of three key elements, or ‘affects’, that can prevent or inhibit successful language acquisition. These are: motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety. Those with a ‘high’ filter will struggle to acquire a second language, whilst those with a ‘low’ filter have more chance of success. If Krashen’s theory holds true for second language acquisition, could the same factors be at play in our learning of other things? Is there, in fact, a universal affective filter? Could this filter also be detrimental to our ability to perform already learnt skills as we get older? What if we could lower our affective filters for everything – playing a musical instrument, taking up a new sport, learning academic subjects, craft work etc, etc – would we be able to do pretty much anything we wanted to?
Motivation
Let’s look at each of these ‘affects’ in more detail. Firstly, motivation. It may sound obvious that we need to be motivated to learn something, but Krashen distinguishes between different types of motivation which can be broadly categorized as instrumental motivation and integrative motivation (distinctions originally made by the work of Gardner and Lambert in the early 1970s). Instrumental motivation refers to learning for practical reasons, usually with clear goals – for example, learning English to complete a university requirement, to gain a promotion, to study in an English-speaking country or to pass a visa test. On the other hand, integrative motivation describes a desire to integrate to some extent into the host culture of the language – examples could be immigrants wishing to settle in a new country, people marrying someone with a different nationality and language, or just language learners who have a strong affinity or love towards a particular country. While a high level of either motivation will generate good results, it is this second group – those with integrative motivation – who succeed most easily with second language acquisition.
Self-confidence
The second affect is self-confidence. Again, this may seem like an obvious factor – speaking a foreign language must take some amount of self-confidence - but Krashen adds to this the slightly different concept of self-esteem. We’ve probably all studied a foreign language at some point in our lives, and have probably all felt slightly embarrassed to be uttering French words, or German words with strange pronunciation. But having a high level of self-esteem, coupled with confidence, allows speakers of second languages to do so without embarrassment.
Anxiety
The third affect, anxiety, can refer to personal anxiety that is completely outside of the second language learning, or it may be directly connected to the learning environment. This can manifest itself as fear of the teacher, or of classmates, anxiety over an exam, and very often as a fear of making mistakes. People with low levels of anxiety acquire second languages more rapidly.
So how could these affects impact on learning other things?
Get some integrative motivation
Well, let’s look at motivation, and specifically at those two different types– instrumental and integrative. Is it possible that we fail to take up new things, or can’t retain our motivation because we regard them instrumentally, rather than integratively? Imagine that you wanted to lose weight and get fit, so you decided to take up cycling. Doing that on your own, with the sole (instrumental) motivation of shedding some kilos and increasing fitness, might mean that you wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long. But if you ‘integrated’ yourself into cycling - joined a club, bought all the gear, read about it, learnt how to fix a puncture, watched the Tour de France – you’d more likely keep it up and do it well (whilst also losing weight and getting fit, of course). This is not to say that instrumental motivation is ‘bad’ – sometimes it’s all we need to achieve the outcomes we’re aiming for, but integrative motivation will always take you to a higher level more quickly, and will probably be more fun.
Develop and maintain self-confidence
In terms of self-confidence and self-esteem, those with high levels of both will always find it easier to try new things and not worry about potentially appearing or sounding stupid, because they’re not looking for and don’t need others’ approval. Self-confidence can also have an impact on our ability to perform certain tasks as we get older. According to the hypothesis, children have a much lower filter (it starts to kick in around the onset of puberty), and for most people, it only gets higher with age. This may explain why we could dance so well when we were younger, but look more and more awkward doing it as we get older. There’s no physical reason for us as we reach middle-age to not be able to dance like we could in our 20s. The difference is that when we get older, we start to feel embarrassed, like we shouldn’t be doing it any more. If we could raise our self-confidence and self-esteem and lower our embarrassment levels, what could we achieve in our lives? What would we discover we could still actually do as we get older?
Discomfort is good
Lastly then, anxiety. It’s easy to feel afraid to try new things because everyone has a natural inclination, perhaps even a kind of survival instinct, to stay in their comfort zones and avoid risk. For many people, the fear of failure, or some kind of built-in assumption of future failure (‘There’s no way I could possibly learn the guitar’, ‘I’m no good at drawing,’ ‘I’m not really a sporty person’), often prevents us from trying anything new, or causes us to give up at the slightest bump in the road. But once we realise that nothing meaningful or new can ever be achieved without experiencing some level of discomfort (because changing or developing anything will always require coming out of the comfort zone) and that failure is a necessary, and to some degree desirable step on the path to change or success – we can keep going.
So freeing ourselves of anxiety, heightening our self-confidence and taking a more integrative approach to motivating ourselves could hold the key to effective learning, development and success in whatever we want to do.
