Emotions Affect the Way We Learn Languages
- Calvin Stevens
- Mar 4
- 7 min read
This is how I “set the mood” for language learning via the affective filter.
It goes without saying that we, humans, are emotional creatures just as much as we are rational beings.
I’m sure most of us — if not all — have experienced moments when our emotions have clashed with our reasoning. It can be extreme: when a loved one dies, we oftentimes lash out at others or simply isolate ourselves against our better judgement; or it can be less serious: when we were in high school and had our final exams approaching, anxiety and the feeling of being overwhelmed, I’m sure, messed with our ability to study effectively.
The same goes for almost any aspect of our lives; where emotions do not harmonise, the logical side of our brain cannot perform its duties.
And in today’s world, sometimes I feel as though we really do let our emotions get the best of us.
As I’ve been learning Mandarin — along with my previous language endeavours — I’ve found that this notion is one of the fundamental reasons why, on some days, I can’t seem to make any progress. Sometimes I’d even push myself to go further, thinking I wasn’t learning enough, but that only made my frustrations run high. It was like a part of my brain had just decided to take an unannounced vacation.
Well, it turns out, that wasn’t too far from the truth.
For one, the logical components of our brain reserved for language, namely the Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, get brigaded by what I like to call “hormonal and emotional protestors”. Thereafter, getting the language to flow becomes a lot harder until you finally calm said protestors down — and, in the same sense, brutally suppressing the protestors won’t help either; it will only lead to more frustration, tension, and rowdiness.
But not all emotions are bad for language learning. Sometimes those protests are actually just roaming parades, festivals, and birthday celebrations.
The key, really, is to identify these positive emotions and understand how they can aid us in easy learning.
The affective filter
Noam Chomsky first posited the idea that humans have what he calls a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) — a system within the brain that acquires languages naturally through a certain set of favourable, external stimuli.
Stephen Krashen further suggested that the LAD could be supplied with enough stimuli through comprehensible input; but under certain circumstances, despite consuming the perfect dosage of comprehensible input, the brain was identified to not always properly acquire language.
Thus, Krashen came up with a hypothesis called the Affective Filter.
“[The hypothesis states that] negative emotions, such as stress, anxiety, boredom, and lack of motivation, create a psychological filter (the Affective Filter) that reduces a student’s ability to absorb comprehensible input.”
The term was originally coined by Dulay and Burt (1977), but Krashen extended it into a metaphor for the internal struggle of a student with their emotions and negative attitudes that impedes on their ability to acquire a second language. On the one hand, a high filter will halt progress; on the other, a low filter will yield better results.
Just as its name suggests, you can imagine it like an actual filter; negative emotions bear down upon and squeeze the canal, preventing what you have learnt from getting through; positive emotions, meanwhile, relax the canal and allow the brain to absorb the content.
Setting the environment
One of the key principles to maximising language learning efficiency is to ensure that you are in the right environment to best absorb the language.
I remember, on one too many occasions while I was in high school, trying to cram-study for some of my Afrikaans tests the night before. Naturally, the stress of being overwhelmed would get to me and, as a result, I’d often perform poorly on the test the very next day — despite hours of studying in the night, it was like I learned absolutely nothing.
So where did all that knowledge go?
Well, I don’t think any of it actually managed to penetrate my brain to begin with. In truth, I’d barely left the starting block.
I learned, fairly quickly, that when it came to tests — particularly oral assessments (don’t get me started on those dreaded tasks!) — it was best for me to not study within 24 hours of it starting. Instead, I performed much better if I used those last 24 hours to put my mind at ease.
It certainly helped prevent me second-guessing myself, too.
More importantly, however, I learned that my emotions and mindset were pivotal to me actually absorbing knowledge. In fact, if anything, my environment has been the most important factor when it comes to maximising learning efficiency.
The full-immersion language experience, I feel, can sometimes be a little overwhelming for beginners in this regard; and thus the resulting stress may actually impede the process.
For me, if I had begun my Mandarin learning journey by saying “okay, let’s try this out by heading to the local Chinatown”, I think I would have failed quite miserably at achieving anything — let’s just say, haggling with Chinese aunties while jostling through a throng of yelling customers is in no way calming.
Even now, with my more extensive knowledge of the language, I think I would still struggle.
I like to take small steps; I’m a bit more of a socially anxious person, so smaller groups — like conversing with my teacher and class of 6 — are a great place to start to build up my confidence.
Funnily enough, despite the fact that it increases my heart-rate, a cup of coffee is one of my best friends when it comes to simulating a sound, cosy, calm, and quiet learning environment. I think this is due, in part, to my brain associating it with a good book — a relaxing environment — so I try to utilise its positive association to create a similar feel when I learn.
Small things like this all help with simulating a sense of familiarity; and your mind is more likely to be at ease when it believes it to be in a familiar, comforting setting.
Now, if you’re more of an extrovert or an adrenaline junkie who finds the thrill in such situations as the former one above (Chinatown chaos incarnate!), then maybe it’s not entirely a terrible idea. What’s essential is that you tailor the experience to meet your own needs. You have to create or find the environment that invokes positive emotions rather than negative ones.
If you’re a more calm, reserved person such as myself, then perhaps that cup of [insert your favourite comfort beverage] will do you wonders.
If you’re more outgoing and sociable, then maybe getting to know a few native-speakers and diving headfirst into a fully immersive experience may be more up your alleyway.
Whatever it is, make sure you enjoy it.
Otherwise, that filter in your brain will seal off.
Negative emotions to avoid
· Anxiety/stress
· Boredom
· Discomfort
· Feeling overwhelmed
· Tiredness
Positive emotions to seize
· Calmness
· Energetic
· Excitement
· Motivation
· Satisfaction
Self-affirmation
This goes with all things in life but, in order to succeed in your language learning goals, you need have a certain level of confidence, starting with positive self-affirmation.
Part of creating that ideal environment is surrounding yourself with a positive support structure and, more importantly, recognising your own accomplishments and rewarding yourself thereof. Obviously, you don’t want to be surrounded by a bunch of yes-men (we all know how that ends) but you want to have positive critique environment.
Speaking for myself, I managed to find just that within my own small class of Mandarin learners — we all encourage one another, laugh at our mistakes (because that is always inevitable with language learning), and help each other out. All in all, it is a mini positive-feedback loop, and it has boosted my confidence immensely.
Now, this can be done on your own, too; it just requires that same feedback loop to occur on an internal, individual basis.
The key, here, is to do away with negative psychological habits and stimulate or internalise positive reflections of the self.
My mathematical abilities are quite dismal; I’ve never been very good with math, to say the least. The largest contributing factor to my lackluster performance in high school, in hindsight, however, was simply the fact that I had internalised the idea that I chronically sucked at math.
And for a long time, I really did believe that.
Yet, that was only partially true.
The problem was that, in reality, sure, I was never going to be a mathematical genius — fundamentally, I don’t think my brain is wired that way — but I was capable of, perhaps generously, achieving at most 70%.
Unfortunately, because I was trapped in the vicious cycle of believing that no matter how much work I put in I was only good enough for 50s and 60s, I never did reach my full potential. And the contrary was true for languages. I certainly believed, with all my confidence, that I was good at language, and thus I passed with more than flying colours.
So, for those who are stuck in that vicious cycle, learn to train the spotlight onto your strengths, and reward yourself for any achievement you make along your language journey, no matter how small or minor it may seem.
Do you suck at speaking but are great at reading?
Then remember to remind yourself, from time to time, of your achievements in reading.
While you’ll want to improve your weakest point, you must not let it consume your mind; don’t let your weakness become your mindset.
If you can acknowledge the areas that you are great in, then you’ll naturally begin to see an improvement in other areas.
Why? Because your overall confidence will receive a little boost. And once that happens, all that positive energy will leak into all other aspects of your learning process.
As they say, we are our own worst enemy.
But what they often forget to mention is that we can also be our own best ally.
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