Krashen's affective filter hypothesis

(Hodanov, Novotn, Palounkov, Rajtmajerov) The principle of hypothesis: Affective-filter hypothesis: Krashen argues that comprehensible input is not enough to ensure language acquisition. Language learners also have to be receptive to that input. When learners are bored, angry, frustrated, nervous, unmotivated or stressed, they may not be receptive to language input and so they 'screen' the input. This screen is referred to as the affective filter. This suggests that when learners are bored, angry, frustrated, nervous, unmotivated or stressed, they may be unsuccessful at learning a second language. This has very practical implications for language teachers: lower their affective filters. One problem with this hypothesis is the difficulty in determining cause and effect: Are language learners unsuccessful because they are bored, angry, and stressed? Or are language learners bored, angry, and stressed because they are unsuccessful? In order to receive the knowledge being given by the teacher the children have to be ready to learn something (motivated), to be happy, calm, patient Otherwise the affective filter is up and it is more difficult for the children to carry something from the lesson The criticism: Krashen claims that children lack the affective filter but he forgets that even children can be affected by personal variables such as feelings of insecurity, anxiety and a lack of selfconfidence. Some adults manage to attain native-like proficiency this case of such achievement remains unexplained. To give an example, there is a case of a Chinese woman who has achieved almost native-like proficiency with the exception of the correct use of the third-person singular number. How then does the filter let out all the information except the third-person singular number? How does the filter determine which parts of language are to be acquired and which are not? The affective filter hypothesis fails to answer the most important question about affect alone accounting for individual variation in second language acquisition. It is problematic for Krashen to promote a filter without specifying its nature and the tools required for assessing its particular strengths and weaknesses. Practical examples: I am not able to prepare for my exams when the TV is on. When distracted by some personal problems I don't fully concentrate myself during the lecturers. When someone is chatting during the lectures I don't catch all the information from the lecturer. References Krashen, Stephen D. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Prentice-Hall International, 1988.