Affective factors in second language acquisition: A critical review of the literature

Learning a second language is fundamentally different from child language development as well as from the study of other academic disciplines. One reason may be that the study of a second language involves the emotions and the identity in a way other subjects do not. Schumann (1998) argues that emotion filters all learning and cognition. If this is true then the study of affective factors in second language learning is important. What research has been done in this area and what does it show? The purpose of this paper is to conduct a critical review of empirical studies on the role of affective factors in the second language acquisition of post-puberty learners. Of the twenty-three studies discussed, three are qualitative and twenty are quantitative. This paper will present the issues raised, questions addressed and conclusions reached in the research. The methodologies used will also be presented and discussed.