Affective Factors in Second Language Learning & Acquisition

1. A General Reflection on Some Important Topics.

Language teaching and learning is a complex and multi-faceted task. This is due
to the fact that we human beings are complex beings. And this complexity is
increased when teaching a second language. Languages are a means of
communication. And communication is not only a way of exchanging information
between a speaker and a listener, but also a means of getting involved in the real
world and expressing our appreciation of this world, of the particular situation.
The problem lies on the fact that this appreciation is not homogeneous. Spanish
people and English people have different ways of conceptualising reality. Even
worse, these differences also apply within a single culture. Since we are different,
each person has his / her specific, idiosyncratic appreciation of the environment
surrounding us. And all of these differences condition the way we speak. When
dealing with a second language, there is an added problem: speaking a language
apart from one's own implies, to some extent, using a mask, altering our behaviour,
adapting our voice, pitch....things which are closely related to our emotions, to our
mood. Therefore, speaking a second language requires a degree of involvement
which many people are not eager to undertake.
The complexity of learning and teaching a second language, thus, comes from
the fact that, as opposed to learning mathematics or biology, learning a second
language concerns our emotional, and not only our cognitive, intellectual side. Ours
is a pragmatic, reason-governed society which assigns priority to developing our
intellectual capacities. Study and learning, for a long time, have been mostly related
to becoming more intelligent. Wisdom is in our culture synonymous with
intelligence. But, sadly, this is to the detriment of our emotional self, which affects
our health as well.
Since learning a second language engages our whole being (our appreciation of
the world comes from our arranged attitudes concerning life, to sum up, from our
personality and way of living), methods used by teachers should focus on that. In

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other words, a holistic approach to language teaching is necessary if we want our
teaching to be more successful, and more useful to our students. English was my
favourite subject in school. Why?. Because in English classes we talked about things
that concerned me in a close way: this class allowed me to deal with things related
to myself (e.g. my favourite musician, my favourite film, my opinions concerning
current issues...), to the way I think and I feel. Also, it was in English classes where
I had the opportunity of listening to songs, watching current and interesting
movies... That was the GOOD SIDE of my English classes. However, when my
teacher started to explain grammar, or when I had to prepare texts, learn vocabulary
items...things changed drastically. Why?. Because the focus then was completely
different: from a student-oriented approach to a language-oriented, dehumanized
approach, whose exclusive focus was on the intricacies of the language, solely. It is
not that I learned more English when listening to a song than in a class of grammar.
But my inner state was different. And I am sure that, though unconsciously, in those
moments of reduced anxiety or stress my self was learning. Actually, many of the
things I have learned that way are still stored in my brain. On the contrary, most of
the multiword verbs I had to learn in order to pass my exams are no longer
"available" in my brain for me to use them. That was the BAD SIDE of the classes.
From the moment in which the focus became neutral, in the sense that the teaching
did not appeal the individual, I did not feel involved in the process of learning,
so my interest decreased, and therefore the effect on my learning was lesser that in
the other instances. What I am advocating, nevertheless, is not that language
teaching should be reduced to watching movies and listening to songs!. Rather, I
think that teaching, no matter what is being taught, or the activity or procedure used,
should never loose that personal, interactive component: grammatical structures
should be taught, but in a way that makes students realise how much important it is
for them to learn that. Motivation is not transfered from teacher to students because
teachers are not motivation-givers; students do not need to look for motivation,
since it shows up from within when their emotional self is positively involved in the
act of learning. The teacher's role, then, is to lead (and never force) students into this
positive, emotional involvement through the use of appropriate tools and
strategies. In other words, students need an appropriate stimulus on the part of the
teacher for them to be motivated. And any given stimulus is appropriate if it
concerns and addresses not only students' cognitive capacities, but also their

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emotions and feelings Only thus will the student feel interested and motivated
enough so as to go on learning outside the class. Guiding the student, making the
student desire to learn, is the first, necessary step on the road to making students
autonomous. We should not underestimate the power of emotions and feelings,
since everything is achievable if we adopt the right emotional attitude. If we
work with the students' emotions properly, we will be able to make them learn
whatever thing we want. All of this implies that the role of the teacher has to depart
from the stereotype of someone who is above their students, who gives commands,
and who has the right to pass and fail their students at will. If we want to humanize
teaching, teachers should behave as human beings, that is, as people with emotions
and feelings as well, and make use of these in order to create a positive atmosphere
in the class which favours learning.
A further issue has to do with the very term "learning". What is learning in
second language teaching?. One can learn the causes of the Second World War,
Darwin's ideas about the evolution of the human species, and the complete works of
William Wordswoth, which implies storing a certain amount of information in our
brain. But the usage of this information is fixed, preestablished, there is no creative
component attached to it. "Learning" a second language, however, is quite a
different task, since we are not learning an end, but rather a means to an end, that is,
we are learning how to be understood in another language, and also ways of
expressing our emotions, our feelings, our thought... in a language apart from our
own. This knowledge has to be used and recycled constantly, everything we learn is
necessary and useful. It is not just a matter of increasing our knowledge of the L2,
but of being able to use what we know in an effective way for communicative
purposes. It is not so much a knowledge to be stored, but rather a knowledge to be
used, applied and adapted, unceasingly, to each communicative situation. In this
sense, using the L2 implies a constant challenge to what one knows, since we have
to make use of all these structures, items, rules, in a creative but efficient way in
order to communicate meanings. This challenging component can result in our
students having negative feelings such as insecurity, uncertainty, stress and anxiety,
which are much greater when using the L2 in the oral medium. This anxiety can be
only reduced by fostering the use of strategies aiming at developing not only our
intellectual, but also our emotional capacities. If the cognitive and emotional
attitudes are appropriate, our reactions to whatever stimuli we receive will be also

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appropriate. Learning a second language, therefore, can not be handled as most
other subjects. If we want our students to learn multiword verbs, for instance, a
wrong procedure would be the one I suffered when studying in school: having to
learn everlasting lists of such verbs by heart... Since students are not "studying
machines", we need to stimulate their emotional, affective dimension as well. Of
course, I am not saying that this is an easy task. On the contrary, asking students to
learn lists of verbs is by far the easiest thing a teacher can do when dealing with
multiword verbs. There are multiple, alternative solutions to that. The good point of
approaching that with a holistic attitude is that it allows us and our students to be
more creative, which stimulates our right - brain capacities. Since learning a
second language is so closely related to our whole being (attitudes, thoughts and
emotions), we need to use approaches that allow students, as well as teachers, to
thrive emotionally, as well as cognitively. A good emotional state results in a good
use of our cognitive capacities.
To sum up, I have become conscious of the extent to which an attitudinal change
is necessary. It does not imply starting again, but rather going on considering the
multidimensional quality of the self and of everything that is related to the self,
such as language. Considering both cognitive and emotional dimensions results in a
holistic approach that enriches from experiences of both teachers and students.
This approach involves not only the student, but also the teacher, since both are
engaged in the creative process inside the classroom. It does not imply using new
methods, but using any method with a different, holistic and harmonising
attitude that considers the self as a whole (spiritual, emotional, creative,
intelligent...), rather than as a sum of different isolated parts. Good emotions
make us more receptive to stimuli, and help us make a more efficient use of the
knowledge we have of the L2. The focus of the language teaching class should
not be, therefore, merely on the LANGUAGE itself, but also on the
INDIVIDUAL. The study of the language, thus, provides us with the opportunity
of knowing themselves better and better. And although this seems to be rather an
indirect way of learning a second language, it is much more efficient, since it
involves the student as a whole: working with the students' emotions and
feelings implies that not only the brain is storing information, but also the
WHOLE BODY as a unity is assimilating information in an enjoyable,
pleasant, and therefore stress-free ...manner. Since the whole body is involved,

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learning is much more solid. Of course, that takes time and effort. But I think that
this is the only way of teaching students HOW TO USE THE 2L EFFICIENTLY,
as languages are learned for communicative purposes, and not in order to be able to
solve written exercises in manuals. And the whole body is involved in learning
when our emotions are considered, since we are what we feel, and our emotions
condition our disposition towards things. Fostering activities which encourage
positive feelings in our students will help them to be more self-confident and also
responsible for the very act of learning. Since students are human beings, and not
machines, we need a humanistic approach to language teaching. And by
humanistic I mean an approach that takes individuals as complex emotional as
well as reasoning entities. If the emotional dimension is rejected, human beings
are NOT learning at all. Instead, it is their brain alone that is learning.
.
As a conclusion, I think that language teaching is an area that is still developing,
and in which everything has not been said yet. Rather, this is just the beginning.
From the moment in which we focus on the individual as a holistic being, teaching
needs to draw ideas from many areas which were traditionally considered as distant
and completely detached from it. These areas concern the individual from many
different points of view: psychology, art, theatre, spiritual disciplines like yoga, tai-
chi chuan, qi gong... only then will teaching be a wholly humanistic activity, in
which learning a language is not an end by itself, but rather a way of knowing more
about ourselves and improving as human beings.Now I would like to introduce
some possible applications of some of the topics covered in the course.

2. First Activity: Against Inhibition: Enhancing our Students' Self-

Confidence in their Use of the L2.

The purpose of this exercise is to encourage our students to use the

language without any kind of anxiety or stress, which implies that students are
not to be corrected by the teacher in this exercise. The focus of this exercise is on
fluency (not on accuracy), and also on developing our students' self-esteem and
confidence in their use of the L2. Students need to be relaxed, and for that to

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occur they have to learn that mistakes are necessary for learning to happen.
The key concept underlying this activity, then, is that "making mistakes is implicit
in language learning" (Arnold, J. & H. Douglas Brown, 1999, 9). We usually
know much more than what we think we know; this is partially due, paradoxically,
to this lack of confidence in our own capacities. There are some occasions in
which we realise the extent of what is stored inside us. Because most of the times
we are assimilating things without being aware of that, and thus we cannot use
this knowledge consciously until this "hidden" knowledge springs up and flows
naturally. For this to occur, obviously, our inner state needs to be calmed and
relaxed, since stress and anxiety block our emotional and intellectual
responses to external stimuli, which results in a poor performance that by no
means reflects the extent of what our students really know.
.
The following exercise, then, is aimed at reducing the anxiety and stress of
our students when having to produce in the L2, and also fostering greater self-
confidence on the part of the students, since it does not require any sort of
correction on the part of the teachers. Students are allowed to produce English
freely, letting their minds flow, without blocks and fears. As mentioned above,
the focus of this exercise is not on accuracy, but rather on fluency and also self-
esteem. After all, it is only by making mistakes that students will become
gradually more conscious of the subtle nuances of the language. This exercise
creates a positive emotional state in our students' inner selves, encouraging them,
little by little, not to be afraid of using a second language, and simply to use the
language with no inhibition. I have proved the effects of such a "therapy" on
myself: many times: when I had to write in English, I used to look up in the
dictionary every single word and expression, in order to make sure that I was
using them correctly. This procedure does not create a positive mood, but rather
anxiety, frustration (many times I had to look up the same word several times as it
re-occured in the text, because I had already forgotten its the meaning) and
boredom. I was a slave to accuracy, and also a slave to the dictionary, to such
an extent that I did not dare to write anything without using the dictionary, for fear
of using the wrong words, or the right ones in an incorrect way. I was a slave to
perfection...even though there is not such a thing as perfection in second language
learning!. Quite similarly, when I learned new expressions and words, I used to

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forget them quite easily, since I did not create my own, personal, situations in
which I could use those items.
.
The exercise I propose could be done ten or fifteen minutes before the end of the
class. Once the teacher has explained any given grammatical point, or once the
students have worked on a text, asking the teacher for the meaning of unknown
items...that is, once this period of "reception of input" is over, now students are
asked to produce English, either individually, in writing whatever they want (a
story, a poem, the lyrics of a song...), or in groups, maintaining for instance a
short debate on whatever topic they want. The teacher's task is thus to give
opportunities that allow students to use the language in an active and relaxed
way. Now s/he is not a corrector of mistakes...the only important thing is that
students use the language without the anxiety produced by the possibility of being
corrected by the teacher, of being silenced. This exercise provides students with
the opportunity of using not only the English they know already, but also
PRACTISING what they have just learned.

Let's imagine that the teacher has just explained the difference between "have to"
and "must", or that students have seen for the first time words and expressions
like: doubt, lay, in relation to, at any rate, so much the better, task.... .Although it
is obvious that all this amount of information has not been totally assimilated at
the end of the class (the imput has not become intake yet), students will be given
thus the opportunity of making use of this information which they have just
dealt with in class. The point is that as now students are allowed to practise what
they have just studied without corrections, practising these things from this
different perspective can result in a better comprehension and assimilation of the
topic, since the exercise requires an active participation on the part of students. If
students manage to associate certain grammatical expressions and words with
specific, real situations created by them ad hoc, they will be less likely to misuse
them...unless they stop practising, of course. The good point of this exercise is
that students will also become conscious of what they really know, of things they
just thought they didn't know at all. Due to this positive atmosphere, students are
able to improve their performance extraordinarily. Once I read in an article the
expression "no matter what the intonation". I did not have to look it up, since the

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meaning was clear for me. However, I would have forgotten that expression (just
as I have forgotten hundreds of expressions I have not practised since the first
time I saw them) if I had not got accustomed to using it as much as I can. Being a
slave to the dictionary means that you are not given the opportunities of
checking what you really know. Paradoxically, when you dare to produce
English without a dictionary, relying on what you actually know, you realise all
the things that are stored in your brain, many of them being things you have come
upon once or twice in your life!!. So this is another good point of asking our
students to produce at the end of the class, without the help of the teacher or the
dictionary. This implies that the corrector role of the teacher needs to be left out,
as free production is the focus of THIS specific exercise. Obviously, students will
need corrections, and teachers should help them whenever they can. But in this
exercise it is important that students be given opportunities of practising without
using the teacher or the dictionary whenever they are unable to express any
message. There are multiple ways of expressing meanings in any given language.
This may be frustrating for them, since they will not know if they have made the
right decision; but it is also relaxing in the sense that students are given more
freedom (more choices) in their use of the language. Of course, for this exercise to
be fully useful teachers should promote a good atmosphere in the class, that is,
students should never be made insecure or uncomfortable. Any errors they make
will eventually be corrected at other moments. The point is that, by fostering
such activities in the class, teachers are also developing students' autonomy.
Little by little, as long as students go on improving their English, they will need
less correction, and they will be more and more autonomous in their learning.
Some people many argue about the effectiveness of such exercises. They would
say that activities like this are only useful provided students are already motivated
enough so as to practise their English of their own free will, that is: students will
only use their L2 if the teacher asks them to do specific exercises to be corrected
in class. Once they are given freedom to practise freely, without the teacher's
intervention, they will stop using the L2. Obviously, the exercise proposed above
presupposes a certain degree of motivation on the part of students; otherwise, if
they are not interested in the subject, they will not take advantage of this exercise.
It is, however, very useful for students who feel insecure and stressed when

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having to use their English. In order to motivate students, teachers should make
use of other exercises, like the one I propose next.

3. Second Activity: Motivating Students: Working with Creativity

in the Class.

The purpose of this exercise is to make our students realise how important
English can be for their general development, since, in learning a second
language, our creative side can be a great ally. For our students to be fully
involved in the process of learning, not only their minds, but rather their whole
beings, we have to look for ways of engaging them in this process, using tools that
permit them to be creative and develop as human beings. In other words, this
exercise aims at making our students realise that learning English can be quite a
useful tool in their lives, not only in terms of finding a job in the future (I am
against this kind of motivation in this early stage of their learning of the language,
since it creates unnecessary stress and anxiety in our students, who think they
have to learn if they want to succeed in life, even though this implies having to
compete with their classmates. The time will come when they will realise how
important this kind of preparation is in order to find a good job, so... let them
realise it by themselves!. As teachers, we do not need to refer to distant goals.
Instead, we have to appeal to their emotions, encourage them to develop their
artistic and creative capacities!). English being the most widespread and spoken
language in the world has important implications: it is the language that allows us
to get into contact with people from all over the world, and also to have access
to an endless amount of information and material on whatever topic we may
think of. For instance, as far as I am concerned, I love vampire films.
Unfortunately, the amount of such films being available in Spain is ridiculous.
Most of the masterpieces in this genre, like Terence Fisher's Dracula, featuring
Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (the best Dracula and doctor Van Helsing ever,
respectively), are not to be found in Spanish. Fortunately, due to my knowledge of
the English language, I have managed to get some copies of these films in
English, so that now I can enjoy them at home!. Helping our students learn to

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appreciate films in English is a good way of making them enjoy English. Is there a
greater pleasure than seeing Christopher Lee speaking with his own voice?. Many
times we have to see a film in the original version in order to fully appreciate the
work done by actors. What about HIS particular tone of voice, which is not to be
found exactly the same in anyone else? what about his pitch? what about
significant changes in the voice?. What about the language?. Many jokes of the
Marx Brothers are not as funny when translated into another language: as an
illustrative example, in one of their films Harpo tries to explain to Chico, with the
help of his wonderful use of gestures and noises, that Groucho is going to be
surprised by a mean and evil femme fatale. How does he manage to convey that
message? First, he acts as if he was having a soup; then, he acts as if he was a
Chinese person eating rice. Each time Chico understood the message intended
correctly, he said the word aloud, asking for confirmation: soup + rice, soup + rice
= surprise. This pun, however, is lost in the Spanish translation ("sorpresa").
.
We could also make use of music. Most of the music students like is sung in
English. Therefore, English can be also presented as a useful tool in order to
understand songs, whose lyrics, generally, reflect the speech of ordinary, young
people, just like they are, and therefore has nothing to do with that "academic,
formal, adult" English they have to learn in class. So this is a way of giving them
access to a certain register of English that students will perceive, perhaps, as
closer to them; since students do not speak like adults, not even when using their
mother tongue, practising this kind of exercise with a focus on that English can
create a different appreciation of the L2 which can stimulate them to learn it, or
can, at least, make this language a little more interesting for them, and can thus be
an extremely powerful source of motivation for them to go on learning and
improving their L2. They will understand that English is a useful key which will
give them access to many things which cannot be achieved otherwise. The
strategies involved in this process, thus, concern the students' hobbies, since
teachers will make students work on these, showing them to what extent English
can open up their minds and give them a whole world of information and new
possibilities. .

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I would like to finish with this proposing a good exercise that allows students to
use their creative capacities in the class. In that exercise teacher selects a film in
English that is suitable and appealing enough for them; after seeing the film in the
class, teachers can ask students about their impressions and opinions: things they
did like, things they did not like, things they would have changed if they had been
the director of the film... . Then students can be given the opportunity of altering
some moments in the film, of rewriting that part of the script and showing their
alternative version in class, performing it as if they were actors themselves. If the
topic of the film is interesting enough for all of them, teachers can ask students to
analyse similar films, and compare them with the one they have just seen. If the
film is "Bram Stoker's Dracula", for example, and one student is keen on
vampires, the teacher can ask him to write an essay on the differences and
similarities between that film and others which the student has seen.

This exercise, therefore, offers multiple possibilities for many different

students, who receive input which is also interesting and motivating for them, and
which, besides, is not language-focused: it is not the material for explaining
conditional clauses, nor do they have to learn by heart all the words they find in
the texts they are using. Quite the contrary: STUDENTS THEMSELVES WILL
DECIDE WHICH WORDS IN THE MATERIALS THEY HAVE ARE
INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT FOR THEM, AND WILL ASK THE
TEACHER ABOUT THESE WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS. The more
interesting the input, the more useful. Activities with such a focus let students
work by themselves and decide what deserves explanation: undoubtedly, when
students feel that the materials (video and audio material, lyrics, books...) they are
working on are interesting for them, they will ask the teacher if there is any word
or any syntactic construction they do not understand. And the answer provided by
the teacher will be processed in a different, more useful way by students, who will
be much more likely to remember it... .This is a way of creating students who are
responsible for their learning. The amount of English learned that indirectly will
be stored and used later on by them, even unconsciously. As Rogers says:

"To involve the whole person in learning means to set free and utlise the
right brain. The right hemisphere functions in a quite different way from

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 the left. It is intuitive. It grasps the essence before it understands the
details.It takes in a whole gestalt, the total configuration. It operates in
metaphors. It is aesthetic rather than logical. It makes creative leaps. It
is the way of the artist, of the creative scientist. It is associated with the
feminine qualities of life" (Rogers 1983:20, quoted by Rinvolucri,
1999:199).

4. Third Activity: Speech and Identity in the Classroom.

The purpose of the second exercise just explained is to make students work
and enjoy themselves at the same time, with an indirect focus on the language.
The following exercise, however, is aimed at making students enjoy English, not
due to any external factor, as in the previous exercise, but due to the language
itself. It focuses on spoken accuracy, but without any kind of anxiety. This time
it is the fact of having to speak in English that is intended to be a source of
pleasure or joy for our students. This brings in the question of identity. Since
learning a second language implies, to some extent, acquiring a second
culture, the point is: to what extent are students eager to acquire a second
culture, to assume a somewhat second identity, to wear a mask when speaking
in the L2?. Related to this is the question of prejudices. Students tend to have a
series of stereotyped ideas regarding foreigners. British people, for instance, are
seen by many as distant, cool, pedantic... American people are seen by many as
ignorant people with no culture at all, responsible for non-desirable tendencies
and fashions like fast-food or empty, and patriotic films only get for American
consumption. However, clichés also consider Spanish people unrefined, fun-
loving, noisy, lazy people who are always singing and dancing, and who like
bullfighting. In this sense, I think that teachers should be extremely careful of
stereotypes: BY NO MEANS should teachers ignore such closed attitudes.
Students should be taught to go beyond clichés, which is a necesary step if we
want them not to reject the culture of the English-speaking world. I do not mean
that students should adopt it as their own, nor that they have to reject their own
cultural values. Rather it is a matter of accepting everything the good from

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every culture. In this sense, using masks, that is, assuming different identities
when using the L2, can be useful, since they allow us to see, feel the good things
of the target culture. They allow us, to some extent, to play a different role, and
learn from that role. Once such clichés have disappeared, students will feel less
ridiculous when trying to speak native-like. I remember that in my French class,
no one would pronounce correctly, but not because they did not know how. They
spoke badly because they felt ridiculous when pronouncing correctly, just
because, according to them, French is a feminine language. In order to break
down such prejudices, teachers can react choosing French people that have
nothing to do with that feminine image of theirs. Perhaps if those students knew
that famous karate actor Jean Claude Van Damme speaks French as his mother
tongue, they would be less reluctant to imitate his accent. Quite a different
procedure would be to focus on the music of the language. As far as English is
concerned, the problem lies on the fact that English being a lingua franca, a
language spoken by most people in the world, it is no longer the exclusive
property of British or American people. Everyone uses it, but with subtle
differences in terms of pronunciation, since each speaker is influenced by the
musical nature of his/her own language. Therefore, teachers should take into
account that their students do not need to sound like BBC newsmen in order to be
intelligible, or speak good English. However, by exaggerating the musical
properties of English in class, teachers can help students to be less shy, and thus
encourage them to enjoy while speaking.

A good exercise on this could be as follows: films offer interesting opportunities of

making students practise their pronunciation. Teachers can select a specific
passage; then ask a few students to play the roles of the actors involved in that
passage; and focus not just on the pronunciation of words, but on intonation as
well. Teachers can make students pay attention to the music, the intonation that
carries the words of the actors, and ask them if the meaning would have been the
same if those actors had changed that music. Would have they intended anything
else?. Teachers themselves can change that music, and explain to them the
differences.

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 Thus, little by little, students are receiving input not only in grammatical terms,
but also in terms of pronunciation. But teachers have to reduce the stress and
anxiety produced by having to sound like a native speaker of English. Due to the
status of English as an international language, speaking good English does not
necessarily have to do with sounding like a British person. The approach to
teaching pronunciation should focus on enjoying the act of "singing" a second
language, without anxiety, without obligations to achieve a perfect accent.
Coming back to the question of identity, students can be told how speaking a
second language can serve as a means of playing another person's role, as if they
were adopting another mysterious, secret identity when speaking in English. They
can be given the opportunity of adopting whatever personalitiy they feel
confortable with, when speaking the L2. Since young students are easily
influenced, and dream of being many things (a rock star, a famous actor...)
focusing on the act of speaking and pronouncing correctly can motivate them,
since they can act as someone else they would love to be in the future. They make
the effort to speak like THAT person they would like to be in the future would do.
Working with students' desires, aspirations and masks is a useful way of
making students know themselves better.

5. Concluding Remarks.

Needless to say that, these exercises having their own focus, their effectiveness
will not be the same in all the people in the class. Some students will benefit from
each one more than others, depending on their maturity, degree of involvement in
the process of learning, and emotional, affective state, to name a few. But all of
these three different exercises proposed are not complete by themselves. They need
a further step for them to be fully effective: REFLECTION. Once students have
produced English at the very end of the class, letting their minds flow; once they
have researched on, say, the evolution of vampire films throughout history; once
they have performed any given passage of a film; once they have practised their
pronunciation with songs and films; after all of that, students need to ask to
themselves : what have I learned after doing all of this?. Have I learned new words

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and expressions?. Have I assimilated ways of expressing doubt in English by means
of intonation?. Have I learned the right pronunciation of a new word? Have I
realised how important English can be in my life (not just in terms of finding a job,
but rather because thanks to English now I can understand a little more what my
favourite band sings)... this reflective attitude requires an extra effort on the part of
the teacher: if his/her approach to language teaching is appropriate, s/he does not
need to oblige students to ask to themselves those questions; if the students have
already enjoyed themselves while doing those exercises, they will reflect naturally
on all those points. There is no need for the teacher to introduce those
considerations. Because when you study something that is imposed, this will
probably not be assimilated, but forgotten. But what you learn when doing a
pleasant, satisfying activity...will in a sense remain with you for the rest of your
life.

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 CONTENTS

1. A General Reflection on Some Important Topics. .................pages 1-5

2. First Activity: Against Inhibition: Enhancing Our Students' Self-

Confidence in Their Use of the L2. .......................................pages 5-9

3. Second Activity: Motivating Students: Working with Creativity in

the Class. ......................................................................................pages 9-12

4. Third Activity: Speech and Identity in the Classroom. ...pages 12-14

5. Concluding Remarks. ......................................................…….................page 14

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REFLECTIONS ON SECOND
LANGUAGE TEACHING AND
LEARNING

Luis Fernando Rodríguez Romero

Profª. D. Jose Luis Estefani Tarifa
Seville, 05 / 02 / 05

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