Affective Filter Hypothesis: Definition & Example

The Affective Filter Hypothesis is a theory in second language acquisition that suggests that learners' emotional states, such as anxiety, motivation, and self-confidence, can act as a filter that either facilitates or hinders language learning. According to this hypothesis, when a learner is experiencing high levels of affective factors, their ability to acquire and process language input is limited.

For example, let's consider a student named Sarah who is learning Spanish in a classroom environment. Sarah is generally motivated and confident in her abilities, but during an upcoming oral presentation, she becomes extremely anxious and self-conscious. As a result, her affective filter becomes activated, and she starts to feel overwhelmed. This heightened anxiety may hinder her ability to process and understand the Spanish input provided by her teacher and classmates. Consequently, her language learning progress may slow down, and she may struggle to produce accurate and fluent Spanish during her presentation.

In this example, the affective filter, represented by Sarah's anxiety, acts as a barrier that filters out the language input, impeding her language acquisition process.