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Oleo de José Tola
From: Donna S
Date: 2/27/99
Time: 8:55:41 AM
Remote Name: 207.172.202.22
I haven't yet finished the article, but as I was reading, I couldn't help but be reminded of my own language learning experience. This article stated that this affective filter blocks learning when the learner is anxious. The article also says that this filter doesn't block learning as much when the learner's motive is to communicate some sort of message and he forgets that he is "learning." I remember experiencing this in my Spanish conversation class. When I first walked in, I was very embarrassed and I was afraid to say one single word. However, after a brief "silent" period (it couldn't be too long - it was a class for a grade), and when discussing something that I had a strong opinion about, the words came out much more easily. My motive was COMMUNICATION, not grammar. Since I was interested, I listened more closely to what the other students were saying and I "picked up" on some native speaker sentence structures without even trying. Unfortunately, since then, I haven't been in a situation where my motivation level to communicate was as high. I guess in writing this, I 'm saying that I think I agree with this theory - at least to some extent. Has anyone else had a similar experience in language learning?