4 Personality Factors That Can Hugely Affect Students’ Language Learning in the
Classroom
Are you in trouble of getting your students’ attention in the classroom? Are your students
too quiet and reserved that they seem unwilling to communicate and interact with you and their
classmates in the target language?
At the moment, you might be immersing yourself in deep thoughts, trying to devise better
strategies and techniques that will help maximize student engagement in the language
classroom. However, no matter how well-thought your classroom activities are, if your students
have strong inhibitions that deter them to participate, then you will yield no positive results in the
teaching process.
As teachers, there are a plethora of factors to be considered when teaching another
language to students. Most often, we tend to be only engrossed to developing the facets of their
cognitive domain. Cognitive variations in learning are undeniably pivotal to a students’
foundation of a language. However, one should not also disregard the importance of the
variables that comprise the emotional side of human behavior in the learning process – the
affective domain.
Here is a list of the different affective factors that teachers should help students develop
to optimize engagement and participation in language learning.
1. Self-esteem
2. Motivation
3. Self-efficacy
4. Risk-taking
Self-Esteem
No successful learning can be carried out without some degree of self-confidence. Most
learners often lack the ability to believe in their own capabilities to accomplish a learning task.
The low self-esteem, then, affects the participation of students in the classroom. Findings from a
research study show that teachers have a positively influential effect on the linguistic
performance and emotional well-being of their learners. Hence, it is essential that language
teachers encourage learners to practice self-acceptance and self-love as this will help boost
their esteem towards themselves.
Motivation
One driving force that makes students fired up to learn something is motivation. There is
a need for every learner to fuel that force that will increase their anticipation for learning
activities. Teachers should devise language tasks that will stimulate their minds and satisfy their
need for exploration, stimulation, and activity. Other than these, reinforcements in the form of
rewards and praises are very crucial as well. Students become motivated when they are able to
perceive the value of a reward. As language teachers, it’s best that we provide our learners
positive competition and rewards in a threat-free environment to increase their involvement in
accomplishing tasks.
Self-Efficacy
Do you have students who feel like they aren’t capable of carrying out a given learning
task because it’s too difficult for them to handle? If yes, then, these students have issues related
to their sense of self-efficacy. According to the attribution theory by psychologist Bernard
Weiner, there are four plausible explanations to which humans attribute their success or failure
in achieving a goal: ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck. A learner with high sense of self-
efficacy tend to attribute their failure or success to poor ability and inadequate effort, which are
internal to the learners. On the other hand, those who fall short of one’s goals and attribute their
failure to external circumstances, such as bad luck and task difficulty, have low level of self-
efficacy. It is important, then, that teachers facilitate high levels of self-efficacy in their learners
to slowly eradicate the self-doubt in them.
Risk-taking
One prominent feature of a good language learner is the ability to take risks in the
classroom. A risk-taker has the gut to take the risk of being wrong. If your students are too wary
to create mistakes to the extent that they prefer to stay “silent”, then, that can be big problem.
Most learners are afraid of the aftermath once they commit mistakes in the classroom. They are
anxious of making themselves a subject of ridicule to others. The fear and alienation of not
being able to communicate well in the target language can strengthen the defense walls that
they built for themselves, fostering their strong inhibitions. The best thing teachers should do is
to make learners feel comfortable and assure a climate of acceptance that will encourage
learners to take risks without feeling embarrassed of committing mistakes, as mistakes are part
of learning.
Indeed, teachers play a significant role in creating a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere in the
classroom. When learners feel comfortable and accepted in their environment, they will be able
to overcome their inhibitions, fear, and anxiety. Facilitating high levels of self-esteem and self-
efficacy in them will certainly increase their level of participation and engagement in class. The
challenge there for language teachers is to continue defining the emotional variables that are
crucial to students’ language learning and finding effective ways to strengthen their affective
domain.