Questions about Affective Language Learning

During the course that I recently gave, one of the last assignments I proposed the group was for teachers to write ten questions that they still had about affective language learning. My idea there was to spark teachers' curiosity about different aspects of affective language learning and to help them choose future paths of research. I was also very curious about which questions would come up as these would give me important course feedback as well let me understand a little about what was happening inside their minds. 

I was thrilled to read their questions and wanted already to start answering many of them. I am happy to share these interesting questions here with you. I am going to group them and my plan is to have them also as a list of areas that are important for me to address here in the blog. In other words, I am going to learn a lot based on my learners' curiosity. I feel great about it! 

Understanding the concept of affective language learning

Why didn't I hear about affective learning before?

What is the history of affective learning? When and where did it come from? 

Is there any research regarding affective language learning?

Has there been much research in to the effectiveness of affectiveness in the classroom?

How different / similar is it to building a good rapport with students? 

Is affective learning an approach / method? 
When did it start?  Where did it come from? How much is it related to psychology?

What is the relationship, if any, between affective learning and positive discipline?

Shouldn't all teaching be affective by nature? 

Aren't many teachers affective but they just don't know about it?

Is affective learning exactly the same as humanistic learning or are there any differences?

What's the difference between an affective and a humanistic language teacher?

Are there hard 'don'ts' in an affective learning approach? What are they?

Can I say that in the school I work we promote affective learning thru affective teaching skills?

Does affective language learning have any possible relation with positive reinforcement? 

Affective language learning and the curriculum 

Is there an affective language learning framework for lesson planing? 

How do I default to an affective style for planning a lesson for YL whenever possible?

Most course books are still organised around a grammar type syllabus if you produced an affective coursebook series for ESL how would you organise it?

How do I balance the dual and mostly opposite demands of affective learning planning, delivery vs. curriculum completion?

Is affective learning as we know it only applied to teaching a foreign language?

Affective language learning in the classroom

What are the 5 most important activities to implement in a classroom to show affective language learning?
Can affective learning help teachers involve new students joining the course late (after having built an affective kind of atmosphere in class) ?

Can affective learning be particularly helpful with certain skills (like speaking) or it's just a classroom management tool that generally helps set tasks and get the best of them ?
What are the best ways to carry out proper differentiation with slow and fast finishers according to affective learning?

How can affective language learning be applied to stop bullying?What to do to stop name-calling?

How do I make finding/identifying the moments in delivering a lesson when an affective approach would be the best?

What can you do when students get frustrated because they can't perform in the language?

Affective language learning and assessment

Should there always be evaluation in affective learning?

How do I assess learners when using an affective learning approach?
How can we use a Needs Analysis at the beginning of a course to decide what kind of affective learning we need to adopt?

How long does it take to see the result of affective language learning in students?

In compulsory education, would an affective learner fail his/her students or envisage doing without the pass/fail system?

How is affective learning perceived by parents?

How can we turn evaluation into an affective stage of the lesson too? I know that we cannot skip testing, so how do we make it affective too?

How do you counter the argument from the parent who says this is just lovey-dovey crap you need to be teaching my child grammar and how to pass tests!

Affective language learning around the world

How to go about showing affection without being able to speak their mother tongue?

How can affective learning help us get learners of different nationalities engaged in a course more?

Is affective learning included in the curriculum in any country?

Why most private language schools around the world are looking for native speakers (ONLY) and don´t care about affective language learning?

How popular is affective learning and where is practised, by who and in what kinds of environments and institutions? 

Is affective teaching embraced in many countries at a national level and integrated into the curriculum of all schools?

Education systems around the world are shifting towards more tests is this at odds with affective teaching?

Affective language learning and adults

How do I use affective learning with older YLs i.e 11+?

How would an affective teacher best deal with a teenager who rejects English altogether ---as I have found during my practicum?

How different can affective language learning be with adults ?

Is Dogme: Teaching Unplugged written by Thornbury and Meddins a adult version of teaching affectively?

Affective language learning and technology 

Is technology an appropriate tool to use in the affective classroom?

Where do reward systems such as Classdojo sit in an affective classroom?

Teacher development on affective language learning

Were we affective teachers before this course?

Speaking a language perfectly doesn't mean we are going to teach effectively, does it?

How can we feel the difference between an affective teacher from a regular teacher?

What might make some teachers better than others in affective language learning?

How can I motivate my co -workers to be affective teachers? by telling them? By acting like one?

How do you help teachers feel comfortable teaching affectively, in particular using puppets in the classroom? 

How can I create a training session on affective language learning? Which areas/ what kind of content? 

Wow, so many questions! 

How was it reading a post with only questions? 
Was there any that you wanted to start answering straight away? 
Would you like to add any other questions? 
Which ones would you like to answer first here in the blog? 

I would love to hear you! 

Sending you all a huge hug,

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Thank you!