The Effects of Movies on the Affective Filter and English Acquisition of Low-Achieving English Learners

Abstract

This paper reports on the effects of movies on the acquisition of English language among students at a tertiary institution in Malaysia. In this study, "out-of-class" activities are leisure activities that students do outside classroom setting and watching movie is one example. The study aims to examine the effects of movies on the students' Affective Filter (i.e. motivation, anxiety, and self-confidence). The Affective Filter is a mental block that prevents language learners from being receptive towards comprehensible language input, thereby disrupting their acquisition process. In order for smoother acquisition to occur, the block needs to be lowered and one of the ways in achieving this is through out-of-class activities. The study also aims to examine the influence of movies on the students' English acquisition process. The participants of this study were low-achieving students. Data were collected through Facebook group discussions, participants' reflective notes and focus group interviews in this qualitative research. The findings of this study reveal that students' Affective Filter level is slightly lowered which allowed them to acquire new language skills namely vocabulary and pronunciation knowledge. From the findings, English teachers should consider utilizing movies as a learning tool. Students should consider searching for opportunities to learn outside classroom.

The Effects of Authentic Video Materials on Foreign Language Listening Skill Development and Foreign Language Listening Anxiety at Different Levels of English Proficiency

“…Furthermore, the number of studies on foreign language listening anxiety is very limited. However, the findings obtained in this study have similarity with the limited scientific sources (Ebrahimi & Bazaee, 2016;Nadrag & Buzarna-Tihenea, 2017;Parisi & Andon, 2016;Sirmandi & Sardareh, 2016) and studies (Kim, 2002;Lynch, 1998;Melanlıoğlu, 2013;Nath, Mohamad & Yamat, 2017;Wang, 2015) in the literature Based on the scientific data revealing the relationship between anxiety and using authentic materials, academic achievement, motivation, participation in activities, learning effort and self-confidence, the findings of using authentic videos in reducing the foreign language listening anxiety can be interpreted as follows: Authentic materials play an effective role in the development of students' listening skills, as a result of this, their academic achievement levels increase, and in parallel with the increase in academic achievement, the students' learning motivations, learning efforts and self-confidence levels increase, too. As a result, this increase leads to a decrease in foreign language listening anxiety.…”

The Effects of Creative Drama on the Learning of Job Interviewing Skills for Vocational College Students in Sabah

“…Similarly, Atas (2014) found that the intervention of drama in learning English does help to lower the speaking anxiety of learners. A recent study conducted by Nath, Maslawati and Hamidah (2017) also corroborated this finding. They studied about movies that are akin to creative drama and they found that movies do reduce learners' specifically the low achievers' affective filter in learning English language.…”

Beyond classroom walls: The role of a co-curricular English club in supporting second language learning

“…This hypothesis is based on the notion that input is filtered according to learners' moods. Affective variables such as motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety play a role in second language acquisition (Kakule, 2016;Krashen, 1982;Nath et al, 2017). These variables shape the success of second language acquisition as Du (2009) and Krashen (1982) have pointed out.…”

“…The idea is to eliminate a stressful atmosphere by using relaxed and fun activities to motivate learners and lower the affective filter (Abukhattala, 2013;Kakule, 2016). Nath et al (2017) have argued that outdoor activities are most effective for doing so. Groupwork and social activities are also important since they lower anxiety and boost confidence (Du, 2009).…”