Practical Strategies for Lowering the Emotional Threshold
Karen A. McCay
8 January 2019
All students experience anxiety; we refer to anxiety, which prevents learning, as the emotional threshold (also called the affective filter). We all experience anxiety when we aren’t sure how to meet teachers’ expectations, so it’s no surprise that CLD students, who have varying levels of linguistic mastery in the target language, experience even higher levels of anxiety and disengagement in the academic setting when their level of confusion becomes too frustrating. Teachers can mitigate CLD students’ frustration and lower the affective filter by concentrating on a few practical strategies, which are easily to implement across the curriculum: guarded vocabulary, cooperative grouping, and building of background knowledge.
We all know that avoiding jargon, regardless of our fields, is a prudent practice in terms of audience engagement, but taking even more care when selecting our descriptions during instruction and ensuring that our vocabulary is as accessible as possible to every person in the room is essential for CLD learners (Sheppard, 2015). Instructors can slow their pacing, emphasize their enunciation, simplify the vocabulary they are using, and insert more pauses to allow processing time for CLD learners when they are using guarded vocabulary strategies; the combination of guarded vocabulary and visual cues with well-selected digital or physical representations can ensure comprehension of the entire group during instruction (Herrera & Murry, 2016, p. 264).
Flexible grouping for all students in a cooperative learning environment also facilitates growth for learners, including CLD students. Placing a less proficient speaker with a stronger speaker in the target language is another strategy for lowering the affective filter to ensure faster growth toward content objectives and even better social communication, allowing for Wong Fillmore’s third condition of growth environments for CLD learners (Vasquez, 2017). Scaffolding a struggling student with a more-abled peer can ensure students work in the Zone of Proximal Growth and achieve the next level of success both they and instructors are striving for (Herrera & Murry, 2016, p. 268).
To continue lowering the affective filter, instructors can build background knowledge for CLD learners by pre-assessing their prior knowledge of content before new units of instruction and by pre-teaching key vocabulary (Wyman, 2017). Using the rich experiences of students lives and their prior knowledge as assets in the classroom makes students feel like valued members of the classroom while it lowers their anxiety about content and linguistic deficits because they have a fair exchange of information in the exchange (Herrera & Murry, 2016, pp. 288-298). The specific pre-assessment strategy is not as important as the need for using one. A KWL chart allows teachers to see what CLD students as well as grade-level learners know about a new unit, and it provides reflection opportunities throughout the unit for students to return and add what they have added during other self-assessment time.
When instructors plan for CLD students’ anxiety using these and other practical strategies, they lower the affective filter and increase the growth of their linguistically diverse learners in both their target language and content skills; and they provide better instruction for their grade-level students at the same time by providing a growth environment, which is beneficial to all learners. These strategies improve the environment of the classroom, but they also improve the learning, and therefore, they increase growth for learners.
Other Affective Filter Pages:
Student Relationship Tools
Classroom Management for Growth
Feedback for a Growth Environment
Creating a Classroom Environment
Return to All Learners Page
Return to Relationship Teaching Home Page
References
Herrera, S. G., & Murry, K. G. (2016). Mastering ESL/EFL methods: Differentiated instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students, 3rd edition. Boston: Pearson.
Sheppard, R. (2015, May 11). Lowering affective filter to teach adults pronunciation. Retrieved July 25, 2017, from http://blog.tesol.org/lowering-affective-filter-to-teach-adults-pronunciation/
Vasquez, V. (2017, March 30). Lowering the affective filter for English language learners facilitates successful language acquisition (Center for the collaborative classroom). Retrieved July 25, 2017, from https://www.collaborativeclassroom.org/blog/lowering-the-affective-filter-for-english-language-learners-facilitates-successful-language-acquisit
Wyman, K. (2017, February 27). To help English learners, you need ways to reduce their affective filter (Concordia university). Retrieved July 25, 2017, from http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/teaching-strategies/affective-filter-english-learners/
More Resources:
A Presentation on Lowering the Affective Filter
An Instructional Video on Lowering the Affective Filter
Karen A. McCay
8 January 2019
All students experience anxiety; we refer to anxiety, which prevents learning, as the emotional threshold (also called the affective filter). We all experience anxiety when we aren’t sure how to meet teachers’ expectations, so it’s no surprise that CLD students, who have varying levels of linguistic mastery in the target language, experience even higher levels of anxiety and disengagement in the academic setting when their level of confusion becomes too frustrating. Teachers can mitigate CLD students’ frustration and lower the affective filter by concentrating on a few practical strategies, which are easily to implement across the curriculum: guarded vocabulary, cooperative grouping, and building of background knowledge.
We all know that avoiding jargon, regardless of our fields, is a prudent practice in terms of audience engagement, but taking even more care when selecting our descriptions during instruction and ensuring that our vocabulary is as accessible as possible to every person in the room is essential for CLD learners (Sheppard, 2015). Instructors can slow their pacing, emphasize their enunciation, simplify the vocabulary they are using, and insert more pauses to allow processing time for CLD learners when they are using guarded vocabulary strategies; the combination of guarded vocabulary and visual cues with well-selected digital or physical representations can ensure comprehension of the entire group during instruction (Herrera & Murry, 2016, p. 264).
Flexible grouping for all students in a cooperative learning environment also facilitates growth for learners, including CLD students. Placing a less proficient speaker with a stronger speaker in the target language is another strategy for lowering the affective filter to ensure faster growth toward content objectives and even better social communication, allowing for Wong Fillmore’s third condition of growth environments for CLD learners (Vasquez, 2017). Scaffolding a struggling student with a more-abled peer can ensure students work in the Zone of Proximal Growth and achieve the next level of success both they and instructors are striving for (Herrera & Murry, 2016, p. 268).
To continue lowering the affective filter, instructors can build background knowledge for CLD learners by pre-assessing their prior knowledge of content before new units of instruction and by pre-teaching key vocabulary (Wyman, 2017). Using the rich experiences of students lives and their prior knowledge as assets in the classroom makes students feel like valued members of the classroom while it lowers their anxiety about content and linguistic deficits because they have a fair exchange of information in the exchange (Herrera & Murry, 2016, pp. 288-298). The specific pre-assessment strategy is not as important as the need for using one. A KWL chart allows teachers to see what CLD students as well as grade-level learners know about a new unit, and it provides reflection opportunities throughout the unit for students to return and add what they have added during other self-assessment time.
When instructors plan for CLD students’ anxiety using these and other practical strategies, they lower the affective filter and increase the growth of their linguistically diverse learners in both their target language and content skills; and they provide better instruction for their grade-level students at the same time by providing a growth environment, which is beneficial to all learners. These strategies improve the environment of the classroom, but they also improve the learning, and therefore, they increase growth for learners.
Other Affective Filter Pages:
Student Relationship Tools
Classroom Management for Growth
Feedback for a Growth Environment
Creating a Classroom Environment
Return to All Learners Page
Return to Relationship Teaching Home Page
References
Herrera, S. G., & Murry, K. G. (2016). Mastering ESL/EFL methods: Differentiated instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students, 3rd edition. Boston: Pearson.
Sheppard, R. (2015, May 11). Lowering affective filter to teach adults pronunciation. Retrieved July 25, 2017, from http://blog.tesol.org/lowering-affective-filter-to-teach-adults-pronunciation/
Vasquez, V. (2017, March 30). Lowering the affective filter for English language learners facilitates successful language acquisition (Center for the collaborative classroom). Retrieved July 25, 2017, from https://www.collaborativeclassroom.org/blog/lowering-the-affective-filter-for-english-language-learners-facilitates-successful-language-acquisit
Wyman, K. (2017, February 27). To help English learners, you need ways to reduce their affective filter (Concordia university). Retrieved July 25, 2017, from http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/teaching-strategies/affective-filter-english-learners/
More Resources:
A Presentation on Lowering the Affective Filter
An Instructional Video on Lowering the Affective Filter