PSYCHOLOGICAL HINDRANCES IN EFL LEARNING: THE IMPORTANCE OF AFFECT IN CLASSROOM INTERACTION

Specialists in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) and didactics agree that foreign language learning is a complex task and correspondingly foreign language teaching a difficult activity. Yet, it is worth mentioning that the process of learning may inevitably be influenced by a cluster of agents some of which represent actual obstacles to the learning achievement. Foreign language learning (FLL) often represents a challenge for students. This is due to the fact that the learning process, in addition to its occurrence in a foreign environment, is relatively susceptible to different internal and external factors such as personality, psychological and classroom atmosphere hindrances.

It is granted that nowadays’ approaches to foreign language teaching (FLT) focus on enhancing the feeling of autonomy among English as a foreign language (EFL) students. Yet, the dimension of students’ affectivity may urge us to reconsider the notion of autonomy in relation to the role of both the teacher and the learner in the learning process. Students’ affectivity stands for the psychological aspects of the individual learner. These may subsume a bunch of psychological factors such as anxiety, self-esteem, motivation, extroversion/ introversion…etc that condition the learning behaviour.
The aim of the present paper is to shed light on the main psychological impediments that influence the learning process. A research study, then, is conducted with a sample of 74 EFL third year students and 13 teachers at Sidi Bel Abbés University – Algeria. It explores the triangular relationship between learners’ affective dimensions, classroom interaction and teaching strategies. Data is collected from the mentioned sample through classroom observation, questionnaires and audio recorded interviews.