The paper titled "The Relationship between Learners’ Affective Variables and Second Language Achievement" by Fakieh Alrabai and Christo Moskovsky examines the influence of five affective variables—motivation, attitudes, anxiety, self-esteem, and autonomy—on second language (L2) achievement. The study is primarily focused on understanding how these variables, both collectively and individually, affect the performance of Saudi university students learning English as a foreign language.
The purpose of the study is to establish the relative importance of these affective factors in determining L2 achievement, with a specific aim to identify which of these variables plays the most significant role. The study was conducted in Saudi Arabia, involving male students from three major universities. Data were collected through questionnaires and language proficiency tests administered at two different times—once at the beginning of the semester and again at the end.
The research methodology involved descriptive and inferential statistical analyses of the collected data, with a particular focus on multiple regression analyses to determine the predictive power of each affective variable on L2 achievement. The study found that motivation emerged as the strongest predictor of L2 achievement, accounting for between 60% and 67% of the variance in learner performance. The other four variables—attitudes, anxiety, autonomy, and self-esteem—also contributed to L2 achievement but to a much lesser extent, with anxiety showing the weakest correlation.
The study concludes that motivation plays a critical role in L2 acquisition, significantly outweighing the influence of the other affective variables. The findings suggest that educators should focus more on enhancing students' motivation to improve language learning outcomes. Additionally, the study underscores the complex interplay of affective factors in L2 learning, noting that these variables are closely interrelated and collectively form a substantial part of the learner’s self-concept. The implications of this study are particularly relevant for language teachers who are in a strong position to positively influence these affective factors through targeted teaching strategies.