摘要：The term affect refers essentially to the area of emotions, feelings, beliefs, moods and attitudes, which greatly influences our behavior. Oatley and Jenkins (1996:122) maintain that "emotions are not extras. They are the very center of human mental life [...]." A useful starting point for conceptualizing affect in the area of non-native language (L2) learning is Earl Stevick's (1980:4) affirmation that "Success [in language learning] depends less on materials, techniques and linguistic analyses, and more on what goes on inside and between the people in the classroom." What goes on inside people refers to individual factors such as self-esteem, anxiety, inhibition, willingness to take risks, learning styles, self-efficacy, and motivation. What goes on between people, the relational aspects, has to do with classroom transactions, where an attitude of facilitation and a concern with group dynamics are extremely important(Arnold and Brown 1999).
