An Overview of SLA theories with a focus on the Affective Filter Hypothesis

Nina R. Fehrenbach
Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:44:57 PDT

For many years foreign language acquisition has been a focal point of linguistic research. Theories of language learning is composed of essentially five major fields of thought (although there are many more theories, along with subtheories, correlational theories, methods and approaches) and a consensus has yet to be reached as to which one is the most accurate, for whom, in which context, what they are called or even how each one should be defined. This study aims to work with the five major ones, and dive deeper into each of them, with a specific focus on the Affective Filter Hypothesis, in order to apply these ideas in an English as a foreign language educational setting in which I currently work. This study hopes to implement theory in a way that makes second language learning more enjoyable and attainable for students, teachers and researchers.