Re: [Callers] "Affective Filters", was: Heys for new dancers - Contra Callers

21 Feb 2012

James wrote:

...
  However, if a dancer asks a specific question such as
"Do
 we pass by right or left shoulders in the middle?" during
 a walk-through, I don't think the caller should refuse
 to answer in the dancer's terms.  This, I believe, would
 create the impression that the caller either didn't actually
 know the answer or was disrespecting the dancer or both,
 thereby raising the dancer's affective filter and making it
 harder, rather than easier, for the caller then to help the
 dancer learn a different way to think about things.

"Affective filter."  That could be useful.  It comes from Krashen's theory
of second language acquisition.  It describes an anxiety-triggered feeling
of incompetence that prevents a student from acquiring new information.  As
in:

"When a caller steps down from the stage when wearing a head mike and
follows a novice dancer while gesturing and giving them verbal instructions
over the PA system it is likely to raise an affective filter that will make
it nearly impossible for the novice dancer to learn the dance."

It's a good term to use in discussions here.

Just a thought,

- Greg McKenzie