2. Theoretical background
2.1. Affective factors
Research concerning the affective factors seems to have been extremely fructuous lately, as shown in the great number of articles on this issue, as it can be seen in the table below, which includes the number of studies on this issue published in the last 10 years (2002 – 2012) in 7 on-line international data bases (Science Direct, ProQuest, Ebsco, Cambridge Journals, Oxford Journals, Wiley, Springer-Link). The key words (motivation, attitude, anxiety) were only looked for in title, abstract and key words and there were identified 1311 papers on motivation, 1490 on attitude and 461on anxiety in relation with the acquisition of a foreign language.