Abstract This article examines the affective dimension in second language programme evaluation from the perspective of the socio‐educational model of second language acquisition. While the model has developed from research on individual differences in second language achievement, it could easily be expanded to consider the explicit role played by different types of formal instructional, and possibly by informal, contexts. This would require identifying sub‐categories of the formal context, in terms of the type of programme, the nature of the curriculum, or characteristics of the teacher, and then studying whether they lead to different levels of linguistic and non‐linguistic outcomes. Major factors relevant to the planning of programme interventions as well as to the design of studies to evaluate them include the sociocultural milieu, cognitive and affective individual difference variables, language acquisition contexts and language training outcomes. Particular attention is focused here on the major affe...