Vol.:(0123456789) Interchange https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-018-9339-0 1 3 Immunology of Language Learners: A Social Psychological Perspective Atena Attaran 1  · Behzad Ghonsooly 1  · Azar Hosseini Fatemi 1  · Hesamoddin Shahriari 1 Received: 15 January 2018 / Accepted: 10 August 2018 © Springer Nature B.V. 2018 Abstract The present study was motivated to introduce a new concept named “language learner immunity”. In doing so, we defned the concept of immunity in the language learning context by paralleling the biological tendency of humans to be immune to the immune system of language learners. The psychological aspects of this study relied heavily on the theory of psychological immunity introduced by Oláh (Anxi- ety, coping and fow: empirical studies in interactional perspective. Trefort Press, Budapest, 2005). Then, we proposed that the language learner immunity (LLI) was shaped by language learners to maintain their equilibrium in face of educational and social psychological forces in their language learning process. The LLI model was later represented and its working procedure was explained through three main pro- cesses, namely threat recognition, response generation, and self-regulation. We also discussed the problems that might arise due to the defciencies in foreign/second language learners’ immune system. We furthered the study by making the diferen- tiation between immune and non-immune language learners. In the end, the educa- tional implications of this concept were presented. Keywords Language learner immunity · Language learning · Educational context · Equilibrium · Immune · Non-immune Introduction Although diferent subjects of study fulfll wide arrays of objectives in schooling, learning a second language (L2) is diferent in many ways from learning other school subjects. Second language acquisition is not limited to mastering discrete elements * Behzad Ghonsooly ghonsooly@um.ac.ir Atena Attaran atena.attaran@mail.um.ac.ir 1 Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran