The article concerns an important issue of defining the factors influencing the effectiveness of foreign language teaching, especially as far as foreign language courses of different academic majors are concerned. Based on the overview of literature, as well as the own experience in didactic work, the author draws attention to subjective and objective factors, which determine final results of foreign language acquisition. This work emphasises especially factors connected with the affective side of learners' personality. The author draws attention to the role of appropriate motivation of learners by teachers for involved, active psychical effort. Moreover, this article discusses the issue of building learners' positive attitude towards foreign languages as well as factors influencing this process. The article provides examples of specific didactic procedures, which determine the correct attitude of students towards languages and, in consequence, the final results of the learning process.