# article about learning a foreign language



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Learning a foreign language: five most common mistakes - Telegraph




> Here are the five most common mistakes language learners make – and how to correct them...
> *Not listening enough............*


I'm seriously considering printing this out & handing it out to a few (well one in particular ....) of my students!!


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

xabiachica said:


> Learning a foreign language: five most common mistakes - Telegraph
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Great article!!

Simple and to the point - language learners take this article to heart!

Most are points that I have often touched upon in my posts here about learning Spanish, except the 

_Linguists have found that students with a low tolerance of ambiguity tend to struggle with language learning. _

that I have never been able to put into words, but the moment I read it, I recognized that student, and I'll definitely be giving this to some of my students to read!


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Great article!!
> 
> Simple and to the point - language learners take this article to heart!
> 
> ...


a friend sent it to me this morning - when I read it a lot of it really hit home!

especially the part you quoted - I have actually banned dictionaries from my classes & try to encourage people to work things out from the context - _most _of them are delighted when they can understand written Spanish way beyond what they have studied - just by looking at what they do know & taking a leap of faith!


----------



## webmarcos (Dec 25, 2012)

Good article. The point about listening perhaps is an indication as to why Brits are notoriously poor language learners. Without listening to songs or television (and many Brits take the attitude - I won't listen to foreign songs or watch their telly as ours is good enough) then a major element in learning the language is withdrawn..


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Great article!!
> 
> Simple and to the point - language learners take this article to heart!
> 
> ...


That sentence says in a lot of words what is wrong with teaching, these days - fancy terminolgies and the inability of some people to say what they mean. My suegra (a Texan and a language teacher) goes to great lengths and uses a great number of complex words to say what any normal person would say with one or two simple ones - what the writer is trying to say is that some people have an aptitude for languages, others don't! No need for a load of rubbish about "low tolerance of ambiguity" we aren't talking about homophobes or those who have difficulty accepting trans-gendered people, we are talking about those who have difficulty in relating to language differences - "if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, how can it be a 'pato'?


----------



## Clemmie00 (Jun 10, 2012)

baldilocks said:


> That sentence says in a lot of words what is wrong with teaching, these days - fancy terminolgies and the inability of some people to say what they mean. My suegra (a Texan and a language teacher) goes to great lengths and uses a great number of complex words to say what any normal person would say with one or two simple ones - what the writer is trying to say is that some people have an aptitude for languages, others don't! No need for a load of rubbish about "low tolerance of ambiguity" we aren't talking about homophobes or those who have difficulty accepting trans-gendered people, we are talking about those who have difficulty in relating to language differences - "if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, how can it be a 'pato'?


A 'low tolerance for ambiguity' has nothing to do with language differences or an aptitude for languages. It's used to describe learners who find it very difficult to accept not understanding something 100%. I've never found a better way to describe such people.

Imagine you want to teach the word 'advice'. You can give example sentence after example sentence in English but a student with a low tolerance for ambiguity can't figure it out from the context. Most of the learners will take your examples and figure out that it must mean 'consejo' _or something similar_ and be happy with that, but the learner with a low tolerance for ambiguity will needle you for an exact translation into Spanish and immediately reach for the dictionary. If they don't get the exact A=B translation they were looking for, they will leave your class thinking you're a rubbish teacher and criticising you to their classmates. They expect you to spoonfeed them everything. I don't think it's to do with having an aptitude for languages or not.


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Clemmie00 said:


> A 'low tolerance for ambiguity' has nothing to do with language differences or an aptitude for languages. It's used to describe learners who find it very difficult to accept not understanding something 100%. I've never found a better way to describe such people.
> 
> Imagine you want to teach the word 'advice'. You can give example sentence after example sentence in English but a student with a low tolerance for ambiguity can't figure it out from the context. Most of the learners will take your examples and figure out that it must mean 'consejo' _or something similar_ and be happy with that, but the learner with a low tolerance for ambiguity will needle you for an exact translation into Spanish and immediately reach for the dictionary. If they don't get the exact A=B translation they were looking for, they will leave your class thinking you're a rubbish teacher and criticising you to their classmates. They expect you to spoonfeed them everything. I don't think it's to do with having an aptitude for languages or not.


Maybe you're correct but quite how the expression 'low tolerance for ambiguity' means that, is a real stretch of the imagination and its usage is obviously one of the root causes of students failing to understand - fancy terminology. There is, or was, a mnemonic for encouraging people to understand - KISS, which if you don't know it, means "Keep It Simple, Stupid"


----------



## Minerva.909 (Jul 29, 2012)

According to recent study by researchers from the Swedish University of Lund, there seems to be hope even for those struggling to learn languages: intensive learning. The reasercers measured the changes in the brain of people learning intensively to be interpreters (mostly military) - they on average gain proficiency in only a year. Brains of all people, who study language using the intensive method, enlarge, but brains of those who struggle the most, enlarge the most. The theory is that the brain tries to cope with your inability and grows to enable you. So, if a leisurely pace of languege learning does not give results, try an intensive method, and do not give up when encountering difficulties. ;-) 
P.S. I could post a link, but it is in Swedish.


----------



## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

> Linguists have found that students with a low tolerance of ambiguity tend to struggle with language learning.


Yes, that hit straight home with me. I understand it and it describes me. Nothing difficult or obscure about it at all.


----------



## Clemmie00 (Jun 10, 2012)

baldilocks said:


> Maybe you're correct but quite how the expression 'low tolerance for ambiguity' means that, is a real stretch of the imagination and its usage is obviously one of the root causes of students failing to understand - fancy terminology. There is, or was, a mnemonic for encouraging people to understand - KISS, which if you don't know it, means "Keep It Simple, Stupid"


I don't think it's hard to understand at all, in an TEFL context. I knew exactly what it meant the first time I heard it used at a conference. It's pretty much what it says on the tin, isn't it? Obviously the teachers don't use this phrase in class when talking toonstudents, it's only used in teacher training etc!


----------

