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Language learning and motivation
On starting to learn another language the initial difficulties you are likely to face are how to learn vocabulary, how to put a sentence together, and how to understand what is being said to you.
All very frustrating, but you will get there provided you can remain motivated.
Motivation is the hardest part to foreign language learning. The task can be so enormous, so endless, that after the initial period of enthusiasm it is tempting to give up.
Learning a second language, for the majority of people, who don’t live in a foreign country, are unable to study full-time, don’t have bilingual parents, and don’t want to move abroad requires a lot of work over a long time period. Once you have accepted this it is much easier to enjoy and be successful at learning another language.
Accept that it is a time consuming exercise involving interesting and not so interesting areas, and accept that it is not easy to reach a high level of proficiency in a foreign language. Language learning needs to be approached as you would approach any other long task There are some very good language courses and schools to help, but no quick fixes, and as with many things you get out what you put in.
Accepting that language learning is difficult and time consuming, what then is the best way to approach it and remain motivated ?
Essentially you need positive feedback to encourage you to continue. Whatever you do, especially with a long undertaking, it is difficult to remain motivated without positive feedback of some kind. This can come from others or from yourself in the form of hurdles overcome or small successes that make you want to continue. Motivation in relation to language learning will more often need to come from yourself, and so it is helpful to set achievable goals to give you the successes along the way.
The following headings contain ideas designed to help improve motivation by making language learning more manageable.
1. Define the task : What are you trying to achieve? Are you attempting to reach near native proficiency, or do you want to be able to order a meal ? Are you learning a language for pleasure or to help you with your career ?
Write down your aims. Knowing your aims and what you need or want to achieve can be used to help structure your approach to learning.
2. Have realistic expectations
It is important to have realistic expectations.
If your goal is to have a high level of conversational ability in a language, then don’t expect it by the end of next week. Estimates vary as to the time needed to attain this but think 700 hours for a language like Spanish, and much, much more for one like Chinese.
If your goal is to learn some simple words, phrases and expressions then ten hours may be sufficient for your purposes.
3. Decide on your initial approach to learning the language
For example, if you only need to ‘get by’ on a three day trip to Italy then one of many short courses is likely to be sufficient, but if you need or want to achieve a high level then over the longer term a much more structured approach is necessary.
4. Have SMART objectives
SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound. It’s a useful acronym to help you think about objectives and how to achieve them. If you have a smart objective, you know among other things when you have achieved it and whether you have achieved it within the timescale that you had set. Setting you realistic objectives and them achieving them is incredibly motivating. Before deciding to learn twenty new words a week (for example), try and learn ten. Do you have time? Can you remember them the next day? Do you have time to do this every week. It is better to decide to learn ten words and succeed than try to learn twenty for a few weeks, fail due to lack of time and then give up. Remember that language learning is a long term goal.
The small successes will give you positive reinforcement increasing your motivation to carry on learning the language.
On starting to learn another language the initial difficulties you are likely to face are how to learn vocabulary, how to put a sentence together, and how to understand what is being said to you.
All very frustrating, but you will get there provided you can remain motivated.
Motivation is the hardest part to foreign language learning. The task can be so enormous, so endless, that after the initial period of enthusiasm it is tempting to give up.
Learning a second language, for the majority of people, who don’t live in a foreign country, are unable to study full-time, don’t have bilingual parents, and don’t want to move abroad requires a lot of work over a long time period. Once you have accepted this it is much easier to enjoy and be successful at learning another language.
Accept that it is a time consuming exercise involving interesting and not so interesting areas, and accept that it is not easy to reach a high level of proficiency in a foreign language. Language learning needs to be approached as you would approach any other long task There are some very good language courses and schools to help, but no quick fixes, and as with many things you get out what you put in.
Accepting that language learning is difficult and time consuming, what then is the best way to approach it and remain motivated ?
Essentially you need positive feedback to encourage you to continue. Whatever you do, especially with a long undertaking, it is difficult to remain motivated without positive feedback of some kind. This can come from others or from yourself in the form of hurdles overcome or small successes that make you want to continue. Motivation in relation to language learning will more often need to come from yourself, and so it is helpful to set achievable goals to give you the successes along the way.
The following headings contain ideas designed to help improve motivation by making language learning more manageable.
1. Define the task : What are you trying to achieve? Are you attempting to reach near native proficiency, or do you want to be able to order a meal ? Are you learning a language for pleasure or to help you with your career ?
Write down your aims. Knowing your aims and what you need or want to achieve can be used to help structure your approach to learning.
2. Have realistic expectations
It is important to have realistic expectations.
If your goal is to have a high level of conversational ability in a language, then don’t expect it by the end of next week. Estimates vary as to the time needed to attain this but think 700 hours for a language like Spanish, and much, much more for one like Chinese.
If your goal is to learn some simple words, phrases and expressions then ten hours may be sufficient for your purposes.
3. Decide on your initial approach to learning the language
For example, if you only need to ‘get by’ on a three day trip to Italy then one of many short courses is likely to be sufficient, but if you need or want to achieve a high level then over the longer term a much more structured approach is necessary.
4. Have SMART objectives
SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound. It’s a useful acronym to help you think about objectives and how to achieve them. If you have a smart objective, you know among other things when you have achieved it and whether you have achieved it within the timescale that you had set. Setting you realistic objectives and them achieving them is incredibly motivating. Before deciding to learn twenty new words a week (for example), try and learn ten. Do you have time? Can you remember them the next day? Do you have time to do this every week. It is better to decide to learn ten words and succeed than try to learn twenty for a few weeks, fail due to lack of time and then give up. Remember that language learning is a long term goal.
The small successes will give you positive reinforcement increasing your motivation to carry on learning the language.
