Last May I applied for a MA Applied Linguistics at a London University. Yesterday I got the official offer for a place this autumn.
As part of my application they made me write a so called admissions task and this was the question and my answer:
' Why do you
think learning a language is so difficult?'
The question, why language learning can be so difficult leads to a number of other questions. Who wants to learn a
language? Which language do they want to learn? What methods do they
use to learn it? Why do they want to learn this language? How
difficult is 'so difficult'? Many factors need to be taken into
consideration when trying to find an answer to why language
learning seems to be so difficult. This essay will only be able to
mention a few aspects of this very complex subject. Part one will
look at linguistic challenges, part two at didactic and and
methodological problems and part three at psychological, sociological
and political factors that play an important role in language
acquisition.
While the acquisition of the native language is generally considered relatively easy, the attempt to learn a foreign language later in life seems to be a different matter. However, not all foreign languages are perceived as being equally difficult. For an English speaker Swedish will be relatively easy and Turkish relatively hard. The determining factor regarding linguistic difficulties is the relative distance between the target language and the native language of the learner. Unfamiliar phonetic features, like the French nasal sounds, new morphological concepts like the Russian aspects in verb conjugation or different syntactic structures, like the Turkish in- and suffixes condensing whole sentences into one word, can be quite challenging. Likewise, semantic, pragmatic and cultural implications in the use of words and expressions, like Chinese family relationship titles, can demand a new way of thinking and pose many problems for language learners.
Different methodological and didactic approaches are also a fundamental factor making language learning more or less difficult. In my experience as a teacher and a learner most language course materials do not teach the grammar properly, suffer from a very steep progression, demand high levels of transfer, introduce far too high a volume of vocabulary for any one unit, do not contain enough exercises and do not represent the cultures associated with the languages very well. Financial considerations often lead to large groups and limited teaching time. Modern media like YouTube clips, DVDs, web sites, blogs and games which could compensate for the very limited input both linguistically and culturally could be used a lot more. Also, discussions on the meta level are generally not part of the teaching process, even though knowledge about how languages work in general and in particular, information about how the brain processes new languages and advice about learning techniques could considerably lessen the difficulties most learners of foreign languages experience.
The third group of difficulties arises from a combination of
psychological, sociological and political factors. Language learning
can be more or less difficult, but even languages experienced as
relatively easy still demand quite a lot of work and a number of
other things: accepting new concepts, dealing with delayed
gratification, tolerating frustration and taking in new views of the
world, to name but a few. Only a very strong and sustained motivation
will see a learner through all these difficulties. In the case of
English native speakers, the role of English as the lingua franca of
our modern world seems to reduce the motivation to learn other
languages considerably. The argument that languages open up
fascinating new worlds full of new friends and stories, thoughts and
ideas, is less likely to motivate than economic
necessity. From Bangladesh to Finland, from
Brazil to China, nobody questions
the importance of English, and difficult or
not people simply go ahead and learn it.
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