Written by: Sarah Henderson-Sharon, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Although Second Language Anxiety is a complex phenomenon that affects people differently, there are three ways that it manifests that are particularly common. In this article, I will share information about each of them and offer six solutions to help you overcome them. I also use some terminology that is specific to foreign language learning so please see the Terminology guide at the bottom for clarity!
1. Setting unrealistic goals
While big goals keep us motivated and focused, many of my clients set goals that are unrealistic and which end up causing frustration and disappointment. Let’s clarify the difference between a big goal and an unrealistic one: Imagine an Intermediate English student whose goal is to reach Proficiency and pass the Proficiency exam in the next five years. This is a big goal that will challenge and stretch the learner, but it is possible if they approach their learning in the right way. Now imagine the same learner whose goal is to reach Proficiency in the next five months and to pass the Proficiency exam five months after that. This is an unrealistic goal. But why? One of the biggest problems I see is that learners do not have a realistic understanding of how much time and effort is required to go from Intermediate to Proficiency. Because of this, they encounter repeated failures as they are unable to reach their goal as quickly as they had predicted.
Another common problem is that learners don’t account for the obstacles, delays, and setbacks, which inevitably happen when we are on our way to a big goal.
Solutions
1. Be honest about how much time you have to learn Vs how much time is needed to achieve your goal. I have calculated that it takes approximately 480 hours of study to move from one language level to another.
How many weeks/months/years will it take for you to do 480 hours??
2. Use pathway thinking to deal with obstacles. This means having the ability to look for different routes to the same destination and is an important part of dealing with challenges. It provides resilience against the ‘give up’ mentality that can arise when we encounter problems.
2. Negative self-talk
Self-talk is the way that we talk with ourselves inside our minds. While it could be argued that negative self-talk is a cause rather than a symptom of Second Language Anxiety, the two are deeply connected and learners who suffer from severe Second Language Anxiety often express extremely negative views and beliefs about themselves and their language:
I’m stupid
I’m ashamed of my English
I hate my accent
It always saddens me to hear my clients using such hurtful language about themselves because it is so toxic and damaging. It also makes it much harder for anxious learners to get the results they want.
Solutions
1. Because self-talk usually happens without us being aware of it, the first thing to do is to start to notice when you are being negative and what is causing the negativity! You can do this by keeping a diary of things that trigger a negative response, the language you use, and by then choosing a more positive response to the same trigger: Trigger hearing Maria in the meeting
Negative Response
her English is perfect!
I’ll never be as good as her!
Ideal Response
Maria lived in Canada for 3 years,
of course, her English is amazing! My English is still good enough to give a great presentation!
By doing this, you become more in tune with what is happening beneath the surface. Adding an ideal response to the same trigger makes you better able to avoid negativity in the future.
2. Language learners are often very bad at identifying positives in their language production. Even my Proficiency students feel that their speaking is “terrible”! Identify at least one positive thing in your language production and praise yourself for it before you look for weaker aspects as this can reframe your internal dialogue.
3. Having a Mistake Mindset
Learners with a Mistake Mindset obsess over their mistakes, believing that they are more important than any other part of speaking a foreign language. I have worked with clients who ask me “how many mistakes did I make?” as soon as they finish a task! It is unlikely that you will ever be completely free from mistakes. I, as a native speaker, make mistakes when I am speaking. They might be small slips, but they are still there. So having an expectation of one day reaching perfection is unrealistic (remember those unrealistic goals we talked about at the start?!) and causes a great deal of frustration. When your objective is to speak with no mistakes, you cause a drop in fluency level. This is because you are slowing down your thinking by monitoring your language and maintaining as much control over your accuracy as you can. This has a detrimental effect on your fluency and also, interestingly, on your accuracy too we are actually more accurate when we focus on our fluency!
Solution
1. Separate accuracy and fluency work. Fluency and accuracy are different skills and need different practice techniques. It is important to work on your accuracy, but this needs to be done in a particular way and is part of the preparation and learning process. When you are in a conversation, focus on your fluency and forget about your accuracy.
2. When you are ‘performing’ in English whether that’s for an exam, an interview or simply asking for a coffee, focus entirely on your message and expressing your thoughts, feelings, and ideas. These are far more important than your grammar and vocabulary, even in an exam situation!
Conclusion
Each of the three issues outlined in this article is enough to cause anxiety among language learners and when all three are combined, the anxiety can be paralyzing. By taking the time to assess what is happening and taking appropriate steps to change things, learners can reassess their goals, self-talk, and mindset thereby becoming happier, more confident, and more efficient language learners. For more ideas about this achieving your language learning goals, subscribe to my free course on speaking and mindset: https://thinkpositiveenglish.aweb.page/p/56f0a8a6-cf55-4c34-88d4-f55f5b61f771
Terminology
Intermediate – a learner at the intermediate level can have conversations and discussions about everyday topics
Proficiency – a learner at proficiency has reached the highest level and can have conversations and discussions about highly complex and abstract topics
language learner – For simplicity, I use this phrase to talk about anyone who is speaking or using a foreign language for pleasure, academia, or business, irrespective of their level.
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Sarah Henderson-Sharon, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Sarah Henderson-Sharon is an expert in helping non-native English speakers overcome Second Language Anxiety: the fear, shame, and anxiety they experience when speaking English. A teacher with 17 years of experience, Sarah became aware of the damaging impact of Second Language Anxiety four years ago. Since then, Sarah has dedicated herself to helping her clients understand and move beyond their fears so that they can use English with confidence. She is the founder of Think Positive English where she offers 1-2-1 programs and a community speaking club empowering members to improve their spoken English.
