Whether we like it or not, most of us endure failure
during our process of learning foreign languages. What does failure mean?
· We give
up the language altogether;
· We remain for years at the beginner level, and take beginner courses again and
again;
· We
somehow manage to become fluent. However, we feel we will never be able to
speak like a native speaker and to work professionally in the language;
· We
reach a high level, but only with extraordinary efforts and at a high cost.
Who is to blame for that? Typically, we
blame persons. Most students blame their teachers: If only I had the right
teacher … Some students blame themselves: I am simply not talented enough for
foreign languages, I am lazy, stupid, etc.
In reality, failure in foreign languages
depends on other, less emotional things we rarely think about:
·
Have
I formulated clear goals about what exactly I want to achieve?
·
Have
I developed a daily routine for language learning?
·
Is
this routine aligned with my goals?
·
Am I
using the right techniques and strategies for language learning? How do I know?
·
Do I
have a mentor, that is, a person that already has reached a similar goal? Most
students listen to what fellow students think about what should be done. Rarely
do they consult somebody who himself reached a native speaker level.
·
Do I
measure my progress with objective indicators?
·
Do I
produce enough content in that language: texts, speech and thoughts?
·
Are
there psychological barriers impeding my progress?
Let us look at the last point. The most
common psychological obstacles are:
·
Black
and white thinking. There are only two stages possible: either I am perfect
speaker, understand everything, or I am a loser that does not understand anything.
There are no developmental stages in-between.
·
Self-handicapping.
I am afraid of failure, which, in turn, could be a sign to others that I am not
intelligent enough. To protect myself from that judgment of others about my
intelligence, I reduce my effort, and complain regularly about the teacher, the
methods and other classmates, so that I have a ready-made explanation for my
eventual failure.
·
Unsuitable
self-concepts. Many of us developed a self-concept that is incompatible with
learning foreign languages well. Other people may have given us the impression
that foreign languages are not our forte, that we look ridiculous speaking in
another language, or that we lack intelligence for that.
·
Our
environment. Consider the following Jim Rohn quote: You are the average of the
five people you spend the most time with. This is a well-documented fact
considering various indicators like opinions, habits or body weight. If you are
making no progress, it may well be that, unconsciously, you are conforming
yourself to an invisible group standard: in our family, peer group no one speaks
foreign languages well.
The GO Method
The GO Method applies quality management and psychological
science to the study of foreign languages. It helps students establish
individual and clear goals, build learning routines, overcome psychological
obstacles, monitor progress and systematize the learning process.
It is the perfect approach for high performer students that
need to speak as closely as possible to a native speaker. From lesson one, it
focuses on building your own sentences bottom-up, and not memorizing phrases
like a parrot.
Gerhard J. Ohrband
Psychologist and polyglot from Hamburg /Germany (*1979).
Married with children. MA in psychology from the University of Hamburg. More
than 15 years of experience as a university lecturer in psychology as well as a
consultant for UNICEF, Terre des Hommes, IOM, the EU and private companies.
Coordinator of the GO Method network, with representatives in more than 90
countries worldwide.
Contact
Send us an e-mail: Gerhard.j.ohrband@gmail.com
Our homepage: http://thegomethod.mozello.com/
Our online courses: https://gerhards-school.thinkific.com/
Our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3n5LCxW8N3uPatViww-Okw/
Our blog: https://thegomethod.blogspot.com/
Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/theGOMethod/
If you want to save time in learning a foreign language
without a teacher, please check out my book “The GO Method” on Amazon.
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