| Which Foreign Language? | | | | "The grammar and rules of the foreign language just |
| It's been said on other occasions that a key question | | | | don't make any sense to me" complain a number of |
| people ask when thinking of learning a foreign | | | | foreign language learners. |
| language is "which foreign language should I try to | | | | 4. Pronunciation Difficulties |
| learn?" Reasons for wanting or needing to learn a | | | | "Whenever I try to speak in class everyone laughs at |
| foreign language can be almost as many and as | | | | me because I pronounce my words badly, they say". |
| varied as the number of people themselves. Family, | | | | 5. Bad Foreign Language Teachers |
| ancestry, employment, business, education, travel, | | | | Our foreign language teacher is absolutely horrible. She |
| adventure, romance and other personal concerns all | | | | hardly seems to know the language herself. She really |
| may have their respective roles in the decision to learn | | | | shouldn't be trying to teach us". |
| and continue learning a foreign language. | | | | 6. Not Enough Available Resources |
| With literally thousands of spoken languages in the | | | | "So what do we do with it (a foreign language)? We |
| world besides some of the major ones like English, | | | | don't have any good tapes, videos, songs, movies or |
| Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, Italian, Japanese and | | | | games. For me, it seems like a waste." |
| German, obviously there's no lack of choice. But many | | | | 7. Foreign Travel is Too Expensive |
| learners concede, "I hate trying to learn a foreign | | | | "Hey, I'd love to visit a foreign country where the |
| language". Why? Here are the top seven of the most | | | | language is spoken, but I can't get a visa": "Even if I |
| commonly given reasons. | | | | could get a visa, I'd never be able to afford the airfare |
| The Seven Most Common Given Reasons | | | | and hotels." |
| 1. No way to practice regularly | | | | Lower Affective Filter |
| "I know that learning a foreign language is a valuable | | | | If an English as a foreign language teaching |
| skill, but no one I know speaks it and I have no way to | | | | professional is going to do an effective job, these are |
| practice": | | | | but a few of the many possible difficulties and |
| 2. Long lists of vocabulary to memorize | | | | objections that may have to be overcome. Only then |
| "We get a 50-word plus long vocabulary list each | | | | can the learners' Affective Filter be lowered or |
| week in class, and I just can't keep up with memorizing | | | | compensated enough for both teacher and learner to |
| them". | | | | get the most out of any language learning efforts. |
| 3. Illogical Grammar Rules | | | | |