Here you will find 3 limiting beliefs that consistently hold people back and prevent them from making progress whenever learning a language:
Adults are Bad Language Learners
One of the most common reasons that keep people from even getting started with learning a new language is the belief that once we pass a certain age, learning a language becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible. While there may appear to be a general trend of adults not learning languages as well as children, this doesn’t mean that aging impedes our ability to learn a language.
The difficulties that adults face in language learning are far better explained by the fact that they often follow a misguided learning approach, are learning in an unfavorable environment and suffer from a lack of enthusiasm or clarity for why they’re trying to learn a language. In fact, scientific research has proven that adults are actually better learners than children in some areas. A study from the University of Haifa in Israel showed how well learners from different age groups picked up grammar rules. A group of eight-year-olds, twelve-year-olds and adults were all tested, with the adults consistently coming out on top in all of the areas measured. While some argue that children are better at absorbing a language unconsciously, adults can still do this exceptionally well and combine it with a capacity for processing rules that allows them to understand the logic behind a language in a way that is far deeper than children are capable of. If there is one main advantage that children have over adults is that they are unconditioned by the type of limiting beliefs that cripple adults. This makes them less afraid to make mistakes and more likely to enjoy the process of language learning.
There is a Language Learning Gene…And I Don’t Have It
So many people believe that because they may have faced difficulties in the past, they simply don’t have the language-learning gene that allows others to pick up languages so easily. As a result, they end up condemning themselves to a lifetime of monolingualism and either don’t make the effort to start learning a new language or give up within a few weeks of starting after they run into their first real challenge. While some people may be more predisposed to picking up languages (it’s been proven that people who were bilingual as children have a greater capacity for language acquisition) the impact that this has on the learning process is massively overstated. The effort we put into learning any language is far more important than any level of innate ability we may or may not possess from birth. The problem is that if we’re not aware of our own beliefs, we may not even be able to recognize that we have them. We inherit many of our beliefs from our families, schools and the cultural environment we live in. In Europe, it is quite common for people to speak several languages, as it is the norm and not the exception. In this type of environment, there are fewer limiting beliefs around the challenges associated with learning languages. However, if you’re British or American, you’re likely to have grown up in an environment where monolingualism is the norm and you’re constantly being told how difficult it is to learn a second language. This explains the difficulty some people find to learn a language. But as you become aware of it, you can move on and start learning a language.
A Huge Time Investment is Needed to Learn a Language
When most people think of learning a language, they often believe that it will take many years of hard work and countless hours spent studying vocabulary and grammar books to become fluent. It’s easy to see where this perspective comes from but the assumption at its core is fundamentally flawed. Learning a language is not always a huge time investment depending on your goals and how quickly you want to progress. The problem is that when we start off learning a language by framing it as a difficult task that requires a huge time commitment, we’re already setting ourselves up for failure by creating mental resistance. Most successful language learners make the time to learn despite having busy schedules by setting aside a regular time when they can study the language. If they meet a native speaker, they dive into a conversation; if they’re waiting for a bus or train they pull out a phrasebook or run through some flashcards on their smartphone. It’s these little habits that add up in the long run and eventually allow them to hit their goals – not a commitment to study for 4 hours a day.
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