A while ago, I did some research into the challenges that non-native speakers face when they speak or use their foreign language. This blog post explores the finding that makes me feel most sad; when highly competent foreign language speakers are so afraid of speaking that they cannot bring themselves to say anything at all.
When we are afraid of something, it can be very tempting to avoid it but doing this means that we never overcome our fear. Here’s a true example from my own life…….
I learnt to drive when I was seventeen and passed my test first time. For several years, I drove around quite happily (although possibly slightly recklessly!) but I stopped driving once I moved to London and didn't drive again for about twenty years.
I started re-learning how to drive four years ago. I was terrified. My partner and I spent weekends driving round the local industrial estate at 15 miles an hour and it took months before I had the confidence to go out on my own or to drive down a motorway. Over time, however, my confidence grew until I was starting to enjoy the experience and even think about owning a car one day.
Then one day, I was reversing out of my sister’s driveway. My partner was in the car and started giving me instructions. I find my partner’s style of instruction-giving very difficult to process and we ended up having a huge argument that ended in lots of slammed doors and swearing at each other. It wasn’t a pretty sight. This fight dented my confidence so much that I told myself I couldn’t drive and that I wasn’t capable of learning to do so.
For several weeks, my inner dialogue around driving was very negative, and I internally repeated that I wasn’t capable of driving a car and that driving was a very frightening thing. These thoughts created so much fear that I couldn’t bring myself to drive again.
After a while, I realised that these negative, fearful thoughts had actually changed the way I felt about driving. I had gone from being reasonably confident to being very afraid, all because of the way I was thinking! Once I realised this, I knew I had to do something, otherwise I might never be able to drive. I started going out for little drives again and soon enough, I had regained my confidence.
My point here is that to a large degree, our thoughts influence our feelings. In turn, our feelings influence our actions which then affect our outcomes. By telling myself how awful my driving was and how useless I was, I created frightened feelings which stopped me from taking any action. Had I continued with these thoughts, I might not have got back behind the wheel of the car!
How does this connect with speaking English?
If you constantly tell yourself that your speaking is awful, that no-one will understand you and people will laugh at you, you will be creating some unpleasant feelings. And if, like me, you tend to avoid difficult situations rather than face up to them, you may try and avoid speaking English, meaning that you are very unlikely to improve! This then becomes a vicious circle from which it is very hard to escape.
Of course, there are differences between driving a car and speaking a foreign language. While you are highly unlikely to injure someone by using the wrong tense or misusing a preposition, the pressure of a performance situation can cause extreme negative feelings in the speaker, to the point that they do not wish to speak at all.
So, what can you do if you are this speaker and your fear is holding you back? I've attached a PDF to this blog post. On the PDF are a series of questions to help you work through the fear, choose a healthier alternative response and then finally, set three goals to kick-start a change in mindset and behaviour.
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