Tuesday's Tip for Language Learning #13: Brainscape - Tolerance of Ambiguity
Excerpt from Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star
Brainscape: Tolerance of Ambiguity
Tolerance of Ambiguity
Do
you feel lost if you cannot understand 100% of everything going on around you
in your classroom, including every single word you hear? Do you need to know
every work in a reading text, broadcast, or movie before you can understand
what you are reading or listening to? If you answered yes to these questions, then
you have a low tolerance of ambiguity.
We
meet ambiguity in many places in life. Anywhere we find things less than
black-and-white, we meet ambiguity. Gray areas intrigue some people; they have
high tolerance of ambiguity. Gray areas trouble other people; they have low
tolerance of ambiguity. For some people, ambiguity is even perceived as an
existential threat (Budner, 1962).
Unfortunately
for language learners, languages are high in ambiguity, especially if you are
looking for direct correspondences with your own language and culture. There is
no way around it: if you want to become a good language learner, you will need
to work on developing a level of comfort in dealing with ambiguity.
Defining tolerance of ambiguity
Ambiguity
occurs when you are not sure what you have heard or read. It could mean one
thing; it could mean another; or, you cannot get enough of the thought to
understand anything at all.
It
is important to realize that language (not just foreign language), by its very
nature, is ambiguous. People are different one from another; their thoughts
differ; and the way in which people express their thoughts differ. So, there is
always room for misunderstanding—even in your native language. In a foreign
language classroom, the problem is compounded; a great amount of contradictory
information is encountered in learning a foreign language, but it must be
managed to be a successful learner (Brown, 2007).
If
you feel uncomfortable in any of the following situations, chances are you have
a low tolerance of ambiguity and will need to work to improve if you want to
succeed in your language class:
· Words have multiple
meanings; context decides, as in mumkin in Arabic which can mean perhaps,
maybe, yes, or no (welcome to the Arabic highly contextualized way
of speaking!);
· You feel lost entering a
subway system in the country of the language you are studying; it does not look
at all like the subway system at home; and/or
· You are pulled into a
game with native speakers and have no idea how to play it; it is not like
anything you have played before.
never done, never seen,
queasy stomach, shaky hands = low tolerance of ambiguity
never done, never seen,
sheer excitement = high tolerance of ambiguity
Tolerating (managing) ambiguity
Most
of the ambiguity you will probably encounter in the classroom relates to
reading texts that seem unclear or not understanding some cultural differences
you see in a film. However, if you are participating in a study abroad
experience, changes are you will meet ambiguity many times a day. The more the
culture differs from yours, the higher the amount of ambiguity. I have lived
and worked in 24 countries, and even though I had learned my way around Europe,
Latin America, and the Soviet Union, I still was not completely prepared for
Asia or the Middle East—or, for that matter, Russia once the USSR fell.
In
addition to acquiring good cognitive language learning strategies for when you
encounter ambiguity in reading or listening (see Oxford, 2017), here are some
ways to improve your tolerance of ambiguity:
· Accept ambiguity as part
of communication in any language, realizing that expecting to understand
everything in another language is unrealistic (even in your own language, you
do not always understand everything);
· Look for what you can
understand and ignore what you cannot;
· Use means other than
language to figure out what you do not understand: context, body language—and,
when you cannot express yourself with adequate language, point, gesture, body
language, and other non-linguistic cues; and/or
·
Let your brain, which is an extraordinary organ, do the work of
unconsciously putting meaning to the stream of words coming at you; though you
may not be fully aware of it, your brain is processing incoming information,
categorizing it, and organizing it.
acceptance of
ambiguity = control over ambiguity
Don’t panic in ambiguous environments, find and focus on the
familiar while accepting the unfamiliar!
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