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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