Tuesday's Tip for Language Learning #20: Affective Dissonance - Labeling and Mislabeling
Excerpt from Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star
Closely
related to disqualifying the positive is the affective dissonance (a type of
cognitive distortion that is more emotion than cognition) of labeling, usually
pejoratively, and mislabeling (most pejorative labels are mislabels).
Sometimes, labeling and mislabeling has been referred to as negative self-talk,
but it is more than self-talk. It is a matter of putting yourself into a
category—and we are all larger than any category.
It
is, of course, human nature to want to label the things around us. We want
categories of things for storing information neatly in our brain. We don’t
really like things that don’t feat neatly into a category. In this case,
though, it is not things you are labeling—and mislabeling. It is yourself, and
that has significant repercussions for learning.
Identifying mislabels
Labeling
and mislabeling refers to having to have a tag to hang onto something. So, if
you look at someone (including yourself) and say that the person you are seeing
will be the next president of your organization, you have some tags: success,
president, XYZ organization. Into each of these three boxes goes that person’s
image.
Boxes
can have great labels: examples of brilliance, compassionate neighbors, and the
like. This, though, is business as usual, health thinking, objective labeling.
What
we are talking about are as an affective dissonance is a label that is negative
and, as such, typically too narrow and nearly always wrong, a mislabel. So,
let’s say you label someone (including yourself) as a doofus, that image of you
or the other person goes into some boxes for storage: dumb, cut-up, failure.
Now,
if you have to keep looking for your own label in one of these boxes, pretty
soon your mind will convince you that you are the things that appear on the
tags for the boxes. Though those negative characteristics very likely do not
describe you accurately, after some time, you will believe they do. Then, they
start to become reality, and your performance suffers. Unfortunately, when you
are down on yourself, it is difficult to move forward or up.
What
does being down on yourself look like? Well, have you ever caught yourself
thinking or saying any of the following?
•
“I am not a good language learner; I don’t know why my teachers
just do not give up on me;”
•
“I just can’t learn all this vocabulary I am seeing in these
authentic articles; I don’t have a good enough memory.”
•
“I can’t handle this cross-culture stuff; I know come across as an
‘Ugly American’[1]
[or whatever your nationality], because, in truth, I am.”
any label = mislabeling
(because we are all larger than one category)
Avoiding the bad labels
So,
how do get out of these boxes in which you have mislabeled yourself? Change the
label! Start telling yourself that you are a good language learner; if you tell
yourself that often enough, you will start believing it, and it will start
coming true. We rise to our beliefs! Once you start changing the labels on your
boxes, you will see the content (you) differently.
Here
are some suggestions:
· Repeat to yourself every
time you sit down to study: I can do this; I am a good language learner.
· When you truly cannot
remember all the new vocabulary you encounter, especially in authentic
readings; think about the methods you are using to internalize the words; if it
does not match your preferred learning style, change how you are doing it—and
when you succeed, change the label: I am a great vocabulary learner.
· Tutor someone else (yes,
even if you are not an A+ student); there are always others in an earlier stage
of learning than you—and watch what labels your mentee gives you!
positive input =
positive labels
Labels are not permanent attachments; if the label is wrong, change it!
[1] For those reading this book who were not around a few decades ago, The Ugly American is the name of a satiric book, written in 1958 by Burdick and reprinted by 2019 by Burdick and Lederer, showing Americans are highly incompetent cross-culturally.
See more posts about/from this book.
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See more Tuesday tips.
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