What are some of the cognitive and/or affective blocks you may have experienced in your own attempt at learning a second language? by Ai, Haiyang (aihg)

Kesi

2024-02-08 22:41:01 UTC

I had a hard time understanding verb conjugation in Spanish. I learned to speak Spanish fluently at a you age, but when I went to take it in high school I got a B because I didn't understand all of the rules.

Blocks

2024-02-08 22:41:11 UTC

Some blocks I have experienced in learning a second language is the feeling of embarrassment in pronunciation of words in that second language.

hughe2mh — 2024-02-08 22:41:25 UTC

Something that I struggled with when learning Spanish was staying motivated when feeling like falling behind. This was discouraging to keep learning a language when I couldn’t apply information I was not understanding to the new material being presented.

2024-02-08 22:41:43 UTC

My best friend was the best spanish speaker in the class, brought my confidence down. I also had public speaking anxiety all throughout high school.

stammkr1 — 2024-02-08 22:41:46 UTC

Some blocks that I have witnessed in the past is that when learning French throughout high school, it was mainly to get the credit and move on. I took two years and all we did was learn material and memorize to pass a test and then it was gone. Also I ran into I was not ever using it outside of that class so I had gained truly no new information.

2024-02-08 22:41:49 UTC

When I tried learning French in high, I think my biggest deterrent was speaking in front of the class or speaking for the final oral exam. I didn’t mind any of the written portions, but anytime I had to speak I felt embarrassed (and quite anxious)

2024-02-08 22:42:03 UTC

I had a rough time speaking Spanish rather than reading and writing it. I could say simple sentences, but when we got into past tense and future tense, it became pretty difficult

2024-02-08 22:42:05 UTC

I experienced anxiety when trying to learn a new language. I was nervous about speaking the language in front of a native speaker, with the fear of messing up or not understanding them. I was also a teenager when I tried to learn this language, so age was a block for me.

zagarsm — 2024-02-08 22:42:09 UTC

I took French for two years in high school and the main struggle I experienced was speaking it. In writing, I was doing really well, but I was having trouble pronouncing things and trying to remember what to say at the same time.

arhinehart20 — 2024-02-08 22:42:14 UTC

It seemed that everyone in my class was learning at different paces. Because of this, I felt like I was always trying to catch up with where we were and eventually just became lost.

2024-02-08 22:42:31 UTC

I struggled with the speaking more than the reading, because of the different word sounds and spelling

Blocks

2024-02-08 22:42:58 UTC

I feel one of my biggest blocks was starting I really wanted to know a second language but more and more time passed and motivation died down and so did the effort I put in to know it.

2024-02-08 22:43:10 UTC

In my attempts to learn a second language one of the major affective blocks was speaking it in front of the class and in front of the instructor, who was a native speaker of the language. Feeling as though I had to construct final draft speech out of fear of judgement caused me to feel as great deal of anxiety and frustration. Talking to the instructor in that second language was an insurmountable task and it caused me anger and frustration surrounding the language itself.

2024-02-08 22:43:12 UTC

In my L2 acquisition journey, the cognitive blocks I have experienced is the use of vocabularies in oral and writing expression, the process of articulating my ideas seems difficult to produce without thinking critically.

2024-02-08 22:43:29 UTC

When I was trying to learn spanish, a major block that appeared was the significance of the content I was learning. My motivation quickly decreased because at the time I wasn't going to use the language at all in my everyday life. As we know as educators, if the learning is not connected to your life, then the relevance is not there. Therefore, interest is depleted. It wasn't until I became an employee that I started learning Spanish for convenience. That was where the relevance came into play.

2024-02-08 22:44:07 UTC

When I first began learning Spanish in high school, there was a certain “stereotype” of sorts that was put into our heads: you will either be good at reading/writing Spanish, or you will be good at speaking/hearing Spanish. Many of us got stuck on this, and heavily focused on the area that we excelled more at. Starting with this thought process was already a huge stunt. Beyond that though, the fact that most of my Spanish class evaluated written skills and comprehension, rather than verbal articulation. To this day, I still am able to read Spanish quite decently (that was the area I “excelled” in), but I get lost the minute I actually hear the language.

2024-02-08 22:44:09 UTC

Some mental blocks I experienced when learning German in high school: 1.) My motivation was mainly task completion. I only took the course to satisfy graduation requirements. 2.) Anxiety about pronouncing things incorrectly in front of others and embarrassing myself.

2024-02-08 22:44:21 UTC

I took high school French, and while I excelled with writing, I struggled to speak and listen to French. I struggled connecting my studies with real life contexts. Also, once I graduated high school, I retained just about none of it because the ways in which we were taught were not practical to the ways we might use French outside of an academic setting

2024-02-08 22:44:41 UTC

One of the troubles that I had learning Latin was remembering what the words mean. Some words sound the same in English which was easy. Then there were words that I was not familiar with which made learning difficult.

Hormonal Horror Story - Taylor Cavender

2024-02-08 22:44:42 UTC

When I took French, one of the assignments we had to do was take a video going through our daily schedule. Describing the classes we took at what time of the day, and then what we did when we got home. We had to be with a partner, and it was a nightmare pronouncing French in front of a peer outside of class. I was embarrassed because I knew I wasn’t pronouncing anything correctly and it made me feel like I had something physically wrong with me.

Erin

2024-02-08 22:45:54 UTC

I have always done well with reading, writing and understanding of spoken words in the L2's I was learning, but had a hard time speaking in that language myself. Like I could understand instructions given in that language and quickly understand written words but have a hard time responding in the languages.

Megan Anuci - Confusion

2024-02-08 22:45:59 UTC

I had a lot of trouble holding even very simple conversations in Spanish in high school - I would focus too much on what the other person was saying that I didn't understand how or when to respond. I have also visited other countries and tried to use simple words in the native language to convey what I needed, but I could never process their response.

Experiences with Blocks

hodgesj31 — 2024-02-08 22:46:52 UTC

I felt like there was a lot of busy work involved in my second language acquisition. I never got too involved with the actual studies because I just tried to get the work done and move on and forward. This caused a block when tests, quizzes, and complex assignments came forward because I sped through the busy work with no extra thought. I did not see a purpose and the lack of purpose just blocked my ability to continue. I also got super blocked trying to remember all the endings because they did not relate to endings of my L1.