Have you ever felt a block when speaking, like Michelle:
“I would say at the moment my biggest problem is speaking and listening but primarily speaking. I have amazing conversations in my head but as soon as I open my mouth its like my brain switches off and I go mute“
Many students experience this frustration, often because they worry about not being understood or making mistakes.
This anxiety can create a significant barrier to speaking.
According to linguist Dr. Jeff McQuillan, the so-called inner “affective filter” plays a huge part in this.
As he puts it:
“Trying to be perfect, worring about other people’s judgement, being anxious about making mistakes, all of these are things that will raise your “output filter” and prevent the langauge that you actually have in your brain from getting out of your mouth“
Dr. Jeff McQuillan is a linguist and educator who co-founded the popular English as a Second Language (ESL) Podcast.
In the following video, he discusses why it takes so long to improve your German and why you might struggle to speak it better.
Note: While Dr. McQuillan uses English as a second language as the example in the video, you can easily replace it with German as a second language in your case.
You’ll learn:
- How significant psychological factors, like your positive or negative beliefs, influence your learning
- How the “affective filter” can prevent you from acquiring the language
- Why you should not read or listen to things that are too difficult for you(hint: don’t watch German television until you’re really advanced)
- Why trying to remember every word is a bad idea and leads to more anxiety
- Why monitoring what you say and being worried about making mistakes makes things worse
- Why you’re usually harder on yourself than other people are on you
- How alcohol lowers the affective filter and what you can learn from it
- Why you should listen to or read something you mostly understand, enjoy, and that relaxes you
- Why you should accept that language learning is a slow process and takes time
Click here to watch the video.
—–
Whenever you’re ready, here are 5 ways I can help you take your German to the next level.
Talk to you soon. Bis bald.
Gruß
Manuel