What To Do When You're Overwhelmed In Language Lessons

What do you feel when you're in a conversation practice and find that you struggle to say a single sentence without interruption?

Have you ever experienced the OVERWHELM of being corrected too much?

If your answer is yes, the I've got some great tips and answers to help you get over that feeling and create effective progress in language learning.

In this podcast episode, you'll hear an insight into how I work in "coaching mode". Language coaching is a process where you can learn from an experienced polyglot or tutor, and focus on how to learn best.

I was contacted by listener Andy who was felt overwhelmed in his Russian lessons. He contacted me with a question about grammar - how to memorize and master all those grammatical changes and words in Russian, so that his tutors can focus on having a real conversation.

But as we dug in more, a few things emerged. We were looking at two completely separate issues:

1. The technical issue of memorising grammar, which isn’t the problem Andy feels strongly about
2. The OVERWHELM of being corrected too much

The Unseen Problem In Language Lessons

Any well-meaning teacher is likely to correct you at times.

This is great on the one hand - you get feedback, information on your errors, and lots of info. But when correction becomes too frequent, it starts to get in the way.

Overcorrection can

• Knock your confidence
• Give you too much to focus on in the moment
• Distract you from understanding the other person
• Stop you from knowing your target language!

What can you do when you feel overcorrected?

Know what you are there for! Is it speaking practice, exam preparation, business language, something else?

As Andy and I dug into more detail about what his aims and techniques are, he :

My goal in learning grammar is to learn enough grammar to express my thoughts, which tend to be complex. (..) Of course, I want to understand what the other person says, too.

This shows that Andy is not aiming for perfection and will be happy enough to express himself. He’s not at a C1 mastery stage, and as such, it’s possible to let things go. What matters is that he’s understood, and as a tutor it’s possible to compensate for this.

4 Steps To Success With Language Tutors

If you feel that heavy corrections are holding you back in your own learning experience, these 4 steps to success will help you get back on track.

1. Be culturally aware. Some teachers have a full-on teacher mode (drill sergeant) and their goal is that you use the language as correctly as possible.
   • Careful not to stereotype.This does not just vary between cultures, but also individuals.
   • With Andy, I believe that this did play a role in his experience. He mentioned being corrected a lot less in fact-to-face meet ups (one indicator), and as a white American guy your tutors from the Far East may have been a lot less willing to correct you than a Russian tutor
2. Be self aware: Maybe you really are trying to do things that are too difficult for you at this point. There’s no shame in that, and it’s a sign that something in your study plan isn’t delivering.
   • When you make a mistake, native speakers will notice. That’s inevitable.
3. Be goal aware: Do you aim for perfection, correct usage, being understood? This matters for the next step.
4. Most importantly: Direct your tutors. Tell them what you’re there for. Make it clear that conversation is what you want, if that is the case. Be confident and clear at the start, as it will pay off. But also do your homework.

Listen to Episode 90 to learn more about how to prepare for language lessons on Skype.

What Tutor Strategy Helps?

As a tutor, it is difficult to resist correcting a student but resisting can be extremely helpful because this tells you what exactly they’re getting wrong.

When a student cannot even say one sentence to you without interruption, their goal is not being achieved. What is going on there? Here's how to find out:

• Stop correcting and start listening
• Start looking out for a pattern
• Model correct usage — try and reply with a demo of the correct usage instead of picking the student up on theirs, with stronger emphasis on what it should be
• Switch to a grammar explanation and drill, plugging the gap of what is missing in your student's toolbox
• If you know they’re in over their head, but they have grammar knowledge and confidence, prompt the use of specific concepts

How Do You Deal With Overwhelm?

What about you? Do you ever feel overwhelmed by corrections in your language lessons?

How do you deal with this problem? Leave me a comment below to share your own experiences.

Has Language Guilt ever Ruined your Day?

Us humans, we’re an unreliable lot. Making big promises, telling our lovers and our languages that we will be forever faithful to them. And then, we find an exciting new script and go skipping away, never reaching the blissful heights of B2 level! Have you ever abandoned a language? In today’s post, I want to give you a quick life and language update and share my abandonment of Russian along with some ideas of how we can deal with Language Guilt.

Quitting without guilt

I’m finding this one very difficult indeed. I started learning Russian over a year ago and have not made a lot of progress. I don’t really mind this all that much - obviously I’ve been a productive person in many other ways. But I genuinely feel quite guilty and embarrassed at the thought of “giving up on Russian”. I feel like I’m sharing this in a space where people are keen to acquire lots of languages. I’m a teacher of languages. My whole thing is designed to keep you going! What a poor showing when your own language coach announces that she’s going to stop learning Russian for a while.

I had the time and I used it

But there may be a different way of looking at this. First of all, let’s examine the classic excuse of “I’ve just got no time in my life for this.” I have thought this a few times, just like everyone has. But realistically, I know that I have spent time language learning. I spent a lot of time and brain energy on bringing my French back up to scratch since last year. Russian seemed like the one I was scared to go back to because it was a real challenge, and right now I just wasn’t ready. But really, I had time. I could have made time. I wasn’t idle, I was just not that into Russian.

Some other things I did?

• Created the Savvy Brand Toolkit, the Language Book Club, and the Live Lesson Strategies Course
• Took two online courses at FutureLearn: “Understanding Language Learning and Teaching” and “Inequalities in Personal Finance”.
• Taught a lot of German to a lot of you lovely people - in fact, I'm building a special online course for you which should be ready next month (sign up to the newsletter for updates)

So I think I can get away with considering myself a person who has not been lazy.

I needed to unblock my Productivity

Do you relate to the following situation? My own productivity is never higher than when I manage to let go of a “should-y” feeling. There is no need to be my own worst critic and spend all my days avoiding something I don’t like, and at the same time feeling guilty about it. So instead, I want to take this opportunity to openly declare that I feel embarrassed that I didn’t learn more Russian.

There. So what? So nothing! I have learnt a lot in the time I did spend with this wonderful language: new words, verb endings, Cyrillic script and what grechka is. Maybe if I feel like I "should be at level A2 by now", the guilt actually becomes a hindrance to learning more Russian?

If we lose our sense of fun and play in language learning, what is left but graft and guilt and bad feelings?

Now it is the time to follow my own enthusiasm and start discovering the basics of a few more languages with a clear and open mind. Isn’t that better? I am taking a moment to appreciate the things that I did learn and I am ready to move on and let the enthusiasm boost me along.

I am Declaring my Intentions

Here I am with my clear and open mind. I have learnt some basics of Russian. I will be back one day and LOVING IT. And in the meantime?

Here’s what’s on my plate for the coming few months:

As you are reading this at the beginning of June, I have just celebrated my wedding and hidden out in Wales for a few days. Now I hope to be able to carve out a little more time to delve into a language that has fascinated me forever: Welsh. I live near the Welsh border and a week in the country is one of the most affordable travel options I probably have. The Welsh language also attracts me because of its historic connections and the wonderful way that it evokes its landscape in its pronunciation. I have not yet got a plan of how I will go about learning this one, and am most likely to treat it as my “passion project”, dipping in and out of learning more.

The second language is one that I’m truly looking forward to, and again one I’m expecting to pursue at a beginner level. I’ll give you a few hints here to see if you can guess which one it is:

• It’s related to English and German in a way that makes it easy to read
• I’ve just started a new Pinterest board for it
• This guy:

Any ideas?

Has Language Guilt ever ruined your day?

I would love to hear from you guys on this topic. Let's drag that language guilt out of the closet, kicking and screaming, and look at it in daylight. Is it okay to move on from a language when you feel ready to do so? Or should we all stop being so precious and commit to working harder?

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments - please let me know where you're at.

New Podcast: Chris Broholm on Challenges, Information Overload and Book Club (and the Owl!)

In Episode 12 of the Creative Language Learning Podcast, I interviewed a fellow podcaster! Chris Broholm is a language learner with a big mission: 10 Languages in 10 Years!

Listen to our interview to find out more about

• Who everybody's favourite owl is!

• How Chris built up his own support community of inspiring language learners through the Actual Fluency Podcast

• Whether there is a best way to approach language learning methods

• What to think about when you set yourself an ambitious goal like Chris Broholm's 10 Languages in 10 Years

• The importance of bewaring information overload

• The language learning method that you absolutely must try out

• And why trying it out is all that we can tell you to do!

“As long as you’re doing something, you’re doing it right.”

— Chris on Language Learning Methods

And most importantly...

We talk about Language Book Club and how much we're looking forward to it!

Article of the Week

Duolingo is Getting More Serious by Kay Alexander on Fair Languages

Tips of the Week

Chris chose Tip 1 as his favourite, because goal setting is still WAY undervalued in learning a new language.

• Tip 1: set your chosen Fluency level (travel fluent, job fluent?)

• Tip 2: Be a historical linguist

  • Word origins and vocab divergence can help with remembering words

  • Look up "etymology"

• Tip 3: Sprint with the Language Challenge

Tips and Links from this Podcast

Support the Creative Language Learning Podcast through Patreon - from just $1!

Actual Fluency Indiegogo Campaign

The italki New Year Challenge: Study 20 Lessons and Win

Actual Fluency Episode 32 with me talking about how to be an independent online teacher

Handbook of Russian Affixes

Russian in 10 Minutes a Day by Kristine Kershul

Thanks for reading this article on Fluent, the Language Learning Blog. If you are feeling stuck right now, why not subscribe to Fluent and check out our language book shop.