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Learning a foreign language might seem like a daunting task to someone who has never tried it, especially an adult. Compared to when we are children, we are much more aware of how other’s perceive us as we enter our teenage and adult years. I want to primarily work with adults who choose to learn English as a second language. I know that many adult language learners might feel intimidated or anxious when learning a second language and I want to help lessen or eliminate these feelings. From my personal experience, the most intimidating situations in the classroom were those that involved speaking in front of the class. Over the years, I have taken many language courses but the classroom environments that I felt the most comfortable in were those that had established relationships between students and the instructor. The first lesson should be focused on learning about the students and helping them learn about each other. Establishing relationships with fellow peers and the instructor will indefinitely help to lessen feelings of judgment and anxiety. Many of my peers have voiced that they were afraid of being wrong in front of the class which was another main reason they would become so uncomfortable during speech exercises. To help lessen this anxiety, I would ensure that from the first day of class that my students know it is perfectly okay to make a mistake and it is actually part of the learning process. If I can see that a student struggles with anxiety or seems uncomfortable in my classroom then I would privately ask the student if there is anything I could do to help make them feel more comfortable. Every person is very different and therefore must be treated as such. Another stressful situation might be if a student is called on during class to answer a question and they do not know the answer. If the student seems to be struggling I would not let the silence last more than a few seconds before either giving a hint or trying to elicit the answer through another, easier question. Whether the answer was right or wrong, I would always provide some type of encouragement for even trying. Giving constant encouragement and praise is also essential to boosting student’s confidence in the classroom which would decrease the number of stressful situations. I do know that these uncomfortable situations are inevitable but my main focus will be to help the students know that their feelings of anxiety and stress are completely normal. First impressions are extremely important so my first objective will be to establish a sense of community and acceptance in the first lesson. These situations are completely normal and can be dealt with very easily. Developing an open and comforting environment for the students to express any concern or trouble they may have with learning a new language is essential in decreasing the amount of stress in the classroom. My main goal will be to deal with stressful situations in a positive and quick manner so no student feels embarrassed or inadequate and will realize that stress and anxiety are completely normal but are not correlated with their actual language learning ability because they are probably much better and much more capable than they think.
