The specifics of barriers of adult students learning a foreign language inside and outside the language environment

Abstract

The paper contains a comparative analysis of difficulties in learning foreign languages inside and outside the language environment. On the first stage of the study based on the research of literature the author (1) builds a typology of difficulties in foreign language acquisition inside the language environment; (2) describes the specifics of the adult as a subject of education; (3) gives a definition to the term barrier in foreign language acquisition. A barrier in foreign language acquisition is defined as a students individual reflection of objective and subjective difficulties influencing the learning process, accompanied by frustration, a high level of anxiety and a low learning progress. The second stage of the research deals with comparing students problems inside and outside the language environment. The author interviewed foreign language teachers working inside and outside the language environment about their students learning problems and compared the results. Both stages of the current study proved that the level of barriers inside the language environment is high. Moreover, inside the language environment students demonstrated even more psychological, social, psychophysiological and linguistic barriers than outside. Some types of difficulties exist just inside the language environment: social adjustment difficulties and problems of intercultural communication. However, a few difficulties on the contrary prevail outside the language environment: low auditory ability, low motivation to learn the language, mistrust to teacher as a reliable source of information. The author explains the reasons of a high level of barriers inside the language environment with the tendency to intensify the learning process inside the language environment and a high affective filter due to the necessity to adjust to a new culture and learning conditions. The following conclusion was drawn: on the one hand the language environment stimulates students to learn a language faster, on the other hand it triggers the emergence of additional difficulties in the learning process, especially sociocultural and psychological barriers.