AMBIGUITY TOLERANCE and intolerance

TOLERANCE : Some people are relatively open-minded in accepting ideologies, events and facts that contradict their own views.

INTOLERANCE : Some people are closed-minded and dogmatic, they tend to reject items that are contradictory or slightly incongruent with their existing system.

Advantages Of Ambiguity Tolerance

A person who is tolerant of ambiguity is free to entertain a number of innovative and creative possibilities.

In second language learning a great amount of apparently contradictory information is encountered.

Successful language learning necessitates tolerance of such ambiguities, at least for interim periods or stages, during which time ambiguous items are given a chance to become resolved.

Disadvantages Of Ambiguity Tolerance• Too much tolerance of ambiguity can have a damaging effect.

• People can become “wishy-washy,” accepting virtually every proposition before them, not efficiently subsuming necessary facts into their cognitive organizational structure.

• Such excess tolerance has the effects of hampering or preventing meaningful subsumption of ideas.

Advantages Of Ambiguity Intolerance

A certain intolerance at an optimal level enables one to close off avenues of hopeless possibilities, to reject entirely contradictory material, and to deal with the reality of the system that one has built.

Disadvantages Of Ambiguity Intolerance

• If ambiguity is perceived as a threat, the result is a rigid, dogmatic, brittle mind that is too narrow to be creative. This may be particularly harmful in second language learning.

• A few research findings are available on ambiguity intolerance in second language learning.

• Naiman et al. (1978) found that ambiguity tolerance was one of two significant factors in predicting the success of their high school learners of French in Toronto.

• Chapelle and Roberts (1986) measured tolerance of ambiguity in learners o English as a second language in Illinois. They found that learners with high tolerance for ambiguity were slightly more successful in certain language tasks.

• In conclusion, these findings suggest that ambiguity tolerance may be an important factor in second language learning.

LEARNING STYLE:REFLECTIVITY AND IMPULSIVITY

DIMENSION:SYSTEMATIC STYLE

WEIGH ALL THE CONSIDERATIONS IN A PROBLEM .WORK OUT ALL THE LOOPHOLES.

VENTURE A SOLUTION.

THE IMPLICATION FOR LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

KAGAN(1965)

• IMPULSIVE: FASTER READER, MASTER THE “PSYCHOLINGUISTIC GUESSING GAME’.

GOODMAN(1970)

• MASTER THE “PSYCHOLINGUISTIC GUESSING GAME’ OF READING• THEIR IMPULSIVE STYLE OF READING NOT NECESSARILY DETER

COMPREHENSION.

KAGAN,PEARSON&WELCH(1966)

• REFLECTIVE PERSON COULD BENEFIT MORE FROM INDUCTIVE LEARNING SITUATIONS.

STUDIES THAT RELATED TO SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING

(ADULT LEARNERS)

DORON(1973)REFLECTIVE STUDENTS-SLOWER

BUT MORE ACCURATE THAN IMPULSIVE IN READING.

ABRAHAM(1981)REFLECTION WAS WEAKLY

RELATED TO PERFORMANCE ON A PROOF READING TASK.

JAMIESON(1992)‘FAST ACCURATE’ LEARNERS(THE STANDARDIZED TEST OF ENGLISH

AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE.IMPULSITIVITY ALWAYS IMPLIES

ACCURACY.

CLASSROOM SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING(R/I IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION)

RESPONSES/ANSWER

• REFLECTIVE: MORE TIME FOR THE STUDENTS TO STRUGGLE WITH RESPONSES.

• IMPULSIVE: BE MORE WILLING TO GAMBLE AT AN ANSWER.

SEMIGRAMMATICAL STAGE OF SLA.

• REFLECTIVE : TEND TO REMAIN LONGER AT PARTICULAR STAGE WITH ‘LARGER’ LEAPS.

• IMPULSIVE : MAY GO THROUGH A NUMBER OF RAPID TRANSITION.

Visual and Auditory styles

Visual learners tend to prefer reading and studying chart, drawing and other graphic information

AUDITORY

Auditory learners prefer listening to lectures and audiotapes

VISUAL

JOY REID’S RESEARCHED

Korean students more visually oriented than native English-speaking Americans. Japanese students were the least auditory students, significantly less auditory inclined than Chinese and Arabic students.

Some of the preferences of her subject were a factor of gender, length or the time in US, academic field of study and level of education.