When adults decide to improve their English, we often talk about motivation, goals and learning methods as though these existed independently of the person doing the learning.
I don’t think they do.
You have an ego. Not necessarily in the sense of being arrogant or self-important. You have a sense of who you are. You know—or think you know—what you are good at, what you dislike, how you want other people to see you, what you are comfortable doing, and what you would rather not be seen struggling with.
Whether your self-image is completely accurate is almost beside the point. It exists. And it comes with you when you learn English.
This matters more than it might seem. Imagine a highly experienced professional who is perfectly comfortable giving a presentation about their area of expertise in their first language. Now put them in an English-speaking environment where they suddenly have to search for simple words, misunderstand something obvious, or sound much less articulate than they normally do.
The language problem is real. But so is what happens to the person’s self-image. They are no longer experiencing themselves in quite the same way. And that can affect what they are willing to do.
- How much are they willing to speak?
- Are they willing to make mistakes publicly?
- Will they tolerate sounding like a beginner?
- Will they practise something that feels embarrassingly simple?
- Will they continue when progress is slower than they expected?
These aren’t purely linguistic questions. They are questions about the person learning the language. This is one reason I am sceptical of language-learning advice that treats motivation as something a method can simply create.
Your reasons for learning English are connected to your life. Your ambitions, your professional identity, your relationships, your self-image, your expectations of yourself. And these things influence what you want from the language, and what you are actually prepared to do to get there.
This is something I have become increasingly aware of after more than 20 years of running English language training for adults and professionals.
I don’t think the adult learner should be treated as a blank slate waiting for the right method. The learner is already somebody.
The question is not how to get that person out of the way. It is how to build the learning around the person who is actually there.
Do you need help communicating clearly in English?
I help senior professionals who want to communicate with greater clarity and confidence in English.