What are common challenges faced by adult Spanish learners

Common challenges faced by adult Spanish learners include:

• Pronunciation difficulties, such as mastering vowel and consonant sounds that differ from their native language, stress, and intonation patterns. These issues are often caused by interference from their first language (L1) and perceptual limitations. ^{1, 2}

• Limited vocabulary and problems in grammatical structures, for instance, errors in the use of articles or affixes like prefixes and suffixes due to transfer from their L1 and overgeneralization. ^{3, 4}

• Anxiety and hesitation in speaking, which affects fluency and interaction skills. These can be exacerbated by socio-economic and bilingual barriers. ⁵

• Challenges related to motivation, personal circumstances, and affective factors that impact adult learners’ engagement, especially in vocational or age-diverse educational settings. ^{6, 7}

• Difficulty in oral comprehension and production, often linked to traditional teaching methods focused on translation and grammar rather than communicative competence. ⁸

• Specific social and cognitive barriers such as health, finances, and lack of exposure or learning opportunities, especially for low-income or older adult learners. ^{9, 10}

• Mastery of social language usage like the correct use of formal and informal pronouns (tú and usted) which can be complex due to cultural and contextual factors. ¹¹

These challenges combine linguistic, cognitive, motivational, and socio-economic factors that adult Spanish learners commonly face. Addressing these requires tailored teaching methods that emphasize pronunciation practice, communicative skills, motivation support, and culturally sensitive instruction. ^{4, 5, 6, 8}

References

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