Useful questions

1- How tolerant are Elementary level EFL learners of ambiguity?

2- Are females and males different in terms of their tolerance of ambiguity?

3- Does tolerance of ambiguity increase as level of English proficiency develops?

4- Is receiving instruction on how to tackle problems helpful to improve tolerance of ambiguity?

5- Is tolerance of ambiguity related to self-perceived success of EFL learners in reading and listening in a foreign language? 
Answers in my next post...

AT and language learning

Many of the ambiguous situations are also common in language learning, be it in the classroom with a group of students (Ely, 1995) or individually when people engage in self-instructed language study (White, 1999). This is simply because both linguistic input and cultural knowledge is very likely to constitute one of the ambiguous situations described above.

How does AT interfere in the learning process?

Learning a foreign language, specially in the beginning,  may be a rather ambiguous process that involves processing unknown linguistic and cultural input, which might eventually cause uncertainty and/or confusion on the part of learners. Success in such a complex and uncertain process may involve a myriad of factors, one of which could be tolerance of ambiguity that learners exhibit during reading and listening.

Why is it important to be aware of student’s level of AT?

§ It is significant to explore this psychological construct since an awareness of how it influences foreign language learners and learning may alter the way teachers plan and execute their lessons, and help learners overcome their psychological barriers.

§ It will also aid teachers on how to deal with AT in relation to such factors as gender, proficiency level, strategy training and self-perceived reading success.

As such, in the simplest sense when students encounter new lexical and grammatical structures, they often face shortage or even a lack of information, multiple meanings, vagueness, and so on (Chapelle and Roberts, 1986; Grace, 1998). Ambiguity in language learning can cause anxiety (Ehrman, 1999; Oxford, 1999), which may create “a degree of apprehension and frustration which may ... [be] deleterious to progress” (White, 1999: 456).

UNDERSTANDING TOLERANCE OF AMBIGUITY OF EFL LEARNERS - Important Definitions

How can we define Ambiguity?

§Early definitions of ambiguity regarded uncertainty in real life. In such definitions, ambiguity was described as caused by the nature of cues available in the context or stimulus given. McLain (1993), for example, defines ambiguity as not having sufficient information about a context.

How many types of ambiguous situations are there?

§According to Budner (1962), ambiguous situations can be of three different types: new situations, complex situations, and contradictory situations. These are, respectively, where there are not sufficient or nonexistent cues, where there are too many cues, and where cues are not easy to distinguish.

What causes Ambiguity?

Norton (1975), further, summarizes causes of ambiguity as:

n multiple meanings

n vagueness

n incompleteness, or fragmentation

n a probability

n lack of structure

n lack of information

n uncertainty

n inconsistencies and contradictions

n unclarity (obscurity).

How can we define Tolerance ?

Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of English Language defined tolerance as a fair and objective attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc. differ from one’ s own;

What is Ambiguity Tolerance (AT)?

Such a definition of tolerance precludes acceptance of ambiguous situations whereas intolerance may entail considering uncertainties and unclear meanings as potential sources of discomfort and threat (Norton, 1975). Tolerance of ambiguity, then, can be a reflection of our personality (Ely, 1989; Ehrman, 1993; 1994). As such, people with tolerance of ambiguity are likelier to feel comfortable under uncertain conditions (Budner, 1962).