Enduring ambiguity and its relationship to learning vocabulary for students of English language departments at the University of Jeddah

Abstract
Learning a new language has been an ambiguous task for students because there are many ambiguous situations that may dominate the language learning process. "Ambiguity tolerance" is an important learning module, which could usually either facilitate or hamper language learning. The aim of this study is to understand whether learners of English as a foreign language can tolerate ambiguities in foreign language learning. It also explores how ambiguity tolerance may affect students' knowledge of the language. This study tries moreover to investigate the differences between males and females in their ambiguity tolerance of learning English and discover whether this ambiguity is associated with the self-perceived success of learners of English as a foreign language in learning the vocabulary of that language. The sample included 82 male and female students who are studying at the department of English at the University of Jeddah. The applied Tools included a second language ambiguity meter and an English vocabulary level test. The results showed that learners of ESL are at a moderate level for ambiguity tolerance when learning a foreign language and that gender had little effect on ambiguity. It was also shown that there was no strong correlation between ambiguity tolerance and vocabulary, while a statistically significant relationship between tolerance and self-achievement in learning foreign vocabulary did exist. In the light of these results, some practical recommendations have been recorded.