The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages divides the linguistic skills acquired by language learners into six levels: A1 (beginner), A2 (elementary), B1 (intermediate), B2 (upper-intermediate), C1 (advanced) and C2 (proficient). Out of these six levels, A1 and A2 are reached relatively easily as so many language courses on the market are geared towards those who are just starting out; after all, that's where you find the biggest market segment. Even getting up to B1 or B2 shouldn't be too difficult if you go at it in a regular and methodical manner. However, once you've reached these intermediate levels - where you're able to handle the familiar everyday situations fairly well but find yourself on less firm ground when it comes to more serious matters - it may look like you've reached a plateau. You may not seem to be making much progress any more.
One major reason why you don't necessarily notice any more progress has
to do with the nature of the language learning curve. The most common 3000
words of the English language are said to cover about 95% of common usage.
While you're learning them in the initial stages, you're able to perceive rapid
advancement. By contrast, the average active vocabulary of an adult native
speaker is around 20,000 words while their passive vocabulary may be around
40,000. As all these extra words cover only about 5% of general usage, it's no
wonder that you hardly notice any betterment, due to the diminishing returns,
while you're learning them at the higher levels. What's more, advanced language
studies involve picking up lots of new collocations (combinations of words
generally used to express an idea) involving known words, which might not
register at all in your mind as learning something new.
What is common to most learners of English (or maybe any other language)
at intermediate levels is some self-doubt about the knowledge and skills they
already possess and, above all, a certain lack of clarity about how to go about
improving their English to reach proficiency. In my experience of learning a
few languages myself and helping others improve their language skills (aka
teaching) over the years, I’ve found that this type of confusion is quite
normal at these stages.
You may get to the B1 or even B2 level with certain books and courses,
but moving beyond that usually requires a lot of exposure to authentic usage.
Care should be taken to follow good usage (which fortunately can be done today
relatively easily with the help of various media like books, magazines,
newspapers, websites, audio books, podcasts, radio or TV programmes, movies
etc). A good understanding of finer nuances like context and register (that is,
in what type of situations particular expressions and turns of phrase are
appropriate) needs to be acquired. It’s important that you seek out material
with modern usage because choosing books containing archaic (outdated) language
popular in a bygone era - or written in an exceedingly complicated or academic
style - may lead to frustration, however esteemed those books may be. (Studying
such literature can safely be deferred until after you’ve acquired a confident
command of modern usage, I presume.) If you seek instruction from a teacher,
you’ve got to make sure that the teaching covers good contemporary usage at an
advanced level, with all its complexities regarding collocations, idioms and so
on.
Rather than learning individual words with their meanings, learning
collocations is
what you should focus on. In looking up new words or collocations, an advanced
learners’ dictionary will come in handy as they provide various meanings of
words in different contexts, together with the most common collocations and
idioms containing those words. However, not every unknown word needs to be
looked up if there are too many of them; the meaning of some can be assumed
from context and this type of informed guessing (within reasonable limits, of
course) is part and parcel of following usage.
Spaced repetition (where you revise what you’ve studied at increasing
intervals – in two days, then in one week etc.) has been suggested as a way to
refresh memory. Techniques like shadowing (where you speak out loud what you’re
listening to) and back translation (where you study something in English
together with its effective translation in your mother tongue and then, after
some time, try to translate it back from your language into English yourself to
see how you fare) are promoted in famous language learning methods like Assimil,
held in high esteem by many polyglots (those who have learned many languages).
Difficulty understanding native speakers from other countries occurs due
to differences in the way words are pronounced as well as unfamiliar stress and
intonation patterns. Colloquialisms and slang may add to the problem.
Mainstream British, American and Australian accents are worth getting used to,
but some regional accents may still be way off. The UK is notorious for having
lots of regional accents and some African-American accents are also hard to
follow; even their own countrymen sometimes have trouble following the speech
of people from some other areas or ethnic groups. One way to get used to
foreign accents is to watch movies and other videos with English subtitles (not
subtitles in your mother tongue). That way you get the chance to read in real
time what you’re listening to and you’ll find that it’s quite often just simple
language spoken in a different way. Over time you’ll get better at capturing
most of it without such aid.
Every opportunity to practise what you’ve learned should be used because
language skills, especially speech, depend largely on practice. Even speaking
in English with your fellow students can make for good practice if there are no
proficient speakers to talk to. Expressing yourself effectively in a second
language becomes increasingly easier as you keep on getting exposed to good
usage and practising what you’ve picked up.
Another vital point to remember is that regular learning - if possible
done even for a short time every day - produces far better results than
occasional long sessions of study. Regular exposure will go a long way towards
helping you internalize the language.
(NB: This is not a definitive guide to language learning, but just a few
observations and suggestions based on my experience.)
Further reading:
Reaching a Plateau in Language Learning – How to Get Out of It?
Reaching a Plateau in Language Learning – How to Get Out of It?
Image credit: Brenda Annerl
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