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Overcoming the plateau | ||
Tags: Learning Experience | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| theoanderson3 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3955 days ago 13 posts - 15 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 1 of 25 30 January 2014 at 2:41am | IP Logged |
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The reason I am writing was to ask for some tips/resources to overcome the Spanish plateau I feel like i've
reached. This time coming back to Spain I definitely don't feel hardly any language barrier, I pretty much understand everything, but what I really want is conversational fluency and a more articulate vocabulary...what would you recommend? I'm currently using ANKI (spaced repetition software for vocabulary), living with a host family, I have a Spanish frequency book with the 5000 most used Spanish words, a few grammar books but I'm not sure how great they are. I'm not sure if you felt the level of Spanish plateau that I'm experiencing, but it definitely feels like i've just stalled out at this level and i'm not sure how to go from intermediate to advanced and from there to true conversational fluency. My Spanish experience is as follows: 5 on ap Spanish test perfect 800 Spanish sat subject test perfect score on placement test in high school: Spanish 1, 2, Spanish 4ap, Spanish 2 at community college, mexican girlfriend, watched movies in spanish studied abroad 10 months in spain 2009-2010 in college: have taken 5 semesters of Spanish, currently tutor Spanish currently studying abroad in sevilla until mid-june. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4293 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 2 of 25 30 January 2014 at 2:56am | IP Logged |
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Can that be converted to CEFR level? I cannot really qualify what any thereof means in
terms of CEFR. I am not sure what secondary school/A-level in international terms converts, or the university. Being "intermediate" but "understanding everything" sounds odd, unless it means C1/C2 in comprehension, but B2 in speaking and B1/B2 in writing. Anyway, a few vocabulary books owuld definitely help. I have the Handbook/dp/9812686789/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1391047070&sr =8- 17&keywords=berlitz+spanish+vocabulary">Berlitz Spanish Vocabulary book that states that it is based upon the threshold of the COE (Council of Europe). Being in Spain, they use the CEFR scale for languages, so a conversion therein would help. Edited by 1e4e6 on 30 January 2014 at 2:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4372 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 3 of 25 30 January 2014 at 5:10am | IP Logged |
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I'm just going to take a complete guess, which could be way off, that you're probably around a B2 at least in comprehension if you really are understanding that much of what you hear. It sounds like you're noticing that your output isn't as high as your comprehension. As far as conversational fluency, probably just exposure and continuing to speak will improve that on its own. With vocabulary, again, you need more exposure. A couple of posters here say that reading really helps a lot with vocabulary, because a much richer vocabulary is used in writing than in speech. If you're studying or are interested in a particular subject you could start from there with learning the specific vocabulary.
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| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5731 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 4 of 25 30 January 2014 at 9:28am | IP Logged |
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You just need to keep going and keep working on your Spanish. Listen, read, write, watch, talk.
Try immersion. Do as much as possible as you can in Spanish and that way you'll find new vocabulary, grammar structures to learn. You're in Spain right now so it shouldn't be to hard. Cut English out of your life. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4642 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 5 of 25 30 January 2014 at 11:58am | IP Logged |
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If you understand pretty much everything, you should be close to a C-level in passive knowledge of the language (listening and reading), so practising speaking and writing as much as possible is of course highly recommended. I do agree with Fuenf Katzen though that reading a lot will also help you get off that "plateau" and reach a higher level. I spent a year in Spain when I was a student and I found that instead of sitting in my room revising vocabulary lists, I got much more out of being exposed to the language all the time, listening to the radio, watching TV (any programme really, even the trash they often send) reading newspapers and books and discussing things I had read or TV programmes I had seen with my Spanish friends, etc. Try to concentrate not only on what people say, but how they say it. What verb forms do they use in a particular construction, what prepositions do they apply and so forth.
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5012 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 25 30 January 2014 at 1:25pm | IP Logged |
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Hi, welcome to the forums.
I think I know this kind of plateau, even though I've met it in French. Just a few things that I found helpful in such a situation: -read a lot. Various things. Good quality newspapers (especially the comments sections and other longer pieces, not just the short news), books (from classics to the teenage aimed novels using contemporary colloquial language), non fiction you are interested in. It's great not only for vocabulary. You will develop similar sense for what is correct as the one in your native language over time. -keep listening. If what you are listening now is too easy, raise the bar. Get talkshows, listen to comedians, video blogs, tv series with more difficult language and so on. You have the best resource at hand, the natives (you're a lucky one :-) ). But you can supplement them in the moments they aren't with you or when you need a change. -5000 words, that isn't that much. It sounds like a lot and most learner aimed sources will teach something like 4000 or 5000 by the time they leave you on your own (usually B1). But the reality is different. You need more vocabulary, natives have several times more. You need to expand your active vocabulary in areas not covered enough by textbooks and so on. ANKI is great but you need to feed it from somewhere. For example, get a huge monolingual dictionary (there is a free digital one from Academia Real for exemple but it's easier to use paper for this, in my opinion) and go through it, adding what you find useful to anki. You can always find translation online, should you need it. -Get all your gaps in the grammar covered. Many people underestimate grammar. It is now popular to believe that people have trouble speaking because they learn grammar too much. The opposite is true. Get a lot of input (again, books are great and so are any audio sources) and go through a high quality grammar, perhaps with exercises. Catch all the small bugs that prevent you from speaking or make you speak worse than is your potential. Grammar has no right to make you stumble ;-) (What grammar books have you got, btw?) -Write. That is an active skill as well and it shares a lot with the speaking skill. You need to formulate thoughts, think in the language and so on. But you have the luxury of time, you can see your mistakes a few hours later or have the thing corrected (for example on italki.com). And you can easily find the missing pieces. Write something (a diary, reports on movies you've seen, letters to an imaginary friend or whatever) and make notes aside everytime you find a gap. Every time you are unsure which tense to use, when you don't know a word you obviously need, when you don't know the proper preposition and so on. It's a great personalized guide to your weaknesses that need to be treated. -Speak. With natives, with yourself, with a cat. The more practice you get, the better for you. Edited by Cavesa on 30 January 2014 at 1:30pm 11 persons have voted this message useful | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4536 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 7 of 25 30 January 2014 at 3:07pm | IP Logged |
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I basically agree with what other's have said.
I would probably add that if you are really understanding what people are saying at a high level, then I would recommend ditching Anki, frequency tables and the grammar books (at least for the moment). Immerse yourself in the language. You are already speaking, but are you reading a newspaper article or two everyday? Are you reading a shortish novel 2-3 times a month? How is your knowledge of Spanish soap operas? Or films? Now is the time to stop studying and simply use the language as a native would. Edited by patrickwilken on 30 January 2014 at 3:09pm 11 persons have voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5265 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 8 of 25 30 January 2014 at 3:27pm | IP Logged |
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If I could vote ten times for patrickwilken's advice, I would.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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