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Varying degrees of fluency

  Tags: Fluency
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
19 messages over 3 pages: 1 2
beano
Diglot
Senior Member
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4623 days ago

1049 posts - 2152 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian

 
 Message 17 of 19
23 May 2013 at 11:44am | IP Logged 
I regard fluency as the ability to interact spontaneously with native speakers over a wide range of topics. Certain sitautions might be problematic because you don't know the technical vocabulary, but this can happen in your own language as well.

Another mark of fluency is the ability to work around difficulties with relative ease. You may not know the exact verb that is required but you can select another one that is close enough to put the message across. Or you find that a particular noun eludes you, but you quickly identify a substitute term, or perhaps even invent a word that you know will convey the meaning.

I also think you can be fluent without good grammar. Plenty of people are thrown into a new language situation and just have to adapt as best as they can. They develop strong speaking skills without necessarily studying the grammar behind the language.
3 persons have voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4708 days ago

5310 posts - 9399 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans
Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

 
 Message 18 of 19
23 May 2013 at 12:13pm | IP Logged 
I don't really think about "fluency" much. I think appearing fluent is partly attitude
and the ability to think quick on your feet. People have this obsession with achieving
native-level fluency. Of course it would be nice to get that level, but it's not the
point for me at all.

For me the point is to be able to live my life as I want to and satisfy the goals I have
within life. And that includes being an expert at foreign languages, but it doesn't mean
I can imitate a Frenchman. I am not a dancing monkey. I love speaking my languages, and
will search out opportunities to do so, but I have no idea whether that constitutes
fluency.
5 persons have voted this message useful



Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5010 days ago

3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 19 of 19
24 May 2013 at 10:39pm | IP Logged 
jeff_lindqvist wrote:
Haksaeng wrote:
Some time ago, somebody posted on this board a
link to clips from actual speaking proficiency exams.


This one?
http://www.webcef.eu/?q=node/22


I am not sure it is the same as I had seen before. There were more levels for French and
less mistakes of the "can't view" kind there. On the other hand, I think there were fewer
languages. I'll try to find it.


1 person has voted this message useful



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