|
 |
Level of fluency | ||
Tags: Fluency | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5707 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 33 of 34 14 November 2009 at 7:47pm | IP Logged |
|
Education essentially has little to do with it, that's true. But I think that part of the reason why sounding educated gets mixed in is because as an adult speaker you're expected to be able to follow and take part in a certain level of discussion, in the same way other adults are, with a reasonable understanding of the kind of vocabulary someone with a decent general knowledge would have. A 10-year-old is definitely a native speaker of their own language of course, but an adult learner of the same language would probably want to get to a level where they can hold a discussion and a line of argument at the level of someone their own age, right? Or, at the very least, be able to discuss the things that interest them beyond the level you might hear from a 10-year-old on the same topic? One of the most obvious goals for my own language learning is to be able to discuss my chosen career field at the same level as in my own language and I won't think of myself as fluent until I'm able to do that. But there are huge differences between people's definition of fluency - some will call themselves fluent when they've reached some level of fluidity of expression, whereas others won't consider themselves fluent until they're as near perfection as they could possibly hope to get.
A large part of what you learn through your education is how to argue your points, evaluate a topic from different angles, phrase things well, and so on. All perfectly learnable outside of university too, and obviously you don't need a university degree in something specific to count as fluent - that would be a silly and arbitrary standard - but if your thoughts are all over the place when you speak a foreign language, that will detract from your 'fluency' in the eyes of those who consider fluent a high standard, regardless of your education level. Hence the need to know enough to sound coherent when you speak. I just think foreigners are judged by a higher standard, because they don't have that magical quality called native fluency. It's nothing to do with elitism, just that educatedness (or whatever you want to call it) has a tendency to coincide with the level of understanding some of us expect of ourselves if we want to be called 'fluent', so it's just part of one attempt to define a very vague term. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Kubelek Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland chomikuj.pl/Kuba_wal Joined 6650 days ago 415 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 34 of 34 15 November 2009 at 3:13am | IP Logged |
|
Millinium:
I worked in a hospital in my city, the place where I've lived for most of my life. Everybody assumes it's my fault because I don't understand certain dialects. What dialects?? I looked up the word 'coherently' to see if I had used it correctly, for it got some strong comments. "Marked by an orderly, logical, and aesthetically consistent relation of parts" orderly and logical - that I cannot say about the way many people talk. If you don't agree with me it's fine. Maybe you live in a better place, or we have different ideas on what good communication is. 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
