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Moving from B2 to C2 | ||
Tags: Advanced Level | Learning Strategy | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Kc2012 Diglot Groupie South Africa Joined 4475 days ago 44 posts - 65 votes  Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Dutch, Mandarin, Russian | Message 1 of 177 14 February 2015 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm sure this topic has been covered before but I'm going to start a new thread anyway.
I'm hoping I can get some advice on moving from the intermediate upper level to the advanced upper level in a language. My Afrikaans has been sitting at around a B2 level and seeing as that's always been sufficient for me I've never really had the motivation to bring it up, until now. My Russian is also hovering around the intermediate level and sometime in the next couple years I will definitely be looking to bring that up to a C1 level. So how do you go about getting a language from the intermediate level to an advanced level (C1/C2). What are your stories? Is reading many novels the key? ;P 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| guiguixx1 Octoglot Senior Member Belgium guillaumelp.wordpres Joined 4094 days ago 163 posts - 207 votes Speaks: French*, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Esperanto, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 2 of 177 14 February 2015 at 5:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I personally think that you would need to try and immerse yourself even more in the
language. Try to still read more books, and of a more advanced level, or books written in different style (formal, non-formal, street language, ...) and so diversify the kind of vocab and grammar that you would come across. keep on watching TV and use any opportunity to use the language, find skype penpals, ....It will take time (it took me years for both English and Dutch), but if you are motivated, you WILL eventually get to it. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6584 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 3 of 177 15 February 2015 at 10:43am | IP Logged | ||
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No stories for me, since I haven't felt the need to get any of my languages up to that level. But I've always thought that if I do find myself wanting to do this, I'd register myself on a forum for writing enthusiasts. They tend to be full of people who have lots of interest in good writing and you'll probably get lots of corrections for free.
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| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4709 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 4 of 177 15 February 2015 at 10:48am | IP Logged | ||
Lots of exposure and lots of using the language in a context where you would usually use your native tongue or English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5310 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 5 of 177 15 February 2015 at 11:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I'd get hold of past or sample C1/C2 exam papers, work out the gap, and work on the gap.
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| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4535 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 6 of 177 15 February 2015 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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What brought my wife's level of English from C1 to strong C2 was some immersion, plus lots of reading, and I think importantly lots of writing (she even ended up writing a full book).
Writing is not only good for forcing you to get a handle on grammar, but also to try to work out which word/phrase to use in which context. I bet joining some fiction writing group online would really help, or perhaps doing some sort of online course which involves essay writing. I think the point is write and get corrections as if you were a native (i.e., write to communicate ideas/thoughts to other natives, not as a learning exercise). 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5432 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 7 of 177 16 February 2015 at 1:50am | IP Logged | ||
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If I can respectfully add a few comments to great advice given so far, I would first suggest that a
distinction should be made between increasing proficiency for the purpose of passing a C-level exam and enhancing proficiency just for personal satisfaction. If it's the first case, then you need a specific game plan. Let's say you want to pass a C1-level Afrikaans exam - if such a thing exists - in a year, then you need a game plan. Here you would set out specific objectives, strategies and milestones to achieve this goal. If it's the second case where we are looking at generally enhancing one's general proficiency, things are more relaxed. You can't go wrong with the suggestions already given. The one thing I would add, especially for exam preparation, is a good tutor. For some strange reasons, not everybody likes tutors. I'm not talking about a conversation buddy over Skype; I'm talking about a professional language teacher. It's not cheap of course and may not be justifiable if there is no specific need to pass a test, but I believe that a good tutor can make a world of a difference. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 5061 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 8 of 177 16 February 2015 at 2:56am | IP Logged | ||
What do you suggest an advanced student do with a professional language tutor? Let's assume you're already getting lots of input, so listening and reading skill are progressing fine without needing a tutor. In my opinion, for speaking fluency, the most important thing is to speak more for communication, including in daily life or with a conversation buddy. For speaking accuracy, the effectiveness of targeted instruction is hotly debated. Maybe a tutor could help, but what specifically should one do with them, and why should we believe it works? For writing, if writing instruction is available that specifically targets the kind of essays that will be required for the exam, then great. Otherwise, you would probably want a native speaker with good writing skills to correct your writing. Is that the kind of thing you mean? I guess you would need a professional for that if you don't have any highly educated native speaker friends. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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