Our friend Ultimate Attainment is back again. He’s someone we’re talking about a lot in my seminars lately and unfortunately, certain people do believe the falsehoods about sounding like “native” being the ultimate. It’s also a fundamental aspect of my dissertation (specifically dealing with English in Korea).. but that’s another story.
When it comes to accentual perfection, I’m of the opinion that it is possible to sound like a native, but the issue is, is it necessary.. Click here to read more.. »
Common question… variable answers.
It all depends on what the learner considers fluent, which language they are learning, the environment they are learning in, how motivated they are, how often they study, and so and so forth.
Let’s set the ground rules at 2 hours study per day. Not unrealistic if you consider the Borrowing Time post and the Power of the Schedule. Everybody can make at least an hour free everyday, most people can find 2 hours if they try just a little bit…. Stop reading about language study and start studying the language! ha Click here to read more.. »
How many words do you know?
Something that in reality, I consider to be, err, a stupid question. I don’t really care how many words I know, and it doesn’t really matter how many words I know. What matters is that I know the words that I need.
Anyway, watching your vocabulary grow is a motivational tool, so perhaps the question isn’t that stupid. Click here to read more.. »
A common question is “how long will it take me to learn X”? ..The answer is always “as long as it takes”.
Each and every learner is different depending on study time, efficiency of study, motivation, surrounding environment, prior learning of related languages, prior learning of any language, and a list of any other number of variables.
The only way to know for sure is to keep a log and use it as a reflective tool. It’s not going to predict how long it will take you to learn, but it will show you how you have learned. But that’s not all it’s good for, it’s kind of a follow-up to the Power of the Schedule article that looks at how to make the most of your time, keeping a log on the other hand, allows you to keep a history of how your learning techniques develop and adapt to situations. Click here to read more.. »
Are you fluent?
It’s a pretty simple question. The answers are more than subjective.
To a non-language learner there seems to be the consensus that this question is a definitive yes or no. So not true. Everybody has their own interpretation of what fluency is and while there is a switch in all of us that can flick on or off when we reach our interpretation of fluency, it’s not easily defined across the board. Yes, we can look at something like CEFR or ILR scales (both in the Language Proficiency Scales post) but they’re still open to subjective analysis. Click here to read more.. »
