“How long does it take to become fluent?”
Language instructors, college language majors, and bilinguals everywhere often hear variations of this question. The underlying assumptions of the question are, of course, that A) there is an agreed-upon end point to language learning known as “fluency” and B) there is a path, well-trodden and sign-posted, to reaching that point.
Fluency is itself a nebulous construct–one that individual language users might variously define as comfort in using a language, ease, precision, correctness, a ‘native-like’ accent, excellent reading skills, or ‘the ability to think’ in another language. The path toward fluency is just as varied; each language learner’s experience is a unique jumble of stops and starts, progress, missteps, adventures in grammar land, opportunities taken and squandered.
For many learners, the ephemeral goal of ‘fluency’ can make learning more difficult, by setting us up for ‘failure’ to reach it. A 2015 Guardian article by Helen Parkinson titled “Face it: you probably won’t become fluent on your year abroad” highlights the gap between learner expectations and reality during an educational experience abroad. For those brave souls engaging in independent language study, without a textbook or instructor, the goal of ‘fluency’ can seem especially difficult to reach.
Independent Language Learning: a special goal-setting challenge
Whether you’re preparing for a new job abroad, or trying to understand the Nollywood films you’ve gotten addicted to, it’s admirable and exciting to want to develop new language skills. You can start by establishing some reasonable goals. For those studying a language independently (sometimes referred to as “self-directed” or “self-access” learning), it can be especially challenging to establish, and then meet, language learning goals.
Thankfully, we are not wholly without guidance in setting individual learning goals. One widely-utilized resource is the ACTFL proficiency guidelines, which provide “a description of what individuals can do with language in terms of speaking, writing, listening, and reading in real-world situations in a spontaneous and non-rehearsed context.” The ACTFL proficiency guidelines might feel inaccessible to beginning language learners, though–after all, the guidelines are meant to be interpreted by the language teaching community, not necessarily by learners. Ideally, they would be interpreted and scaffolded by a trained tutor, but such scaffolding is not always available to independent learners.
Tips for setting, and sticking to, reasonable language learning goals.
So, how can independent learners approach the nebulous task of setting, and following through on, attainable language learning goals? Here are a few tips to get started.
Get a sense of what ‘beginner’ and ‘novice’ language ability really looks like (ie, what you CAN DO as a novice learner).
The NCSSFL-ACTFL ‘can-do’ statements can help learners to set and monitor their learning goals, by describing what language users at each proficiency level are able to accomplish (and under what conditions). The can-do statements are written for language teachers, but they’re pretty general and fairly accessible to non-experts. Not all of the statements written for a particular level will apply to you, but you can select some tasks that do.
On a related note, focus on learning to do what you’ll actually do on a regular basis! Consider skipping the textbook’s lesson about booking a hotel room in your target language. A hotel in a tourist spot is very likely to have an English speaking staff (or website). Focus on tasks you will need to complete in the target language, or that you’ll be doing on a daily basis, such as introducing yourself to new people, asking and understanding info about prices or numbers, thanking people appropriately, etc).
Find your motivation.
Spend a minute writing down what it is that truly makes you interested in learning this language. Maybe you want to seem like less of an ‘ugly American’ while abroad. Maybe you’re hoping to have an easier time making small talk with new colleagues & their families. Maybe you just love all things Japanese, or maybe you want to be able to put a patient more at ease in your hospital. Write down your sources of motivation, and come back to them when you start to slip.
Be reasonable about your availability.
Forget the websites and programs telling you to master a language in 7 days or 40 hours. Focus on how much time you can devote to regular, active practice. Consider the time you DO have, and the tasks you want to accomplish, and see if you can devote daily, or near-daily, time to active speaking, reading, listening, and/or writing practice related to those tasks.
Are you learning a language for travel? Work on your English!
If you’re going abroad as a novice or intermediate-level learner, you’re likely to find yourself using English to engage in meaningful communication, at least from time to time. Sadly, a 2016 BBC article actually called native English speakers “the world’s worst communicators.” If you’re a native speaker of English, there’s a good chance you need to work on modifying your English to be appropriate to non-native speakers, or speakers of other World Englishes. To prepare, try watching or reading English language news sources from overseas, to learn how English is utilized in the place you’ll be visiting.
Limit distractions.
We’re all living in a distracted world, and technology is not always our friend. Here’s Helen Parkinson again, on tech as a barrier to language learning on study abroad:
Technology is another factor that can prevent our total immersion into a foreign culture, because it gives us unlimited access to the English speaking world. After a day of French seminars, the lure of an evening spent binge-watching British TV or chatting in English on Facebook is often tempting.
By spending every night using anglophone social media, however, we’re missing out on amazing opportunities to consume our target language – such as going to a foreign cinema or theatre.
When you’re in the midst of your daily language study time, turn on your phone’s “do not disturb” feature, or close your email. Or, to make technology work for you, use social media connect to the culture and language you’re studying, by following famous people/groups/causes that post in that language. Is there a “humans of New York” page for Paris, perhaps?