How do you stay fluent in a language?
Hello,
I was wondering how do you stay fluent in a language? Is it to listen to the radio and watch tv shows and movie in your target language or is there more to do besides what I just listed to stay fluent in your target language?
7 Answers
I think that speaking the language is the way to remain fluent. When you have 'live' and dynamic conversations with people, there is some cognitive process that goes on in your brain that keeps all this information wired up. Not scientific, but I do know that dynamic conversation does transfer newly learned words from temporal to permanent memory. Obviously, reading, writing and listening are very important, but I think that speaking and listening are the most important (to remain fluent). However, if you are at a beginning or even intermediate level, I would continue to read ravenously so as to build your vocabulary.
I do a lot of translating, and I've found that when translating from Spanish to English (interpreting, actually) I'm not very 'mentally stimulated', but when I translate from English to Spanish, the dynamic is different for me, and my Spanish becomes more and more 'fluid' as the day goes on.
If you don't live in an area where the language is spoken. You begin to lose it. My first language as a child was French, then Spanish then English. My English and Spanish are ujp to date, but I'm losing the ability to understand spoken French. I always had a hard time understanding Parisians, but had no trouble with Meridionale (Southern) French. My French is Canadian. and It's getting to the point where I have a hard time understanding Canadians. Reading is NO problem. Writing is somewhat of a problem because French spelling is as crazy if not crazier than English.
Maybe I need a total immersion program like Rosetta Stone to get back my French. Or maybe move to Canada. 
You stay fluent by continually using all four aspects of the language> speaking, listening, reading and writing. It is possible to maintain fluency by using only the first two aspects, but then you will be fluent and illiterate at the same time. (In Mr Bean´s case, even this would be an improvement).
I believe 'fluency' is a slightly weird & perhaps not particularly helpful concept in the context of learning a non-native language. Some native speakers are notionally fluent yet not particularly capable of expressing themselves in their native language while some non-natives aren't fluent yet able to make themselves understood much more proficiently.
In truth, I believe native fluency is only really achievable in the first few years of a person's life when their brain is developing from infancy & they are immersed in one or more languages (& they can become fluent in more than one at this stage). Thus the native language(s) shall become hardwired in a way that languages acquired later in life can never be.
Thus it is that someone may acquire a second language as an adult & live in that country for many decades, speaking the second language 'fluently' everyday, yet suffer a stroke or similar kind of brain trauma & completely lose their second language yet retain their first language.
Therefore, for someone like Dani, if she learned French as a child & can still speak it as an adult, then she probably can't lose it entirely.
That said, as others have commented, the best way to retain 'proficiency' is to speak & use the target language as much as possible (& avoid brain trauma)...
I am only fluent in English my native language. When I was learning languages at school, there was no internet and apart from occasionally being able to listen to a French radio station depending on the weather [reception] few opportunities away from class to listen to or speak French. However, many, many years later I am surprised how much I still understand. If I hear French in the background I can tune in though I do not think I could say more than a few phrases.
If you are fluent in a language it is worthwhile maintaining it. I know with Spanish I read something every day and try to listen to something. However, I have little opportunity to speak Spanish and know if I am to improve I need to speak more. I read Spanish well and can make myself understood in Spanish The materials we use in our class are C1 but though it makes the class interesting it is flattering as to our level.
To maintain fluency listen to the language - if you do not live where it is spoken try radio/TV / music films. Spain is still in an economic downturn, but their national broadcaster offers the majority of its content to listeners outside Spain. Most booksellers on the net allow you to download the first chapter of a book for free.
You do need to speak! Find people on skype - if the language was acquired living in the country friends or relatives. Go to a class or find a teacher.
I had a friend who was brought up in a Polish speaking household but she went to school in England. She is bilingual but until the influx of young Poles to England found if she spoke to people from Poland her Polish was looked at as slightly old fashioned,
Therefore you need to keep in touch with natives speakers from the country.
John Cleese/Basil demonstrates what happens when you lose fluency !! [if he ever had it]`
In truth, I believe native fluency is only really achievable in the first few years of a person's life when their brain is developing from infancy & they are immersed in one or more languages (& they can become fluent in more than one at this stage). Thus the native language(s) shall become hardwired in a way that languages acquired later in life can never be.
Thus it is that someone may acquire a second language as an adult & live in that country for many decades, speaking the second language 'fluently' everyday, yet suffer a stroke or similar kind of brain trauma & completely lose their second language yet retain their first language.
I think you're being too dogmatic as to what 'fluency' is. It's like you have this unattainable standard of native fluency. Some of what you so strongly adhere to has been debunked in studies. There needs to be a little 'breathing room' for the rest of us. However, just as an anecdote,I had something happen to me in the hospital, some have told me it was impossible and surely I was mistaken. But one doctor, 3 nurses and my wife were witnesses. I was under anesthesia for surgery, and when I was supposed to be waking up, things started going wrong. I remember them asking me things and I was answering them. I was frustrated that they kept asking me these questions over and over and wondering why were they shouting at me? Obviously I didn't die, but what dumbfounded me, and the entire team in the recovery room was, I had defaulted to Spanish, yet English is my native tongue. When I was fully awake, out from under the anesthesia, I talked to the nurse from another team that was translating what I was saying, because I was in utter disbelief. She confirmed what had happened, and we got to talk for a bit. A week later two psychologists were trying to figure out what happened
It's not a question of it being a standard. Fluency, on one hand, and, on the other, proficiency, are simply two different things (&, as said, a proficient foreign learner can actually outperform a fluent native speaker). I didn't say someone suffering brain trauma will always necessarily lose their second language, but it does happen not uncommonly, whereas they almost invariably retain their first language (even if they haven't used it in years). I think this shows us that the way in which we learn our first language is fundamentally different. When a child learns a new word (in their first language) for an object, that object becomes whatever the word is, e.g. 'teddy bear'. That is just what it is. In subsequent languages we learn words for 'teddy bear', for example. We do not replace the first word.
Incidentally, I know someone who had just passed his university degree in accountancy when he was involved in a serious traffic accident & lost all his subject knowledge, so couldn't sit his professional exams. So, it's not just language-learning that's affected my this kind of event.
