I Have Plateaued
Hi, have been studying for about 5 years and I am low intermediate. B1. On a good day I can read 80-90% of an article on the internet, but if it has a few words I don't know I could be at 40%.
Listening to the news I can be between 70% and almost nothing.
I don't seem to have advanced at all during the last year but I am studying the same number of hours.
Does anyone have any suggestions for me please ?
7 Answers
In my experience of teaching English, Spanish, and flight, a plateau is a normal level in learning anything. I suppose its length depends on various factors, including the subject, the student, the teacher, and everything else among these three things. With all plateaus, once it has passed, the learning curve goes dramtically upward compared to the curve before the plateau was reached. So my suggestion is to continue as you have and know that you will reach a point of more advanced learning. Of course any interaction you can find of an immersion experience will greatly help.
How I empathise with you! I am bordering on a high intermediate level and in some tests I am advanced ( they say!) I am 72 years old and have been learning fairly seriously for 4 years. I connect with Spanish every day, listening to the news in Spanish, read novels, learn some new words etc etc. BUT for some reason I have plateaued and I feel clumsy when talking and my understanding of the spoken word by native speakers is sometimes really bad. It does not come easy for me. I spend about 6 months of the year in the Canary Islands - in short spells of two months at a time - you'd think I would not be feeling this way. In fact, right now I am feeling really depressed about it all. I have a few Spanish friends but they work so I don't see them a lot - and mostly I spend my time with other English people or other foreigners who speak English. So it is a weird situation of being "immersed" in one way but not in another!. All I can say is keep trying and don't give up. There are certainly days during which I surprise myself with my abilities to speak and understand, but right now this is not happening.!
I feel the same. First I went up some nice paths on a mountain called Castillano, then the going got rocky and tough, but I made slow but steady progress. Then I got onto this level, grassy plain, where I was distracted by the views, as presented on TV, and the fact I could manage fairly well. Then I took a ghastly turning signposted 'Subjunctive path'. This had many dead ends, was terribly badly mapped and, well, maybe I'm now starting to come out of this ravine. Maybe.
Bit I still feel that the plateau is not flat, it is up-hill. And I no longer have any hope of ever seeing the top of the mountain, if I can get to the level where small pines no longer grow I will be over the moon. I think that is the level where you can actually respond to a totally unexpected question asked in a hospital emergency department. I have no longer any wish to be able to ski down the snowy upper slopes..
I've heard of this phenomenon. I'm not a psychologist, and I don't believe I'm anywhere near your level in Spanish, yet I would guess that, while you may not think you are make any progress, nonetheless perhaps subconsciously your brain is continuing to work for you without you realising it, figuring out what to do with all your Spanish. I expect this process takes time. However, when your brain has finished, you should begin to feel you're making progress again, and, as Julian says, at even faster pace than before, because this time you'll be relaunching from the bedrock of your reconfigured, integrated Spanish.
In the meantime, why not try learning something else, maybe even another language ? At least it'll give you a sense of achievement, and if your Spanish is already so good, then it shouldn't have any negative effect on it. You could even try learning from Spanish, e.g, buy yourself a Spanish Teach Yourself [insert name of new language] book. I did this when I lived in France with both Dutch & German, using French as the medium of tuition. I found I could absorb huge amounts of these new languages very fast. Unfortunately, because I didn't practise them afterwards, they never stuck and I lost them equally quickly afterwards - but I did have fun, and my French didn't suffer.
There are easy skills that can be learned in a day, week or month, and there can be some satisfaction in learning those skills, because you can see your own progress. Spanish is not one of those skills. As already noted, you can recognize your progress in the early going, because you know so little and now you know more. Later on it gets harder to recognize your own progress and you find yourself becoming discouraged.
I suggest two things: 1) Deliberate Practice (look it up). Pick a specific topic where you need improvement and make a specific effort to achieve that. If your topic and practice is specific enough, you can make good improvement in a few days. If you haven't made enough improvement by then, your topic was not specific enough. 2) Celebrate. When you realize that you have made a tiny, but good, improvement, pat yourself on the back. See? You are getting better! Many tiny improvements add up to big improvement.
The problem with learning anything - including language - is that initially you feel you are learning quickly. Then you are able to realise that there is increasingly more and more that you don't know. That is a sign of progress.
It is in some ways similar to the "wall" that marathon runners experience. The good / determined runners run through the wall and complete the race.
Yes happens to me to. I am a low intermediate and what I do when I feel I don't progress I take a days brake from Spanish. Then after the day my hunger is back and my studies begin again and I feel I am on the right track. Me gusta española.
