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Fluent Language: Set Goals and Measure Progress

Want to be fluent in a language? Learn how to set goals and measure progress.

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In today’s lesson, we’re going to talk about, what is fluency? Learner’s dictionary defines fluency, as the ability to speak easily and smoothly. Collins dictionary, talks about fluency. To work as a translator, you need fluency in at least one foreign language.

Let’s look at the adjective, form of the word. Someone who is fluid in a particular language, can speak the language easily and correctly. You can also say that, someone speaks fluent French, Chinese, or some other language.

So, I’m going to ask you to think differently about fluency, as far as, learning a new language. So, if you look here at these speech bubbles, right? It talks all about, becoming fluent in a language, and this could be your own language, your native language, the one that you learn. We all pass through these different stages of fluency, and at the very top that you can’t even see, because it’s so tiny.

You start with words and sounds. And then, those words and sounds start becoming phrases. And then, those phrases become longer phrases. Longer phrases with more polish, then become sentences. And then, those sentences become longer, more expressive sentences. And then, when you start talking two and three sentences in one go, they start looking like paragraphs. And then, they become paragraphs, maybe three to five sentences long.

As you develop more language and more ideas that you can express in that language, they become longer paragraphs. And then, when you become really expert and specialized on a topic that you know a lot about, you can speak in connected paragraphs. And then, you get into extended speech. Think about college professors, that type of TED talks, that type of speech. We all pass through all of these stages in a language. And it doesn’t matter, again, whether it’s your native language or a second language, a third language or fourth language, we all go through those phases of fluency.

But I think it’s really important to understand, that fluency, there are different, it’s just a continuum. You can still be a speaker of a language, if you’re speaking words, right? Up at the very top of that bubble or, if you’re speaking in extended speech, right?

Those are just different levels of ability. And I think, it’s really important to see that as a learner, that you don’t have to get to some magic point to be a speaker of that language, right? And I think it’s important also, to understand these different phases. It’s not a black or white point, just, you need to understand just as your skills grow, you can get better and better and better and better and better.

There is one point on that continuum that I want to talk about, and that’s the paragraph level. And that’s the point, where a lot of people consider themselves or are considered to be fluent in a language. And I want to give you some concrete examples and we’ll go into more depth in another lesson. So, if what I’m saying, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to you, it certainly will, in the next lesson. This paragraph level, this is the Common European Framework Reference B2 level. If you follow Benny Lewis,