Today we are talking about fluency.
To be fluent is the aim of many people who learn another language but it is very difficult to
achieve. You could have a university degree in English, you could have been learning English
for years and years, you could be able to read and write English perfectly, but none of these
things necessarily make you truly fluent. The dictionary definition of fluent is:
To be able to express oneself easily and articulately. But fluency is a gradual process and there is
no set way to learn that is guaranteed to make you fluent, but today we’re going to
be discussing some checkpoints for English proficiency so you can work out where you
sit on the scale and work towards fluency. You do not have to know or understand every
single word in the English language in order to be fluent. Believe it or not, there are some English words
that I don’t even know the meanings of. Anything that is particularly scientific for example,
because it is not vocabulary that I have ever needed to use. So you don’t need to learn the
entire dictionary to be fluent, but in this video I am going to outline 10 ways that you can tell
if you are fluent, or how close to fluency you are. Make sure you watch all the way to the end
of the video to hear about my new mini-series which will help you on your journey to fluency.
1. You no longer need to translate in your head before speaking or understanding. Once
you are fluent, these things come naturally and you’ll even find that sometimes you can even
speak or listen to something in English, without even realising that it’s in another language.
2. You can understand and join in with jokes and humour in English. In Britain,
understanding sarcasm is key to this step so if you’re not sure how to use sarcasm,
then that might be a good starting point to understanding lots of British humour.
3. You can understand when somebody is not saying exactly what they mean. This includes
things like sarcasm and idioms, although even I come across some idioms I don’t understand
from time to time. Many idioms are regional or used within a specific group of people.
It’s okay if occasionally you come across one or two you don’t understand but a firm grasp
of common idioms is essential for fluency. 4. You know the right thing to say because
it just feels right. This could apply to grammar tenses and the way that when you speak your native
language, you’re probably not thinking about what tense you’re speaking in- you’re just saying
what sounds right. This will be how you speak English too if you are truly fluent. You might
even forget the rules or names of certain tenses but you know how to use them ‘just because’.
5. Your sentences flow very naturally. You don’t find yourself pausing to think or
reaching for vocabulary, you are just able to speak freely. You will also find that you don’t
need to repeat words or phrases very often because your vocabulary and understanding
is vast enough that you have multiple phrases that you could use in almost any situation.
6. This one is very important: you are able to pick up on your own mistakes and correct them.
As a native English speaker, even I make small mistakes or misspeak sometimes. The important
thing is that you can catch these mistakes as they happen and correct them yourself.
7. You find that sometimes you are thinking in English, and occasionally even dreaming. There
are some phrases that use don’t translate well from one language to another and to be
truly fluent is to be able to recognise when some things just make better sense in one
language than another. You might find yourself thinking about English customs in English,
or about something that was originally told to you in English. You don’t feel
the need to try to translate these things because your understanding of the language
runs so deep that you can use keep hold of that information in the language that you learned it.
8. You can watch tv shows and films, read books, magazines or newspapers and listen to music,
podcasts and radio without the need for translations. No subtitles,
no pausing to look up definitions necessary. When you are truly fluent, you will be able to keep up
with the speed of native speakers, so watching a film will be just as easy in English as it would
be in your native language. This is one you can definitely practice! You could try watching an
episode of your favourite tv show without subtitles because your familiarity with the
show would hopefully help to fill in any gaps you have for now. Then you can give yourself something
a little more advanced each week until you are watching all new episodes without subtitles.
9. You’ll know you’re fluent because you feel like yourself when you’re talking in English.
This comes with all of those things I’ve already mentioned: understanding humour, not having to
translate everything, etc. When learning a language, it can be really difficult to make
genuine connections with native speakers sometimes because you feel as if you can’t really express
yourself properly. Once you are fluent, that feeling will go away and you will feel completely
yourself while speaking another language. 10. And finally, you stop worrying that
people aren’t going to understand you. You can walk into a shop, a bank, a dentist, and so on
without worrying about a language barrier getting in the way, and the same applies to business and
social conversations. You won’t have to prepare what to say in advance and you’ll find that people
don’t have to adapt their usual way of speaking to accommodate for your English proficiency
level. You will be able to have any conversation as confidently as an English Native speaker.
So that’s 10 ways that you can tell if you are fluent in English! Let me
know in the comments how many of these things apply to you.
Now let’s talk about how you can improve your fluency. Do you know about the 6 levels of
learning English? This is a specification supplied by Cambridge English to determine
how advanced your English is, and how close to fluency you are. The levels run from A1,
which is beginner, to C2 which is proficient. Over the next few days, I’m going to be posting
videos to help you test which level you’re at and links to previous videos of mine that
will help you move up to the next level. Are you ready for the challenge? Firstly make sure you’re
subscribed to my channel and then click here to see if you can pass the A1 test. Good luck.