The Long Haul to Darius the Great

Having a Friday off and a good old slouch on the sofa I saw the following on BBC Entertainment this afternoon. An Englishman turned Polish fireman explained to Michael Palin how he'd done it with one of the 'five most difficult languages there is' by drinking and talking to Polish guys until he'd drank (at least) the volume of several fire engines in beer and vodka over the ten years he'd lived in Poland. However, he was at a loss to explain how he'd arrived at this enviable state of being.   He'd had no formal lessons at all, hadn't encountered the language in any sense the common view might  accept as a 'study' setting and yet had married a local girl, settled in, was building a home in the woods, was raising a daughter called Chelsea (poor soul) and had clearly integrated successfully into his adopted community.


However, from what I hear he's an exception. Most English people living and working in Poland, usually English teachers, could not boast the level of fluency of this ex-Londoner, and now functioning fireman so expert at his trade that he trains encumbent Polish firefighters to follow in his capable footsteps for a living. Presumably a high level of proficiency in using Polish is required to do this. But I got to wondering, not about the relative difficulty of learning language x or language y, nor the role of formal instruction in language learning, but about what's come to be known as the 'intermediate plateau'. For this London gent had clearly pulled himself, or been dragged, beyond this towering wall of impossibility. 


Learners at B1  according to the CEFR level descriptor for this level:


Can understand the main points of clear standard  input on familiar matters regularly encountred in work, school, leisure etc. Can deal deal with most situations likely to arise whist traveling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions, and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans

http://www.coe.int/T/DG4/Portfolio/?M=/main_pages/levels.html

Learners of English making the transition from Pre-Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate and beyond typically reach a plateau in their language learning experience. After several hundred contact hours, and much sweat and blood,  the feeling of exhilaration at being able to hold a genuine conversation which accompanies the fact that the learner can now do all of the above (which is a fantastic achievement in itself)  is soon overtaken by a sense of frustration by many, notwithstanding our fireman friend. No matter how much more effort they put in, many learners and teachers report that the learning process does not follow a smooth transition from intermediate to advanced levels of proficiency. 


According to Jack Richards (Moving Beyond the Plateau-p1, CUP 2008) 'acquiring a usable supply of essental and high-frequency vocabulary does not come easily, nor does the ability to recall and use the correct grammar and conversational patterns at the appropriate times and to understand the gist and sometimes the details of the language they hear.' And this sensation causes no end of motivational troubles. The estimate  to acheive this breakthrough is  for learners to have acquired around 3,000 word families for use and at their immediate disposal. 


This is a very tall order when we remember what it means to be able to say that a 'word' is 'known'. This includes its pronunciation, the type of word it is, how it typically behaves in phrases and sentences, patterns and collocations in which it frequently occurs, it's appropriacy in context and more. To be able to produce an utterance of the complexity of this one, produced by a fluent Portuguese speaker of English in the natural context of summarising a passage from a book she was reading, is no mean feat-despite its apparent simplicity; 


'He decided to conspire against the king with six or seven other knights and managed to ambush and kill him...he was a nasty piece of work that Darius.'


The Spanish ladies have a way to go before they can scale such heights of fluent and natural production. They have though overcome a number of psychological plateaus of their own in realising that the road before them is a long one. They will need to praised for their victories and take a practical approach to their learning, be exposed and notice  salient patterns within the language, and above all else understand how the lexical system of English works. And of course-collect, engage and manipulate the items they come across as they explore. Being realistic will get them far and this is a major barrier for learners at this level.