A Working Definition of Fluency
People often ask the question, what does it mean to be fluent in a language? This can even be the end goal. Placing this importance on fluency makes us want to define it, and the most attractive definitions are those that are objective. Things we can measure. This may point us toward the CEFR proficiency levels or ask us to think of percentages that we understood.
I am here to say this does not make sense. Unfortunately. Even worse, the model I am going to present here is purely subjective.
To make the question of fluency as simple as possible I would ask two simple questions. “Can I understand them?” and “Can they understand me?” Do note that this varies wildly within our native languages! It can vary by topic, register, noise in the environment, relative ages of those speaking, and so much more.
New Levels of Fluency
Instead of saying I have “B2” comprehension or I understand 90% of what I hear, I am going to give 4 levels of fluency here. These can be applied to listening, speaking, writing or reading, but I will write them from the lens of listening.
Easy
I would have to actively try to not understand. It is so automatic that regardless of distortions in the audio, changes in register, code switching, topic, whatever, I will understand it unless I let the sound go in one ear and out the other.
Comfortable
With minimal to no effort, I will understand what is being said. I may miss some details at first blush, but will be able to unravel my confusion without disrupting my comprehension.
Uncomfortable
I understand, but it requires active effort. It is like a radio that does not completely work. Some stuff is crystal clear, some… isn't.
Incomprehensible
I do not understand.
An Example
For those wanting to consider this for a second, I invite you to listen to this excellent poyum. Where does it fall for you?
An Answer to the Question?
So what is the definition of fluency? If the speaker and listener are both comfortable, then the speaker is doing so fluently.
Now the real question, does the speaker have anything interesting to say?
OGSMT & SMART Goals in SLA
A trap many fall into when it comes to acquiring a second language is setting goals that are too vague and often unattainable. In my experience this often leads to a counter-reaction of, “I won’t set any goals at all; I will simply enjoy the process.” That is fine, but acquiring a second language does require active effort, so before throwing out the bathwater I would encourage us rethink of how and why we are setting goals related to SLA.
A trap many fall into when it comes to acquiring a second language is setting goals that are too vague and often unattainable. In my experience this often leads to a counter-reaction of, “I won’t set any goals at all; I will simply enjoy the process.” That is fine, but acquiring a second language does require active effort, so before throwing out the bathwater I would encourage us rethink of how and why we are setting goals related to SLA.
I am loathe to use too much corporate buzzspeak in my daily life, but I think we can take a few tools and apply them directly to SLA.
OGSMT is a framework that can be used for strategic planning. The initialism is Objective, Goals, Strategy, Measures and Tactics (at least the model I use).
Objective
My Objective is to become “proficient” in an L2. This is inclusive of Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing and Cultural Knowledge.
Goals
To achieve this Objective I will set high level Goals in a SMART manner.
SMART goals are simply ones that are:
Specific
Measureable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-Bound
I will set some goals for an entire year, but you could adjust as you see fit.
I will read 1.000.000 million words in 2023.
I will read 20 books in my L2 in 2023.
I will listen to native content in my L2 for 500 hours in 2023.
I will speak my L2 with native speakers and get feedback for 50 hours in 2023.
I will write at least 10.000 words in my L2 in 2023.
I will celebrate all major holidays that would be normal for L1 speakers of my L2 in 2023.
See how each meets those criteria? Great, now we are going to put them on the shelf and sort of forget about them, because people are awful at thinking and acting long term.
Strategy
Now instead, let's talk Strategy. My strategy is how I will actually go about this. Not the day-to-day, but things I will do to achieve the high level Objective. Strategy usually involve projects or initiatives that will take 90 days or less, but in our case most things are a collection of Tactics. So to achieve my Objective, I am going to take the things I know are effective for SLA.
Active Study, Practice, and a lot of Input.
Use Memrise or Anki to study vocab in sentences.
Have conversations with native speakers and get feedback.
Spend some time echoing/shadowing native speakers.
Post on Reddit and in Discords with native speakers trying to pass a "Turing test" if you will.
Read novels of interest to me.
Listen to podcasts about topics that interest me.
Watch shows that interest me.
Learn about the culture and norms.
Because these are all so tactical, you can make them more “strategic” by simply appending, 90 day challenge or something similar.
Measures
Okay, seems like a strategy that will get me somewhere so let us turn into things that are Measures. Each is measured weekly with target numbers are included
Reading - 20.000 Words
Listening - 7 Hours
Writing - 1.000 Words
Speaking - 1 Hour
Not all things in my strategy directly correlate to things I am measuring, and that's okay, what I want to measure are the most specific 3-5 things I'd want to know if I could only know those things. However, keep in what, what isn't tracked is unlikely to get done.
Tactics
Now what are my Tactics. The things I do? These could be daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly or even ad-hoc. I will set them daily
Read for a half an hour a day.
Listen to native content for an hour a day.
Active study/practice for a half an hour a day.
Have 1 conversation with a native speaker every week.
Now the trick is, if I do these things on a regular basis, I am naturally building towards my high level goals and objective and I can see how this breaks down on a day-by-day level.
Summary
This method I outlined here was actually just a roadmap for how can set daily habits that are conducive to SLA. Start from a high level, but act on what you can do today. If you build this muscle, eventually you will not need to even think about it. It’ll just become a part of your normal, everyday life.