675. Will I reach the peak of that mountain?




One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “Think of a person, a learner of English, with an advanced level of competence and proficiency in that language. That person – I know quite many in Spain and in other countries – has achieved something that I call sense of the language.



That learner, through many years of learning, is able to speak in English about any topic, with more or less ability, but with enough competence, as I said, to talk about anything. That man or woman wishes to speak in the target language at any time he or she has the chance. Furthermore, you (I mean, that learner) can be caught using expressions and idioms that some day you learned or saw somewhere.



Language is becoming something there very inside you. You then take some prudent risks when speaking, with expressions you would suppose are okay. You’ve gained a large tank of words to utter anything, any message, or to respond to any question or statement said by a native speaker. You think in English. You don’t translate from L1. Your English is closer to real English.



Then the communication between two people is more natural. Not necessarily when you’ve already reached that level, maybe before too. Something else: when my young students, say, 8 years old, answer a basic question in English, I observe they’re not thinking or translating from Spanish. My old students do. This is nothing negative, you know, just some difference in learning.” / Photo from: Everest trekking thevacationtrek com

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