Becoming Fluent

by Richard M Roberts

  But the distinction between fluency and proficiency doesn’t really matter for most adult foreign language learners. Because being fluent in a language is generally understood to imply a high level of proficiency, most foreign language learners are working toward both goals.

  It’s not easy to quantify how well someone speaks a foreign language. One person may boast that he is 100 percent fluent, but be unable to order a meal in a restaurant. Another person may apologize for her poor linguistic ability as she uses the target language to deconstruct Kierkegaard’s use of irony. One way to solve this problem would be to create a scale that objectively measures linguistic ability, and, as introduced in the previous section, this is exactly what FSI did. Let’s take a look at this scale in more detail and see how it applies to the adult foreign language learner.

  As noted earlier, proficiency on the ILR scale can be assigned a score from 0 to 5. A score of 0 is equivalent to no proficiency in a language. Richard and Roger both have a S0/R0 in Hindi, because neither one of them can speak or read Hindi. At the other end of the scale, people who receive the highest score of 5 demonstrate a functionally native proficiency. For example, a score of S5 means that someone speaks a target language like a highly educated, articulate, native speaker. As odd as it may seem, not all native speakers of a language speak or read their own language at level 5. If you’d like to learn more about the ILR scale, or if you’d like to take a self-assessment for speaking, reading or listening, go to http://govtilr.org/.

  Let’s look in depth at Levels 1 through 4 of the ILR Speaking Skill Scale with regard to the area of speaking, since most adult language learners concentrate on speaking when they study a foreign language

  Level 1: Elementary Proficiency

  Speakers of a language at Level 1 can introduce themselves (name, age, country of origin) and can engage in simple, predictable conversations. They can usually exchange greetings and follow politeness rules. Native speakers must speak slowly and clearly to them, often repeating what they’ve said in order to be understood. Likewise, the native speaker must work hard to understand what is being said by a Level 1 speaker. The Level 1 speaker may often be misunderstood, and his vocabulary is limited and might be inaccurate. He makes some errors in basic grammar and pronunciation. A Level 1 speaker may be someone who took the language as an elective in high school and/or college, and can speak the language in an elementary way.

  Speaking a language at Level 1 is an appropriate goal for many adult language learners. S1 ability demonstrates that you took the time and effort to study someone else’s language and will win you many points among native speakers. It takes hard work to get to Level 1. Don’t focus on what you can’t do, focus on all that you can.

  Level 2: Limited Working Proficiency

  People who speak a language at Level 2 can easily satisfy the demands of everyday social situations and can fulfill basic work requirements. However, they still have difficulty with complex tasks. They can engage in everyday conversations on basic topics (e.g., the weather, current events, work, and family). They have trouble, however, when conversations veer from routine topics. The Level 2 speaker won’t make mistakes with basic grammar and vocabulary, but his utterances are still not very sophisticated. He may try to overextend his limited vocabulary. For example, rather than differentiate between beautiful, gorgeous, stunning, attractive, or cute, he uses the word pretty in every situation. The use of complex grammatical structures (for example, the subjunctive in certain languages) is still weak or nonexistent. A person who majors in a language in college could be expected to speak that language at Level 2 upon graduation.

  Adult language learners who reach Level 2 can be justifiably proud of this accomplishment. With Level 2 abilities, adults can get around quite easily using the target language. The confidence that comes from speaking at Level 2 is very freeing, because one need not rely on native speakers to fulfill basic needs. Speaking at Level 2 often propels people to work even harder to achieve Level 3 proficiency.

  Level 3: General Professional Proficiency

  The grammar and vocabulary of a speaker at Level 3 is sufficient to participate in most formal and informal conversations. She will use the language well, but there are still some noticeable limitations. She can speak at a normal rate, and native speakers do not need to slow down to speak to her. The Level 3 speaker may still have some difficulty, however, with figurative language (e.g., metaphors, idiomatic expressions, and proverbs) or cultural references. Also, her accent still sounds somewhat foreign. A Level 3 speaker easily understands, and is easily understood by native speakers. This is the level to which most adult language learners strive. A person with a master’s degree in a language probably speaks the language at Level 3. If the definition of fluency is being able to express oneself readily and effortlessly, then Level 3 speakers can say that they are fluent in a language.

  Level 4: Advanced Professional Proficiency

  A Level 4 speaker makes few speech errors. The Level 4 speaker uses cultural references and figures of speech appropriately. For example, a Level 4 speaker may accurately use sarcasm. These speakers may also be able to act as nonprofessional interpreters between the target language and their native language. The Level 4 speaker also understands various dialects of the language. Level 4 speakers differ from Level 5 speakers only in subtle ways, occasionally saying something in a way that a native speaker would not.

  As you think about these levels, keep in mind that an ILR score will not reflect a person’s ability to live in or adjust to another culture. The real test of how well you speak a language is how easily you communicate when you are using that language, and the pleasure you derive from speaking it. The important point is to think about exactly what you want to accomplish with your language study, and to work in that direction. Do you want to speak formally for work or do you want to just make friends? Keep in mind that proficiency is a continuum, with different levels and areas and ways to measure them. So, go at your own pace and emphasize your strengths. Test scores can be useful, but they can also cause you to forget what it is you want to accomplish with the language. And as you are studying, when you get frustrated or feel like giving up, just remember that native speakers don’t speak their native language perfectly either; rather, they speak it well enough to accomplish their communicative goals. Why hold yourself to a higher standard?

  Interlanguage

  In a humorous essay in the New York Times, Philip Crawford recounts how he once said “Bon appétit” to his French wife and son before a meal and was roundly chastised for being gauche.7 He appealed to French friends who were professors and they basically agreed with his family, although they acknowledged that “the subject is indeed delicate and would deserve a symposium involving linguists, socio-linguistics, teachers of good manners, specialists of customs and traditions, plus a few duchesses.” It should be noted that Mr. Crawford was living in France and had studied French for over thirty years when he committed this faux pas.

  Perhaps you too have been surprised that, once you achieved a level of fluency in a language where you got around quite comfortably, you discovered that a word or phrase you had been using consistently for a long period of time was, in fact, wrong. And like Mr. Crawford at the dinner table, perhaps you felt so sure you were right that you found yourself trying to correct a native speaker! How does this happen?

  As individuals learn a language, they are gradually acquiring new sounds, vocabulary words, grammatical structures, and ways to use the language socially. With regard to the ILR scale, any language ability between 0 and 5 can be considered an interlanguage.8 In other words, your interlanguage is how you speak a particular language between the time you start studying that language and the point at which you have achieved complete mastery. Most adult language learners, therefore, will be contending with an interlanguage for many years.

  Although a person’s interlanguage is specific to that individual, and because it comprises that speaker’s own uniq
ue set of learned (and unlearned) material, all adult language learners do similar things with their interlanguage. First, out of necessity, they draw upon their native language to learn the new language. Depending on the two languages, sometimes this language transfer is helpful, as in true cognates between languages, and sometimes it interferes, as in using English word order in Japanese. Second, once a person learns a new word or grammatical structure, he will tend to overgeneralize. That is, he will use this new word or structure a lot—and sometimes in ways that are not appropriate. For example, one of the first words English speakers studying Korean learn is a word that means complicated. They learn this word early on because it sounds a lot like the English word “pork chop.” Because it is such an easy word to learn, suddenly everything that has any level of complexity at all becomes “pork chop” even when it’s not appropriate, such as to describe a traffic jam or a difficult test question. But unless the speaker knows how to say traffic congestion or tricky question, “pork chop” is all one has to work with.

  This overgeneralization makes sense because if you have a vocabulary of only a few hundred words, chances are you will be forced to try to extend their usage. In fact, overgeneralization and language transfer can occur together, since you try to use a learned vocabulary word in all of the same ways you can use a word with the same meaning in your native language. Finally, because a person’s interlanguage is less than optimal, it is by definition a simplified version of the language.

  Obviously, therefore, some of the things you say in your interlanguage will be correct and some will be incorrect. But the mistakes will be unique to you because—as mistakes—these are presumably not utterances you’ve ever heard from a native speaker. Ideally, as you keep learning a language, the number of correct utterances will grow and the number of incorrect utterances will decline, which means that theoretically your interlanguage should progress systematically toward mastery in an orderly way.

  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Interlanguages are not orderly. There is great variability among speakers—even those studying together in the same class. Furthermore, improvement in one’s interlanguage may stop or greatly slow down, which is referred to as fossilization.9 Once you reach a point where you are able to do most of the things you want in a language, you no longer have the need to keep improving. Because you are generally intelligible, native speakers may stop correcting minor errors, as long as they do not interfere with intelligibility. This may lead you to stop expecting their feedback, causing you to believe that you have achieved a certain level of mastery, when in fact you have not. If you reach this point, not only will your linguistic skill improve much more slowly, but you may also find yourself going backward, making mistakes in areas that you had previously mastered.

  When and how fossilization happens depends on many factors, one of which will be your motivation to learn the language. At a certain point, you may feel that you speak the language well enough so that further instruction is not worth the additional effort. You may recognize that there is still much you don’t know, but what you do know is sufficient to your purpose and therefore you stop pushing yourself.

  In addition, your interlanguage can become fossilized in more subtle ways. Because the people around you have become used to your speech habits, they may speak to you like you speak to them—even though they know it is not exactly right. Perhaps you are guilty of this as well. Have you ever found yourself speaking less than perfect English to a nonnative speaker? Don’t be surprised, then, when a native speaker in your target language does the same thing to you. This is yet another reason why one’s interlanguage can become prematurely fossilized with minor, and perhaps not so minor, errors.

  I Know You Know What I Know

  Although teachers generally avoid the habit of not correcting even minor errors, they do become familiar with your particular way of speaking. Your teacher knows your accent, knows the vocabulary you have mastered, knows the grammatical structures you use most frequently, and knows the topics you like to discuss. All of this means that your teacher is likely to understand you far better than native speakers who don’t know you.

  Among diplomats who study foreign languages at FSI, this phenomenon is known as “FSI Speak.” You too may have found yourself being understood in the classroom with teachers and classmates, while outside the classroom your efforts fell flat. Why is there sometimes a sharp distinction between what one can do with the language in class and what one can do with the language in the real world? An answer can be found by considering what cognitive scientists call common ground.10

  Keeping track of common ground is not specific to foreign language learning. All speakers take into consideration which personal and situational factors are shared, and which are not shared, by their conversational partners. In other words, when speaking to someone, you must take into account what you know they know and what you know they don’t know. Now consider how much more of a problem monitoring common ground will be when speaking with someone whose culture you don’t share, and whose language you are still learning. It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that you will be more fluent with your teacher and classmates than with a cab driver. Unfortunately, adult language learners sometimes attribute this discrepancy in fluency to their own lack of language-learning ability, or they may blame their teachers for not preparing them appropriately for real-world interactions with native speakers.

  One way to improve your chances of being understood outside the classroom, therefore, is to think about what the other person might share with you, and then to enlarge upon this common ground by filling in missing information. For example, you might start by using greetings and pleasantries to establish how you speak the language, which will help your conversational partner get used to your accent. In addition, you may want to ask your conversational partner questions that will also help establish more familiarity. Keep in mind that even though you do this automatically in your native language, it’s easy to lose track of common ground when you are trying to communicate in a relatively unfamiliar foreign language. Moreover, just being aware that you will likely speak the target language better with people you know than with strangers should reduce your frustration in these situations.

  It is also possible that the way you speak the language could signify differences in common ground that are not really there. These kinds of mismatches can create confusion, hurt feelings, and misunderstandings. For example, when Richard studied French at FSI, he learned mainly the polite vous form of verbs—which is what he needed to use at work. At one point, however, a friend he’d made in Niger said that his continued use of the formal vous instead of the informal tu made him feel that Richard was maintaining a wall between them. Richard, however, did not know the tu form of verbs very well, so he was forced to use vous. Although using vous made Richard sound professional at work, he was unaware that he came across as cold and distant in everyday situations. His teachers at FSI would have understood, but how could anyone else be expected to? To correct the situation, Richard expanded the shared common ground with his friend by explaining how he had learned only professional French. He next worked harder on learning the tu form of verbs.

  In summary, it may seem obvious, but it is crucial nevertheless, to recognize that unless you have complete mastery of a language, you have only partial competence. To keep your interlanguage from becoming fossilized, it is important to become neither complacent nor frustrated when you plateau at a particular level. Remember too that in your native language, you make linguistic choices that reflect the common ground you believe you share with others. A problem arises, however, when native speakers assume that you are choosing from among the full range of linguistic possibilities available in the target language, when in fact your ability to express yourself is limited by what you have and have not learned. Your conversational partner, being unaware of what you don’t know, may misinterpret your intentions.

  To improve overall fluency, therefore, it is impo
rtant to engage as many different speakers of your target language in as many different contexts as possible. It’s also important to push your conversational partners to correct you and give you suggestions. As long as you are being understood, they may avoid doing so out of politeness, so it is important to tell them that you want to be corrected. Moreover, don’t be defensive when a teacher or other well-meaning person points out to you that what you meant is not what you said—even if you’ve said it that way a thousand times before. As irritating as this is, being open to it will keep your interlanguage from becoming fossilized and will help you establish the common ground you need for successful communication.

  4

  Pragmatics and Culture

  The Language, the Culture, and You

  Throughout this book, we repeatedly point out that adult language learners possess advantages over younger language learners—the most important of which is their ability to reflect on their own language learning process. Nowhere is this metalinguistic ability more apparent, and more useful, than in the study of pragmatics, which is the social use of language. In this chapter we will examine how cognitive scientists have studied pragmatics. Unfortunately, this topic is often ignored in traditional foreign language learning settings. Therefore, it is important to set the scene with some background information before going on to discuss how pragmatics applies to learning a foreign language. To do this, we must think about language at a metalinguistic level.

  Because pragmatics is the social use of language, it lends itself quite easily to metalinguistic awareness. In contrast, one’s metalinguistic ability to reflect on the sound system of a language is limited. Young children cannot take a mental step back and think metalinguistically about the sound system of the language(s) they are learning. They also don’t need to do this because they possess the skill of distinguishing, and then later producing, sounds just by hearing them. Even though adult language learners can (and in fact must) consciously think about the sound distinctions between their native language and the target language, doing so never entirely makes up for the fact that sounds not learned in childhood are more difficult to distinguish and produce in adulthood. In other words, just reflecting on the sounds of a language cannot completely compensate for the advantages of early exposure.