Welcome back to the Learn English podcast, the podcast teaching English in context so you can learn naturally.
On today's episode, I want to focus on something that I hear a lot from my students and something that I have struggled with personally, and that is the intermediate plateau.
If you don't know what the intermediate plateau is, it's a period of time when you are studying a language.
At the beginning of your studies, when you don't know anything and you're just first starting to learn the language, you make a lot of progress in very little time.
Your progression develops rapidly.
You have brand new vocabulary, you have all these words, you're able to start forming sentences, and it's a great and exciting period of time.
It's probably the most enjoyable part of your language learning journey.
However, when you get to a higher level, when you get to the intermediate range of learning a language, you start struggling.
The progress isn't as fast.
You feel like you're maybe getting stuck, not progressing at all.
It takes a lot of time and you're not seeing any results.
And that's the time when a lot of people just give up.
They get frustrated, they feel like they just can't learn this language and it's too hard, it's too much time, it's not worth the effort, and they just stop learning.
But that's not what you want to do because you can get past that intermediate plateau.
You can get to a higher level, but you really need to put in the effort and use the right tools.
So on today's episode, we're going to talk about the intermediate plateau and what you can do to get past it.
If you want information about how you can get past the intermediate plateau and get to a higher level of English, follow along because we're about to begin.
A reminder before we begin that you can look in the description of this podcast episode and all of our previous podcast episodes to find a vocabulary list of the words and phrases that I use in that episode.
You can take these words and phrases, start saying them yourself, and then start using them in conversation.
Now let's talk about the intermediate plateau.
You might have fallen into the intermediate plateau and a way to check and see if you're in this range is to think about how comfortable you feel with English.
Do you struggle when a native speaker is speaking to you?
Do you have difficulty forming grammatically correct sentences and articulating your ideas?
Do you still catch yourself translating from your native language into English before you speak?
These are all signs that you're in that intermediate plateau.
You can understand people.
You can understand a lot of the language.
You have a lot of vocabulary, but it's just not as fluent as you would want to be.
You're not at an advanced level.
You have difficulty when you're speaking, so you're not 100 % fluent.
You still have difficulty when a native speaker is talking to you, so you're not near that native level, but you're not at a beginner level either.
You're kind of at this weird intermediate stage, and that's when people get stuck in that intermediate plateau.
Now, the thing to know about the intermediate plateau is that you are still making progress.
I know, I know, it doesn't feel like you are.
You get frustrated.
You feel like you're spending all this time studying.
You spent all these years studying, and it's still just not there.
You're not fluent yet, but you are still learning.
If you are studying English, if you are practicing, if you are listening and reading, your brain is still taking in the language.
It's still being exposed to the language, and you are still making progress.
It just takes more time.
I know I've talked about Ollie Richards on this channel before, but he did a really good video about the intermediate plateau and about the time it takes when you're learning a language.
His thought about this is that it takes more time, the more advanced you are in a language.
When you're in those beginner stages, like I said, your progression is rapid.
It just shoots up on a graph, and you are learning so much so fast.
When you get to the intermediate phase, the progression slows to about half.
That means to make about the same amount of progress as before, you have to spend double the amount of time.
So if it took you a year or two in that beginning stage, it's going to take you multiple years in that intermediate stage.
Or if it took you a few months in the beginner stage, well, it's going to take you at least double that in that intermediate stage.
And that's time of intense study, not studying just a few minutes a day, but really studying.
Even when you really commit, it's going to take time.
Now, you can get past the intermediate plateau, but just know when you get to that higher level, it's going to take even more time.
It's going to take years once you get to that advanced level to get to a native level.
So please don't fall for all of these clickbait titles and ads saying that you can become a native level speaker in a few months or a year.
No, please no. Just all the no.
All the no. All the no's in the world.
No. It's going to take time.
It takes time. Know that that's okay, but it's going to take time.
So let's talk about how you can get past the intermediate plateau.
That number one piece of advice, time.
Take the time to invest in learning English.
I cannot tell you as an English teacher, someone who teaches English online to students who are learning it as a second language.
I have had so many students tell me they're frustrated with learning English.
They're not making any progression in the language and they feel like they're stuck.
And then when I ask them how much time they are spending studying English every day, they tell me they aren't.
You can't do that. Okay.
You cannot do that.
Every time they say that, I just want to just kind of grab them through the screen and say, what are you doing?
Okay. If you are trying to learn English, you have to put time in.
Think about it like running a marathon, not the actual marathon itself, but the preparation for that marathon.
If you say you are trying to run a marathon, but you're running is not getting any better and it's not getting any easier and you don't think you can do it.
And then someone asks you, well, how much time are you spending training to run that marathon?
You say, oh, I haven't trained at all.
I've just been sitting on my couch.
How can you expect to get any better?
You can't. You have to put the time in to training.
You have to put the time into your studying.
If you actually want to push through that intermediate plateau, you have to invest the time.
Absolutely have to.
This means that you must put in at least 20 minutes a day, 20 minutes a day consistently for three months will get you results.
Will get you noticeable results.
I say 20 minutes as a minimum, not as a maximum.
If you can do an hour, if you can do an hour and a half, that's better, but at least 20 minutes.
If you can only give 20, that's OK.
Do it consistently.
Again, like I said, every single day for 90 days, you'll have a difference.
But the more time you can put in, the more training you can do, the more studying you can do, the better.
Now I said this before, but just be careful that you're doing an amount of time that's manageable for you.
If you say, I'm going to study for three hours a day, every single day, and you don't have the time for that, you're not setting a realistic goal.
So my second piece of advice here, make sure that time is actually realistic for you.
If you know that you do not have two hours a day to study English and you only have a half hour, that's OK.
Maybe you can fit in more time on a few days, maybe not.
But again, being consistent is the more important part.
You don't want to say you're going to stay for two hours a day and then never do it because you're not going to make any progression.
Consistency, being able to do it every day, making sure it's realistic and manageable for you is the best thing that you can do when you're trying to plan out this time and when you're trying to get through this plateau.
Now, what you do with that time is also extremely important.
I know I said Stephen Krashen and Steve Kaufmann so much.
If you don't know who they are, they're polyglots.
Stephen Krashen is a linguist.
He studies how people acquire languages.
He's the one who really promotes the input hypothesis, the idea that the more time you spend reading and listening to the language, the more you're going to learn.
Steve Kaufmann is a polyglot, which means he's someone who speaks multiple languages.
I think he speaks like 18, you know, some better than others, obviously.
But in his lifetime, he studied multiple languages, spoken multiple languages.
And he has used this input theory.
He reads a lot. He listens a lot.
And that's how he studies a language.
Steve Kaufmann also has a website and an app called Link.
I will leave a link to Link in the description below.
But it's what I use.
I use it. I've said this in a previous video.
The free version is OK.
It's not really great.
In the future, I want to do an episode showing you how to use Link because I think it's a really great app.
It really transformed how I was studying Spanish when I was really trying to learn as much of it as possible.
And it tracks all of your data.
I know that sounds a little bit scary, but is it really tracking how many words you're reading, how many words you know, what words you don't know, how much time you spend listening, all of that language learning data.
That's what it's tracking.
And it's really seeing how you're progressing.
So you can look at it.
You can see how much time you're spending.
You can see how your vocabulary is improving.
And it also has flashcards.
So you can try to learn new vocabulary from the words that you've seen, but you don't know yet.
You can put YouTube videos there like this YouTube video, this podcast.
You can import into Link.
You can put Netflix shows, books, articles from other websites.
You can really import everything and just make it your own personal library and then use Link for its dictionary and for all of the data that it's going to take about your language learning.
Again, I think it's a great app.
I will show you in the future sometime how I use it, but I really find it has been extremely impactful for my own personal language learning.
If you're in the intermediate plateau, you really should be using information and sources that are at the intermediate, higher intermediate, even lower advanced level.
You should no longer be using introductory material, introductory podcasts and sites.
Stuff for beginners is great.
But if you're at the intermediate level, now is the time where you need to push yourself.
So that's my next piece of advice is to use content that's slightly above your current level.
What you want to do if you're at the intermediate level, you should be able to understand the news.
If you watch the news in English, if you read a news article in English, you should be able to understand it or understand most of it.
That really tells you that you're at that intermediate level and that your comprehension is at a decent level.
If you can watch the news and understand the idea, if you can read a news article and understand what's happening, even if you don't get every single word or phrase, but you understand the general idea, that's really a good test to see if you're at the intermediate level.
Now you should be looking for content that's slightly above it.
I would say look at longer news articles.
There's a lot of different websites that you can use for news.
We have a lot like NBC, ABC, CNN here in the United States.
I know in England they have the BBC, Canada has its own news, Australia, no matter what type of English you're trying to learn, there's news sites that you can use.
Look for longer articles.
Also look for specific articles.
Look at the different sections.
Let's say you're interested in science.
If you go to the science section of the BBC website, there's some pretty specific articles that have a lot of vocabulary.
Those are great. If you're interested in that section, read those.
See what those specific vocabulary terms are because that's going to help you expand your vocabulary out and get exposed to words that you're not going to see in just a general news cast or just a general news website.
Also, start using opinion pieces.
Opinion pieces are great because the language style is different.
With news sites, you're getting a lot of facts.
You're getting more fact -based reporting and you're not giving someone's opinion.
Someone's not trying to convince you, or at least hopefully with a news site, they're not trying to convince you of a certain opinion.
If you go to the opinion section of a news website, you're going to see a different style of writing.
Usually these are more colloquial in some ways.
People will usually put some type of humor into their opinion piece, or they're a very strong argument.
Someone's trying to persuade you.
These usually use more colloquial phrases, use words in more of a slang type way, and you get just a different type of reading.
You can also go with fiction.
Just general fiction books, again, have a different style of writing than the news.
The news is a lot more straightforward.
When you start getting into fiction, you start seeing people are using metaphors.
They're using analogies.
They're using different types of grammatical structures.
Even just a book that's written for someone that maybe is at a teenage level, so someone who is a younger native English reader, even those books can be at a very good level for someone who's at the intermediate plateau.
For example, of course, everyone knows the Harry Potter books, the Hunger Game books.
Those type of young adult is what we call them, young adult literature or YA literature.
You'll see that on sites.
Those are some great resources.
You can check those out and just see one if you like them.
Of course, if you don't like them, don't read them, but you can see how that level is for you because you do get a lot of different grammatical structures that you won't see in other types of writing.
You can also just read regular fiction books that might maybe are for adults, but try to find a book that's a little bit thinner, not as long so it's not so overwhelming.
Just know to give yourself the amount of time.
Just know it's not going to be as easy as reading lower level stuff.
But if that's something you want to do, I totally understand.
Like I said, I do that and try it.
See if you like it.
Now, the next piece of advice, and I know I've been hinting at this while we've been talking, is you have to have content you like.
If you pick a resource that you hate, you're not going to read it.
If you hate Harry Potter, don't try to use Harry Potter to learn English.
Okay, don't do it. If you hate science articles, don't go to the science article site.
Don't go to the science article section of a news website.
Pick stuff you like.
Figure out what is it something that you want to read in your native language.
What are the topics that you're interested in, and that you enjoy reading in your native language.
Then translate that to English.
What are the things that you like?
Do you like weightlifting?
Then watch weightlifting videos in English.
Do you like reading science fiction?
Read science fiction in English.
Do you like watching cooking videos?
Watch cooking videos in English.
Okay, figure out what it is that you enjoy.
What are things that you want to watch?
And then find the English equivalent and do that.
You need motivation.
You need to find things that you want to interact with, that you're going to enjoy doing, so you can build those habits.
So you can come back day after day, and you can keep studying English.
And the next piece of advice that I tell my students and that I have for you is that you really need to practice all four areas of a language.
You know I'm a big proponent of input.
Read as much as possible.
Listen as much as possible.
That's why I made this podcast to be a resource for my students.
But besides that, you should also be speaking and writing.
Writing is a great way to help when you're at the intermediate plateau because it makes your brain think in a way that you haven't before.
What I like to tell my students is to read an article and then try to summarize it in just a paragraph of writing and see how you do.
Or you can also journal about your day.
I know there are people who like journaling.
They do it anyways in their native language.
And you can do that in your target language.
So if you're trying to learn English, then journal in English.
If that's something you like doing.
Like I said, if it's not something you like to do, then don't do it.
But if you like that, try it.
Try just summarizing your day in a paragraph.
Try summarizing what you read in a paragraph.
Try summarizing what TV show or movie you saw in a paragraph.
It doesn't have to be long, just a few sentences.
But see how your brain does that.
Writing is difficult.
It makes your brain think of what you want to say.
It makes you really kind of question your word choice, your vocabulary, your grammatical structures.
And it's difficult to do.
But the more you do it, the better you're going to get at it.
And the better your brain is at articulating your thoughts of expressing what you're thinking.
And that's important.
You want to try to be able to think in that language you're trying to learn.
A lot of people translate from their native language into English.
They can't think in English.
So the more time you spend in that native language and producing in that native language, the easier it's going to be.
Writing is a great way to do that.
But the other way to do that is speaking.
So my last point, the last piece of advice I want to say is you have to speak and you have to speak a lot.
If you're at the intermediate plateau, if you feel like you're having difficulty speaking, speak as much as possible.
Now, I know taking classes is difficult.
Not everybody can take classes every day with somebody with a tutor online.
I understand that. It is expensive.
It is an expense. However, you might want to look at language exchange apps.
There are apps that allow people to talk to each other for free.
You might want to look into that.
There's other options if you are trying to learn a language that don't necessarily cost money and you can try that.
But speak. Speak as much as you can.
The next part is with AI.
You can now just speak into your phone.
You can do a lot of different things that really people weren't able to do even just a couple of years ago.
There's so many resources now that you can do.
I want to do an episode on AI and how you can use AI to help with your English learning and help with learning a language.
But I really just want to stress that you have to speak again being an English teacher online for teaching for a couple of years now and seeing a lot of students.
There's so many students who are afraid to speak.
And if you want to get good at speaking a language, you have to speak and you have to speak a lot.
So if you are going to take the time to do a language exchange or invest the money in a tutor, make sure that you are speaking.
If you're going to take a class with someone with a tutor online, do not be one of those students who gives one or two word answers.
Push yourself. Try to speak as much as possible.
Be confident. If you're with a tutor, they know.
They work with people every day who aren't fluent and who make mistakes.
That's OK. There's no reason to be embarrassed.
You should never feel ashamed or feel sad or feel frustrated when you're doing a language class with somebody.
If you're with a tutor who is making you feel uncomfortable about your mistakes, find another tutor.
All right. Don't even waste your time there.
But you need to speak and you need to speak a lot no matter what mistakes you make.
Put yourself out there because the more you do it, the easier it's going to get.
Put all of these things together.
I know I've given you a lot of advice in this episode, but look at them and see what you are doing right now and what you're not doing right now.
If you really want to push yourself, if you really want to get past this intermediate plateau, look at what your current schedule is, what areas you can improve in and what your plan is to help you get past this intermediate plateau.
You need to be able to schedule time for studying.
You need to think about your resources.
You need to think about what you're going to be doing on a daily and weekly basis to help you get past this part of your language learning journey.
I hope this helped you.
I hope you learned some interesting information and are able to reflect and use this in your own journey to becoming fluent in English.
Like I said, the intermediate plateau does not last forever.
You'll get through it.
It'll get easier. It'll get better, but it does take time and it does take effort.
If you put that work in, I know you're going to get better and I know you're going to keep progressing to becoming fluent in English.
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Until then, keep learning English.
See you next week.
