How to Get Over the Plateau in Language Learning – Focus On These 8 Points

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Have you ever felt stuck in the plateau in language learning?

Language learning is an exciting journey, but sometimes you feel like you are not making enough progress or you feel stuck. In this article, I will show you 8 points to help you overcome this language learning plateau.

If you can tick off all the 8 points in this article, I am sure you will be surprised how quickly you progress in your language learning journey!

1 – Realise how long it took you to master your language.

You may be frustrated at how slow your progress is, but it is important to realise how long it would have taken you to master your first language. Children spend several years to develop their language skills in their first language. As a result of the several years of training, we can now think and converse without difficulty. If you are learning an additional language, you must accept that this is a life-long learning and not be afraid to give yourself more time.

2 – Reconsider the Input / Output ratio.

After reading the previous point, you may feel like you have to spend more time studying and reading. However, studying and reading are just a preparation – you must spend more time actually producing the language. I suggest that you keep the input / output ratio of 1:9 – write and speak in your target language like crazy! This will help you accumulate success experiences in your target language, which can motivate you to keep going further.

3 – Change the way you look at ‘mistakes’.

For many people, mistakes are something to be avoided. We all try not to make mistakes when we speak in a foreign language and feel nervous because of that. However, it’s really important to see mistakes as an opportunity. If you look at children speaking in their mother tongue, they make lots of mistakes but they don’t seem to care. As they say, failure is the seed for growth and success, and you can learn from any mistakes.

4 – Take advantage of what you are already good at.

Have you ever played Pokémon? If you are a Fire-type Pokémon, you will be very strong against Grass-type Pokémon but will be quite weak against Water-type Pokémon. What do you think your strength and interest might be? My point here is if you were interested in Japanese anime, but the other person is wanting to talk about Japanese politics, then you are not taking advantage of your strength. You should find someone who you can talk about topics you really like in your target language. Would that be sport, anime, drama, games, or movies?

5 – Copy someone who is better than you.

People who are good at language learning are good at copying others. If you compare yourself to someone who is a native speaker of your target language then it can be challenging and even demotivating. Therefore, I recommend you to find someone who you think is slightly better than you. From them, you may find something that make you go “Oh, I can steal this expression” or “I can try this study method”.

6 – Ignore the naysayers.

Depending on where you are, there are still many people in this world who live in the monolingual bubble. These people who live in the monolingual bubble unsurprisingly have a monolingual mindset and may discourage you with comments such as “learning a foreign language is a waste of time”, “you should stop doing that”, “you won’t be able to speak fluently like a native speaker”. If you would like to carry out your conviction, it’s important that you identify these naysayers and stay away from them. Maybe they want you to give up simply because they know they can’t do what you are trying to do.

7 – Find like-minded people online.

Having said that, if you are by yourself it can be sometimes challenging to maintain motivation. It’s natural to hit the wall in your language learning journey, so I recommend you to find a community of language learners or speaker of your target language. If you can’t find such a community in the real-life, you can try finding one online. Maybe my Twitter can be a good starting place?

8 – Never Stop Until You Succeed.

Language learning journey is long and hard but I know you will succeed, so please don’t stop! Once you become proficient enough to be able to speak your target language somewhat effortlessly, your world expands so quickly. Along this journey, you will meet many people, encounter different ways of thinking, obtain new habits and experience indescribable excitement of communicating in a foreign language. This is priceless.

Conclusion

In summary, this articles explained 8 points you should focus in order to be successful in language learning. If you feel stuck in the plateau try addressing these 8 points and review your progress.