[OP]What are the different stages of English proficiency and how might you describe each?

I'm very weak at vocabulary. It is the most difficult to memorize and use it.
Ah, do you know "plateau effect"? It means that intermediate learners can't be improved as much as beginner. It is a distinctive feature between beginner and intermediate. .We must not stay in plateau!

You made a good classification of different stages of English learners!
Actually, it is hard to move forward to an advanced stage by one effort since mastering a language is like the course of marathon. We have to advance step by step.
Even if we reached the advanced level, it is significant to note that we should keep brushing up on English without fail in order not to fall behind since we will gradually forget if we don't use it.

Sometimes, I am really confused which level we would be in. We can understand English conversationally but we can't speak as much as we can listen to. Then how would we classify ourself in one of the levels? It would be hard to do that,right? Even that this would be the problems of our English educations.

Based on my experiences, we can speak English if we make efforts to speak up. I have great suggetions memorizing one sentence everyday. If you continue to do that for at least 6 months, you would speak English pretty well. However, people usually give up. That is problems.


Best wishes,

Kanghoon

Kanghoon Jang wrote:Sometimes, I am really confused which level we would be in. We can understand English conversationally but we can't speak as much as we can listen to. Then how would we classify ourself in one of the levels? It would be hard to do that,right? Even that this would be the problems of our English educations.

Based on my experiences, we can speak English if we make efforts to speak up. I have great suggetions memorizing one sentence everyday. If you continue to do that for at least 6 months, you would speak English pretty well. However, people usually give up. That is problems.


Best wishes,

Kanghoon

Hi Kanghoon,

I am pleased to see your comments here on two different fronts...

On the one hand, what you say is completely true. Korean learners, like many others in North East Asia, have what might be termed different proficiency levels in particular skill strands (for example, high in reading but low in speaking). How does that all add up to a general proficiency level? Well, things like the TOEFL iBT, IELTS and the Common European Framework of proficiency levels are very good at adding up everything to come up with a balanced assessment. While the learner may be outstanding (advanced) at listening and speaking, the low scores in reading and writing could pull the overall proficiency rating back to somewhere in the intermediate range.

Clearly, however, the challenge here is (1) for current learners to be able to draw on existing strengths to help "catch up" in the others, and (2) future approaches guarantee a balanced approach to skills from the outset.

Also, I want to inform you that your writing and commenting is showing outstanding development! Your comments are much more concise and appear more controlled and thoughtful. That's really great to see, and I am very happy to see that you have been not only seeking me out for 1-1 advice on this matter, but actually putting the advice into practice.

You've got a lot of potential, young man!

Take care,

~ Jason


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The article concerined with English Stages is almost the same body paragraph. I wrote my article with the topic you wrote, I can compare my writing and yours. The result was quite similar. The difference you and me is that I concentrated more on each stage's learner's behavior. I've got an insight in the sentences you described the reason why the stages can be classified. That was very fresh hook that I didn't think about!

So I wanted to delete this reply, but I don't know how. I cannot but leaving this reply like this way.