Learning a language is very much like riding a roller coaster: it has its ups and downs! Many students can attest to this in their English learning journey. Let’s imagine a brand-new English student, starting as a beginner and experiencing explosive growth in a short period of time. Now that they have a teacher guiding them, they progress from A0 to A2 in as little as nine months. This is due in large part to the fact that learning at this stage is simpler: memorizing basic vocabulary, learning the basic sentence structure, and getting a handle on English pronunciation. The intermediate plateau hasn’t come into effect yet.
The students can’t express themselves as freely as they would in their native language, but they are able to have a simple conversation. Maybe they even had a chance to use their newfound skills in an English-speaking country! In general, they are still feeling a bit shaky, but with far more confidence than at the beginning.
When our imaginary student arrives at B1, something changes. Instead of moving up one sublevel (e.g. A2 to A2+) every three months, now it takes every six months. They find themselves forgetting more vocabulary and grammar rules from class to class. Instead of making less mistakes each time, they are making the same amount. They are confused – what happened to the progress that they were so proud of?
This phenomenon is not because they are a “bad student” – in the ESL world, we call it the Intermediate Plateau. Students in this situation experience slow progress; this change in momentum can result in the student feeling demotivated, frustrated, and in severe cases, unwilling to continue with their classes. There are a few reasons that we can pinpoint for this happening:
What Contributes to the Intermediate Plateau?
1. Specialized Vocabulary. When you go from knowing 0 words in English to 100 words, that’s a huge increase! Those hundred words also include many of the most commonly used words in the English language, so you are able to create many different basic phrases with them. However, once you get to intermediate-level classes, the new words that you are learning are more context-specific. They may be important in a conversation about climate change, but if you don’t talk about that topic often, you are likely to forget it.
It is thus more difficult to practice vocabulary at this stage, since you are no longer using the same 300 words to talk about the same 10 topics. This is compounded by the fact that learning and memorizing the word “good” takes the same amount of brain power as the word “gravelly”. Our imaginary student feels more exhausted by all these new words that they may not remember from one week to the next, if they didn’t have any opportunities to use them other than in class.
2. Feeling Too Comfortable. By this time in our imaginary student’s English journey, they have a few practice strategies that are helpful to them. They have their weekly class, watch their favorite show with English subtitles, and listen to their favorite songs in English. However, other than the class, they are not exposing themselves to any new English-language situations. It’s easy to feel comfortable with what we have been doing so far, but it isn’t always easy to realize that we need to switch things up, and even less easy to put those changes into practice.
3. Imitation vs. Original Thought. When our imaginary student is a beginner, they do most of their learning through imitation: by copying the teacher and doing what they do, they get a feel for what speaking English should sound and feel like. However, at an intermediate level this changes – students are now capable of generating their own thoughts, and not just saying the correct answer to their teacher’s question. The problem is that generating your own thoughts is far more work than imitation, especially in a language that is still relatively new to us. Transitioning from imitation to creating original thoughts is not easy to do, and many students get frustrated with this new level of complexity.
4. New Situations, Same Grammar. Many students (rightfully) put an emphasis on being understood, using the simplest language that they can to get their point across. This is okay to have a conversation, but a B2 or C1 student is expected to have mastery over a number of more complex tenses: past perfect, future continuous, and beyond. Our imaginary student is used to using just a few tenses, and may be resistant to shaking the dust off of the long-forgotten present perfect in order to move past the intermediate plateau.
How can our imaginary student face this challenge and continue their progress? Luckily, there is a path ahead.
Strategies for Traversing the Intermediate Plateau
1. Look for more complex, more authentic materials. As beginners, many times the “real” (i.e. made for native English speakers) materials are too difficult. But now that our imaginary student is an intermediate learner, they are ready for some authentic stuff! Videos, articles, Instagram and Twitter/X accounts – anything is fair game. The student may not understand 100% of it, but it will be an opportunity to challenge themselves in a new way.
2. Demand excellence from yourself when fixing mistakes. Linguists use the term “fossilization” to refer to when students make a mistake so often that they stop realizing that it is a mistake. Our imaginary student’s Craving English teacher can help them fix their mistakes in class, but if the student doesn’t hold themselves to the same standard while practicing, it will become harder and harder to break those bad habits. An intermediate student won’t catch every mistake they make, but they should always be vigilant so that the English foundation that they build is a solid one.
3. Find a new media obsession. We all know the feeling of finding a new TV show, YouTube channel, or TikTok account that we quickly become addicted to, watching new episodes whenever we can. If you can make that happen in English, you will find that practicing is easy! Plus, you will unlock a new world of vocabulary and grammar that you have never seen before, all while feeling like you are having a relaxing evening.
4. Use your teacher as a resource. Our imaginary student’s teacher is their biggest asset when it comes to progressing through this stage. They act as a source of knowledge when the student has a question, moral support when the student feels discouraged, and an important source of consistency in their language learning journey. This last point is perhaps the most important, since consistency is the biggest antidote to the Intermediate Plateau. Craving English has a highly trained team of teachers who specialize in helping students through this tricky period – why not try a trial class to see how they can help you?
Overcoming the Intermediate Plateau can be tricky, but by understanding the causes and how we can move past it, our imaginary student will be able to progress from A2 to B2 and even beyond! With some hard work and careful strategizing, they will be able to continue their language learning journey and progress towards fluency.