How to Be FluentToday, we will talk about the ways

How to Be Fluent
    Good morning, everyone. Today, we’ll talk about how to be fluent when speaking a second language.
     (1)Thinking in a foreign language is an important step in the long road that is fluency in a foreign language, but it’s a step that, for some reason,(2)many language learners tend to ignore.(3)Thinking in the language you are learning is not necessarily easy, but it’s something you can practise at any time of the day. Chances are you will NOT wake up one day thinking in a foreign language just because you’ve been learning it for X amount of months/years. Well, it can happen eventually, but I’d like to suggest an alternative that is a bit more, shall we say, efficient, and that will both jump-start your vocabulary acquisition and your fluency. What I’m proposing is that thinking in a new language is a decision you can make, and that you should make.
    Why would I do it?
    You might be wondering why anyone would go through the discomfort of trying to think in a foreign language, especially during the early stages of learning. Well,(4)for starters, thinking in the language you’re trying to learn is one of the easiest ways to review the vocabulary and grammatical patterns you’ve recently acquired. Plus, by actually forcing your brain to think in a language it is not used to think in,(5)you’ll also help activate the newly-acquired information by giving you a real-life use for it.(6)This, in turn, will speed up the passive-to-active vocabulary transition. In a nutshell, passive vocabulary includes the words stored in verbal memory that people partially "understand" , but not well enough for active use. So you might know the word for " vocabulary" in Spanish(vocabulario), for example, but you might not be able to plug it in a sentence of your own yet if you’re a beginner. Your active vocabulary, on the other hand, includes the words that you can readily use when speaking and writing.
    Another great reason to practise thinking in a foreign language is that, according to a study conducted by University of Chicago psychologists on how language affects reasoning, you will make decisions that will tend to be less biased, more analytic, and more systematic. Why is that? "Because," according to the study’s lead author Boaz Keysar, "(7)a foreign language provides psychological distance. " So by thinking in a foreign language you will not only be jump-starting your skills in that language,(8)but you’ll also make smarter decisions. Talk about a no-brainer!
    How do I do it?
    So how can you actually start thinking in a foreign language? Is it something that will magically happen after having gone through your 10cm-thick textbook? Chances are that won’t happen, unless you make a conscious effort to make it happen. So here are a few tips that I’d like you to try to implement in your daily life.
     (9)The first thing that’s really important to do is to create a language bubble around yourself, especially if you’ve reached an intermediate level or anything above that in your target language(but really, the sooner the better). I’ll go a bit more in detail into this in the "Making the Language a Part of Your Life" section just down below, so don’t stop reading just yet!
     (10)The second step is to start making a conscious effort to describe things around you in your target language. One easy way to start when you have a very limited vocabulary is to just look around your room, your neighborhood, and your workplace/school and mentally label whatever you can. If you know colors, scan whatever is around you and think the word for the color of each item you see. If you have recently been learning about furniture, adjectives, or moods, try the same thing with those. Whatever vocabulary and grammatical patterns you are currently learning at the moment,(11)make a conscious effort to think in your target language using those newly-acquired tools. See it as a game, something to enjoy doing.
     (12)As you begin to increase your vocabulary little by little, start gradually increasing the complexity of your thoughts(13)by making phrases and by describing what’s going on around you. Don’t jump steps and try expressing complex thoughts that are in sharp contrast with your current level, though. For example, don’t try to say "I wish I would’ve been there" if you are still a beginner in your target language, because the grammar involved is too complex. Instead, simplify what you want to say. You could say something like "I want to go there" , or "I wanted to go there but I couldn’t. " Don’t worry! In due time you’ll reach a point where you’ll be able to say more complex things. There is no rush!
     (14)If you are a bit more advanced in your target language, as you go about your day, try to think through some typical conversations you would normally have in your native tongue. As you’re leaving your apartment, your neighbor greets you. What would they have said and how would you have replied in your target language? On the way to work, you stop to buy a cup of coffee. How would you order that in your target language? If there are some common words and expressions that you find yourself unable to express, especially on repeated occasions, write them in a small notebook or in your smart phone, and in the evening find the translations. That’s an extremely useful way to quickly gain useful vocabulary that you know you are likely to use in everyday situations.
     (15)The last tip here is to speak to yourself or to a camera. If you are ready to put aside your shame, and especially if you don’t have roommates or family members nearby to eavesdrop on you, it’s also quite useful to talk to yourself. Aside from being useful in organizing your thoughts, it also allows you to practise pronunciation. If you don’t like the idea of talking to yourself, why not make videos of yourself talking to track your progress? You can organize your videos around themes. For example, in one you might try to talk about the weather, and in another one you might tell your real or fictitious listeners how you began the study of your target language, or which methods you’re using at the moment. Countless language learners and seasoned polyglots do exactly that and regularly post their videos on YouTube. If you do the same, you’ll kill two birds with one stone and be able to connect with other members of the language learning community. Have you got what I am saying? If any questions, do not hesitate to ask me now!