From very good to fluent. How do you do it?

tripkat

My ladypal speaks very good English (she's russian) but would like to get to a point where she is able to attend university and where she doesn't have so much difficulty mixing up words occasionally and can read faster. Her English is more than enough for her to work quite happily and make new friends etc, but sometimes she misses nuances or mispronounces things or doesn't recognise lesser used words. Has anyone any suggestions as to how she might progress. Are there tefl classes that would actually help her reach her desired level or is she just going to have to crack on at it on her own.
Any advice would be appreciated (except for advice about that rash, I showed it to the Doctor and she said it'll go away).

pickarooney

Immersion is really the only way to go. Little things like you describe will naturally improve through talking and listening. As long as the enthusiasm is there, fluency will follow. To be honest, you don't need to have mastered a language to attend university classes in that language but doing so will bring on her English no end as the mental stimulation of one type of learning tends to feed the other. YMMV of course, but this has been my experience as regards friends who have worked and studied in a foreign country and language.

LimeFruitGum

She's probably too advanced for a TEFL class at this stage, if her standard of English is already high in terms of vocabulary and grammar.

I suppose at this stage, she is trying to master idiomatic language and colloqualisms? A good way to address that is to read widely, jot down any interesting phrases and try them out in conversation. She'll make mistakes but hey, that's part of the process.

sNarah

As a foreign speaker of English my advice would be to speak as little Russian as possible in daily live. Next to that, reading creates a great feeling for linguistics, from something as simple as magazines to more advanced literature. Watch movies with the English subtitles on, which creates an affiliation between the written and spoken version of a word. Listen to the radio, watch television. Maybe look out for English conversational classes and get a workbook with grammar exercises as this is a harder skills to obtain, vocabulary usually comes more natural.

Donkey Oaty

sNarah wrote: »

...get a workbook with grammar exercises as this is a harder skills to obtain, vocabulary usually comes more natural.

Lee!

Earthhorse

Also "skill". But hey, who's counting?