Rena
How to move from B2 level to C1 in English language

Dear italki members,


I would like to talk to other Italki members about their experience how to move from B2 level to C1 in a foreign language. How did you work with your language in order to achieve a higher level? Wlhat worked better for you? I would like to hear about the experiences of other learners and to get some advise from professional teachers who teach students on advanced level.


Rena

Apr 13, 2019 7:25 PM
Comments · 12
2
as Alycia says, every minute counts... so dont waste too many
April 14, 2019
2
I think the solution is surrounding yourself with English as much as possible. I would even say "forcing yourself to be surrounded with it". Watching a movie in English even though you can watch it in your mother tongue instead, looking up recipes in English, listening to a lot of different songs in English, etc etc. In other words, whenever you have the choice to watch/read something in your mother tongue vs. in English, you should always choose the latter if possible if you want to improve.
April 14, 2019
1
As the others have said, it depends entirely on your personal situation. It will definitely take more hours to go from B2 to C1 than from B1 to B2. I’d just like to add that while “Beginner” has a definite meaning (student knows practically nothing), as does “Advanced” (student knows practically everything tested on the most advanced exams), the “intermediate” level tells us absolutely nothing. Is the student intermediate in all competencies and skills, or is he advanced in some and beginner in others? Due to this enormous ambiguity, it’s impossible to give useful advice to an intermediate student without actually evaluating his precise mixture of strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand, that is precisely why a good language coach can make such a huge difference after a professional evaluation of the student’s competencies.

April 14, 2019
1

I completely agree with Léon. Forget what those structured methods say, they do not take into account real usage of the language.

I'm a little hard of hearing and it took me countless hours (years) of listening, mostly tv series, to achieve my current C1-C2 level (depending on the subject). Even still, I find some native speakers (mostly on movies) pretty hard to understand.

Structured methods based on grammar demonstration through sentences and repetition proved to be very effective for learning the grammar.

Once I achieved a C1 listening, moving towards a C1 speaking has been quite easy, just a few dozen hours of conversational practice with a native teacher.


April 14, 2019
1
I am not a professional English teacher but I've learnt English for a while. In my opinion, if you would like to promote your English proficiency from B2 to C1 (or an advanced level), you probably have to work much more hours than the hours that cost you from A1 to A2.  There is a different scale of time and effort between the beginners and the advanced learners. 
April 13, 2019
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