Some linguists draw a distinction between code-switching and translanguaging. They see code-switching as speakers using two distinct codes, languages, or dialects and using each one in separate contexts (e.g., speaking Swahili at work and their local dialect at home).
Translanguaging, however, refers to a speaker using all their languages and dialects as one resource, regardless of context (e.g., a Czech student in an English language high school might say “Jak palivo uvolňuje energii, kvalita energie se snižuje v důsledku heat transfer do okolí,” (“As a fuel source releases energy, the quality of the energy decreases due to heat transfer to the surroundings.”) because English is the language of instruction for scientific terms like “heat transfer”).
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You can assess your English language proficiency levels using the CEFR self-assessment grids or by doing an online placement test.
If you need official certification of your English language proficiency, you can take a recognized test. Be sure to choose the test that meets the relevant requirements. For example, if you are applying to a university program, the institution may only accept results from specific exams, such as TOEFL, IELTS, Cambridge English Qualifications, or ACTFL Test of English Proficiency (TEP).
If you need to include details of your language proficiency levels on your resume, QuillBot’s free AI chat can help you formulate the descriptions.
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None of the most commonly used language proficiency scales have 4 levels of language proficiency.
- The CEFR scale has six levels: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2 (where A1 is the lowest level).
- The ACTFL scale has six levels: Novice (with the sub-levels Novice Low, Novice Mid, and Novice High), Intermediate (with the sub-levels Intermediate Low, Intermediate Mid, and Intermediate High), Advanced (with the sub-levels Advanced Low, Advanced Mid, and Advanced High), Superior, and Distinguished.
- The ILR scale also has six levels: 0 (with the sub-levels 0 [No Proficiency] and 0+ [Memorized Proficiency]), 1 (with the sub-levels 1 [Elementary Proficiency] and 1+ [Elementary Proficiency Plus]), 2 (with the sub-levels 2 [Limited Working Proficiency] and 2+ [Limited Working Proficiency Plus]), 3 (with the sub-levels 3 [Professional Working Proficiency] and 3+ [Professional Working Proficiency Plus]), 4 (with the sub-levels 4 [Full Professional Proficiency] and 4+ [Full Professional Proficiency Plus]), and 5 (Native or Bilingual Proficiency).
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A good way to efficiently improve your English pronunciation and English speaking is to concentrate on pronunciation difficulties that are affecting your intelligibility—that is, the sounds or words that you are pronouncing in a way that can make you difficult to understand.
This involves:
- Noticing occasions when your pronunciation has caused a communication breakdown
- Identifying exactly what caused it (e.g., the sound or word that you mispronounced)
- Listening to and practicing the problem pronunciation feature
For instance, you are a German speaker, and you notice that someone didn’t understand you when you said, “We don’t have enough staff.” You therefore have to explain what you meant to your conversation partner, who tells you that they heard the word “stuff” instead of “staff.”
You then decide to practice hearing the difference between the vowel sounds in these two words by searching for “stuff” and “staff” on YouGlish, and repeating some of the sentences.
Including lots of listening in your English learning activities will help develop your pronunciation.
QuillBot’s Translate is a powerful tool that can help English learners with their self-study.
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You can find a conversation partner to help learn English speaking by joining an online language exchange platform.
These platforms connect people who want to practice English with others who want to practice your language. Typically, you’ll spend part of the time speaking in English and part in your language, so both partners benefit.
If your goal is to speak with a native English speaker, it may be difficult to find one who’s learning your language. However, a conversation partner doesn’t have to be a native speaker; what’s important is that they speak English to a high level and meet other requirements (e.g., patience, clear communication, reliability, or shared interests) that make them a good conversation partner.
Choose a platform with strong safety policies. If you’re a young person, make sure you meet the platform’s minimum age requirement and only participate with the permission of your parent or guardian.
You can simulate speaking in English by enabling text-to-speech on your device and having a conversation with QuillBot’s free AI chat.
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The following are hard words to pronounce for many English learners because they contain sounds that are relatively uncommon in other languages.
- Think (the “th” sound)
- That (the “th” sound)
- World (the “orl” sound)
- Girl (the “irl” sound)
- Rural (the “r” sound)
English has some relatively uncommon pronunciation features that are relevant to the question of whether English is a hard language to learn.
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These are some frequently used hard words to spell for English learners at the beginner level, because they contain sounds that are spelled in irregular ways.
- Know (the sounds represented by “Kn” and “ow)
- Said (the sound represented by “ai”)
- Does (the sound represented by “oe”)
- One (the sounds represented by “o”)
- Two (The sound represented by “wo”)
Such irregular spellings are relevant to the question of whether English is a hard language to learn.
QuillBot’s Translate is a powerful tool for language learners and supports over 50 different languages.
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For speakers of English, Mandarin Chinese is considered a very hard language to learn.
The US Foreign Service Institute (FSI), which trains American diplomats and government officials, classified Mandarin as a Category III language in its paper titled “Lessons learned from fifty years of theory and practice in government language teaching” (Jackson & Kaplan, 1999)—the most difficult of the three categories.
The FSI estimated that the adult students on its programs with good language-learning ability required around 2,200 class hours (about 88 weeks of full-time study, including self-study and a significant amount of time in-country) to get to Level 3 on the ILR scale in Japanese.
How long it takes to learn a language is an extremely difficult question to answer, so experts can only give a rough estimate.
QuillBot’s free AI language translator, Translate, supports 52 languages and is a valuable self-study tool if you’re learning a language.
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German is considered a relatively easy language for English speakers to learn.
The US Foreign Service Institute (FSI), which trains American diplomats and government employees, categorized German as a Category I language in a paper called “Lessons learned from fifty years of theory and practice in government language teaching” (Jackson & Kaplan, 1999)—the lowest of the three categories of difficulty for English speakers.
The FSI reported that English-speaking adults with good language-learning aptitude typically took about 575–600 hours (roughly 23–24 weeks of intensive classes plus self-study) to achieve Level 3 on the ILR scale in German.
How long it takes to learn a language is a very difficult question to answer, so this is a rough estimate.
Translate is QuillBot’s free AI translation tool. It supports over 50 languages and can help language learners with their self-study.
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For English speakers, French is considered relatively quick to learn.
The US Foreign Service Institute (FSI), which trains American diplomats and government officials, categorized French as a Category I language in its paper titled “Lessons learned from fifty years of theory and practice in government language teaching” (Jackson & Kaplan, 1999)—the first of three categories, which includes the least challenging of the languages it taught.
In the experience of the FSI, adult English speakers with strong language-learning ability usually required about 575–600 hours of study (roughly 23–24 weeks of intensive classes plus self-study) to reach Level 3 on the ILR scale in French.
This is a rough estimate because how long it takes to learn a language is a very difficult question to answer.
Translate—QuillBot’s free AI translation tool—supports over 50 languages and can help you with your self-study if you’re learning a language.
Continue reading: How long does it take to learn French?
