What to Do When You're Not Improving in Your Language Anymore

A method I use to break through a language-learning plateau.

Have you ever felt that you stopped making progress in learning a language? You study and practice like you always do, but you feel you’re not improving in your language anymore. So what happened?

You’ve hit a plateau.

A plateau refers to a time when you stop making visible progress regardless of your best learning efforts. But don’t let a language learning plateau discourage you! That happens to everyone when learning a new skill. When you start learning a language, it’s easy to make quick progress, but as you learn more, you naturally slow down.

I’ve encountered many plateaus when studying different languages in the past years, so in this article, I’ll show how to get unstuck, so you get moving again.

First things first — Track your progress.

I can’t tell how many times people asked me for advice because they “feel” that they’re not making progress anymore, but then I realize they’re not stuck. Some of them are just too impatient and expect good results in a short time.

Sometimes what we feel might not reflect reality, and that’s why I highly recommend you find a way to track your progress so you can measure whether you’re meeting your language goals (if you don’t have language goals, now it’s time to set them)

My favorite tool to track my progress is a voice recorder app. I randomly record a conversation I have with a native speaker at least once a week. This helps me keep track of how much my speaking and listening skills improved in a period of time. Whenever I feel I’ve hit a plateau, I listen to the first and last recordings and compare them to measure my progress. Recording yourself will also boost your confidence if you made progress. You’ll feel proud when comparing your language skills in months 1, 3, 6 and 12.

It’s extraordinary!

You can also write small texts to track the progress you make in grammar and vocabulary. Make sure you have someone to correct your mistakes (or use ChatGPT!) to your measure progress. If you keep making the same grammar mistakes, you’re probably not making progress, but if you make “new mistakes,” then that’s a sign of learning something new, which is good.

If you’ve never tracked your progress before, you can start doing it now. Now, it’s time to show you how to get unstuck, assuming that you’ve hit a plateau.

The 3 steps I follow to break through a language learning plateau

Every time I hit a plateau, I follow 3 steps to get moving again.