Does progress in English slow as you get more advanced?

Ian Wood
A young woman sat in a library with headphones around her neck reading a book
Reading time: 4 minutes

Why does progression seem to slow down as an English learner moves from beginner to more advanced skills?

The journey of learning English

When presenting at ELT conferences, I often ask the audience – typically teachers and school administrators – “When you left home today, to start your journey here, did you know where you were going?” The audience invariably responds with a laugh and says yes, of course. I then ask, “Did you know roughly when you would arrive at your destination?” Again the answer is, of course, yes. “But what about your students on their English learning journey? Can they say the same?” At this point, the laughter stops.

All too often English learners find themselves without a clear picture of the journey they are embarking on and the steps they will need to take to achieve their goals. We all share a fundamental need for orientation, and in a world of mobile phone GPS we take it for granted. Questions such as: Where am I? Where am I going? When will I get there? are answered instantly at the touch of a screen. If you’re driving along a motorway, you get a mileage sign every three miles.

When they stop appearing regularly we soon feel uneasy. How often do English language learners see mileage signs counting down to their learning goal? Do they even have a specific goal?

Am I there yet?

The key thing about GPS is that it’s very precise. You can see your start point, where you are heading and tell, to the mile or kilometer, how long your journey will be. You can also get an estimated time of arrival to the minute. As Mike Mayor mentioned in his post about what it means to be fluent, the same can’t be said for understanding and measuring English proficiency. For several decades, the ELL industry got by with the terms ‘beginner’, ‘elementary’, ‘pre-intermediate’ and ‘advanced’ – even though there was no definition of what they meant, where they started and where they ended.

The CEFR has become widely accepted as a measure of English proficiency, bringing an element of shared understanding of what it means to be at a particular level in English. However, the wide bands that make up the CEFR can result in a situation where learners start a course of study as B1 and, when they end the course, they are still within the B1 band. That doesn’t necessarily mean that their English skills haven’t improved – they might have developed substantially – but it’s just that the measurement system isn’t granular enough to pick up these improvements in proficiency.

So here’s the first weakness in our English language GPS and one that’s well on the way to being remedied with the Global Scale of English (GSE). Because the GSE measures proficiency on a 10-90 scale across each of the four skills, students using assessment tools reporting on the GSE are able to see incremental progress in their skills even within a CEFR level. So we have the map for an English language GPS to be able to track location and plot the journey to the end goal.

‘The intermediate plateau’

When it comes to pinpointing how long it’s going to take to reach that goal, we need to factor in the fact that the amount of effort it takes to improve your English increases as you become more proficient. Although the bands in the CEFR are approximately the same width, the law of diminishing returns means that the better your English is to begin with, the harder it is to make further progress – and the harder it is to feel that progress is being made.

That’s why many an English language-learning journey gets abandoned on the intermediate plateau. With no sense of progression or a tangible, achievable goal on the horizon, the learner can become disoriented and demoralised.

To draw another travel analogy, when you climb 100 meters up a mountain at 5,000 meters above sea level the effort required is greater than when you climb 100 meters of gentle slope down in the foothills. It’s exactly the same 100 meter distance, it’s just that those hundred 100 meters require progressively more effort the higher up you are, and the steeper the slope. So, how do we keep learners motivated as they pass through the intermediate plateau?

Education, effort and motivation

We have a number of tools available to keep learners on track as they start to experience the law of diminishing returns. We can show every bit of progress they are making using tools that capture incremental improvements in ability. We can also provide new content that challenges the learner in a way that’s realistic.

Setting unrealistic expectations and promising outcomes that aren’t deliverable is hugely demotivating for the learner. It also has a negative impact on teachers – it’s hard to feel job satisfaction when your students are feeling increasingly frustrated by their apparent lack of progress.

Big data is providing a growing bank of information. In the long term this will deliver a much more precise estimate of effort required to reach higher levels of proficiency, even down to a recommendation of the hours required to go from A to B and how those hours are best invested. That way, learners and teachers alike would be able to see where they are now, where they want to be and a path to get there. It’s a fully functioning English language learning GPS system, if you like.

Learn about the Global Scale of English learning objectives

More blogs from app

  • A group of business people clapping their hands

    3 ways to boost employee retention with language learning

    By Samantha Ball
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    Did you know? According to our research, employees who work for a company that provides English language training are more thantwice as likelyto say they are very satisfied at work, compared to those working in companies that do not.

    To retain top talent in an increasingly competitive marketplace, all evidence points to developing communication and language skills.

    Communication: the most in-demand business skill

    showed that communication skills including English language skills are the most in-demand power skills across the board. PwC’s agrees: the top five predictors for employee turnover all had the same themes in common – communication, empathy and listening skills.

    According to , a focus on developing employees’ strengths (as opposed to focusing on fixing weaknesses) can lead to a 20-73% reduction in employee attrition. That’s a startling statistic and one that has the potential to transform your business.

    So, the message is clear: by investing in your employees’ existing communication and language strengths, you’re helping them refine a comprehensive range of business power skills. In turn, this will make them feel more engaged and therefore far more likely to stay with you.

    3 ways to implement English training to retain top talent

    Let’s explore three ways to implement an English language skills learning and development plan that underpins communication skills, refines business soft skills and makes your employees want to stay.

    1. Find out what training employees want

    To tailor a culture of learning that supports the development of your employees’ language and communication skills, you’ll find it helpful to get their input first. Survey and interview your team to better understand current barriers to language-specific learning, skills gaps, preferred learning styles and current frustrations.

    For example, is it speaking, listening or reading English that they currently struggle with the most? The better you understand your employees’ needs, the more consulted and engaged with the process they’ll feel.

    2. Reward those who commit to language learning

    In 2023, Forbes outlined , and perhaps unsurprisingly, reward featured strongly. Your performance management system should include a structure that acknowledges employees who are committing to achieving their objectives and developing their skills, and demonstrates the career trajectory that might be possible with improved communication and language skills.

    What that looks like will differ from organization to organization, but it’s important that employees understand the potential opportunities that come with refining their language skills.

    3. Promote the link between language skills and career progression

    Your employees may not naturally make the link between developing language skills and career progression, so help them understand how better language skills can help them move forward in their role and how you will support them in this.

    When they see that language skills have been built into their development plans, they’ll feel invested in staying with your organization and developing their skills with you.

    In a world where communication-based soft skills are more valuable than ever before, the ability to confidently converse in different languages within a business context is an impressive skill that’s transferable to a multitude of other business soft skills, such as teamwork, leadership and problem-solving.

    Once they understand the full range of benefits that come with developing their language skills, they’ll be grateful that you’re committed to helping them do that and will be more likely to stay.

    Boost your workforce’s English language skills and reap the business benefits

    It’s clear that when employees feel that their communication skills are improving, they feel a sense of continued progression and engagement – not only in their language abilities but also across a range of other business power skills.

    The key to retaining talent lies in increasing engagement, and since higher engagement rates are linked to , according to Gallup, there really is no better way to retain a happy workforce.

    Start building your team’s English language skills

    Learn how Mondly by app can help you reinforce a culture of learning and retain top talent within your organization, with flexible English language learning solutions for your business.

    If you liked this blog post and want to learn more,download the PDF report here.

    Find out more about how language training and assessment can drive your business forward by checking out our resources for HR professionals, including articles, whitepapers and research.

  • Office works stood in a cubicle and in a hallway talking

    Goal setting: A path to achieving team fluency

    By Samantha Ball

    Reading time: 5 minutes

    We know businesses that invest in skills development are more likely to retain top talent, and see many other benefits as well. Upskilling your team's English proficiency can have a transformative effect on the business, leading to new opportunities, growth, and a more engaged workforce. However, implementing a corporate language learning program can be challenging. Using traditional goal-setting frameworks can support you and your team on this journey. Here's how:

  • two colleagues working outdoors talking to eachother over a laptop and paperwork

    The role of English proficiency in a global organization

    By Samantha Ball
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    To compete in the modern business space, many organizations are shifting to a more global way of working.

    The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital transformation and globalization across industries but, as many businesses look now to sustaining future growth, the question is: what powers a successful, global organization?

    Why English proficiency is key to unlocking international success

    According to app’s 2022 Power Skills Survey, one of the biggest factors in effective workplace globalization is the use of English as a common language. The report states “Adopting a common language and ensuring that the entire workforce can access it has become more important than ever before.”

    It points to statistics from rising economies in Southeast Asia, showcasing the strength of English use and their respective booming industries:

    • In Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy in terms of GDP, the service sector employs nearly half of the country’s local workforce.
    • In Thailand, nearly 60% of the country’s GDP is generated by tourism and export-oriented production. Vietnam, one of APAC’s fastest-growing markets and a rising manufacturing powerhouse, counts the US among its top trading partners.
    • The Philippines’ business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, a key pillar of the country’s economy, employs 1.3 million people.

    The power of effective communication

    app’s 2022 Power Skills Survey is a drop in the ocean of reports hailing effective communication as one of the top factors to both personal and business success. Good communicators have been linked to higher performance in school, at work and in their personal lives. It is no surprise then that good communicators are highly sought after by talent recruiters.

    With many businesses moving to hiring outside of traditional location boundaries, more languages are inevitable in the workplace. So, can good communication transcend language barriers?

    As the statistics gathered by the Power Skills Survey show, there is evidence that sharing one common language, and therefore enabling more effective communication, can improve business opportunities, workforce growth and ultimately the economy. In the survey report, Norlida Azmi, Group Chief People Officer at Axiata, said:

    “Communication is a critical skill that sets the foundation for not only leadership competencies, such as people management and coalition building, but also for wider and effective stakeholder management in the ecosystem – communicating with our shareholders, customers and the communities that we operate in.”

    English: the official language of business

    While communication for globalization can look different for different markets, the English language is recognized as the prevailing choice for multinational companies. The Harvard Business Review says:

    “The need to tightly coordinate tasks and work with customers and partners worldwide has accelerated the move toward English as the official language of business.”

    So, with businesses now fighting to grow in a global marketplace, unlocking the power of the English language is crucial to success.

    Assessing English proficiency within your organization

    The survey shows that many organizations have work to do in this area, even if they view strong English proficiency as extremely important to their roles. It details the current state of assessing candidates’ English language proficiency and the percentage of organizations that have strategies in place to upskill their employees English proficiency. Both leave room for improvement.

    According to the survey, the number one way talent acquisition managers test English language skills is at the interview (58%), although 37% aren't measuring English language skills at all. This can be problematic later down the line, as not all four language skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) will be accurately represented in an interview.

    Meanwhile, 27% of businesses use computer-based tests and 14% use paper-based tests to assess English language proficiency. By getting standardized test results, talent managers can more accurately assess if candidates’ English proficiency is suitable for the role, making for more confident and successful hires.

    Strategies for English upskilling

    Talent managers can also pass on these insights to learning and development managers to help them implement effective English language upskilling programs. While this investment can empower employees to perform better in their new role, it may also improve employee retention and even lead to succession and impact business growth.

    Whether organizations choose to hire new talent with higher levels of English proficiency or invest in learning and development programs to build their employees’ language skills, there are tools available to help.

    app Language Solutions for Work enables talent and learning and development managers to fast-track and simplify their recruitment and training processes, giving you total confidence that your candidates and employees have the English language skills to drive your business forward. Find the best language assessment and learning solutions for your organization here.

    Drive your business forward with language training

    If you liked this blog post and want to learn more, download our PDF report here.

    Find out more about how language training and assessment can drive your business forward by checking out our resources for HR professionals, including articles, whitepapers and research.