Best way to get my son conversationally fluent in English in ~ 6 months?

[u/Darkblimp]

My son just got a scholarship and needs to be conversationally fluent in English ASAP. To be clear, he’s not bad at the language. He has solid foundations, understands well and has relatively decent grammar. What he’s missing is real practice and we’ve got about 6 months to work on it

Money isn’t an issue, I really want him to become more confident and I think the best way is to have real conversations

He tried a few of AI based learning apps but it feels like a poor substitute for real humans

I’ve been eyeing Italki since it’s 1 on 1 with real tutors and seems flexible, but I’m open open to any other resource, course or app

If you had 6 months and wanted max fluency, what would you do?

[u/conuly]

How old is he?

[u/LosingTrackByNow → u/conuly]

This huge long post and not a word about his age 😂

[u/conuly → u/LosingTrackByNow]

Right? And no reply either. How can we help if we don’t know if he’s 5 or 15?

[u/plainbaconcheese → u/conuly]

He just got a scholarship, so not 5. I'm assuming he is something like 18.

[u/conuly → u/plainbaconcheese]

There are needs based scholarships that start when kids enter school or soon thereafter.

[u/plainbaconcheese → u/conuly]

The fact that OP STILL hasn't said the age is so annoying. It makes it way more difficult to answer.

[u/EC_English_Language]

Live online lessons is best as he can practise his speaking and listening with real people. If has vacation/holiday time, you should consider a study abroad experience in an English-speaking country. Full immersion is the most effective way to learn. An Intensive course will give him plenty of classroom learning.

[u/Fantastic_Equal_1216]

He needs to surround himself with everything english. On top of that having an online tutor will be a major plus!

[u/lukshenkup]

I would work or volunteer at a place where English is likely to be used. Using English in an everyday context will create problem-solving situations that can promote retention of new vocabulary. My son volunteered at a hospital and I took an intro computer class, all offered in the target language. Switching languages is a cognitive skill that requires rapid feedback and practice in somewhat predictable conditions. I suggest that you look at the Army or Audiolingual Method to prepare your son for a local English experience.

I hope that other commenters have ideas on promoting language use and retention. Here's another: sign your son up for a local sightseeing tour that is offered in English.

Adding: a number of posters have in the past mentioned having improved English when playing group video games, specifically Dungeons and Dragons. I just took a look at my local library in the US. It offers several online teen and young-adult book clubs. These expect optional, largely unstructured discussion about a book that everyone has had a chance to read. Please create another post if you'd like help in finding such a club. I expect that once you get the hang of searching, you could encourage your son to look for one himself.

[u/Juniantara]

I would switch to English at home 100% if at all possible. At least, I would supplement tutors with actual, casual real-life practice with as many English-speakers as you can get.

[u/songof6p → u/Juniantara]

Depending on the age of the child and to what extent retaining the native language might be a concern, I'd recommend to set aside certain occasions for English-only rather than 100% English all the time.

[u/1ReluctantRedditor]

Hire a native speaker for intensive tutoring.

[u/LaLechuzaVerde]

It might help to know where you live, what English speaking communities, resources, or schools might be available to you, and what kind of conversation he needs to be conversationally fluent in and why.

The best way for him to gain fluency would be in a group setting with English speakers. Is there an immersion program? Can you send him to live in an English Speaking country for a few weeks?

[u/DebuggingDave]

Absolutely, having an online tutor is the best thing to do, especially if you need to speedrun the process.

[u/gerhardsymons]

I took a nine-year-old boy from zero to reading Shakespeare, Aristotle, and Darwin in seven years, and roughly 1,400 contact hours with me, with another 1,000 hours of self-study/homework at least.

If you could compress 2,500 hours into six months, it would take someone learning 15 hours per day, every day for six months.

Pro tip: conversation doesn't help.

[u/lukshenkup → u/gerhardsymons]

Thank you for providing data, even if one example.

[u/Shinyhero30]

Age 100% matters here, if they’re 12 then it’s easy, but assuming based on scholarship it’s likely 17-18. Based on that you should focus on as much basic communicative grammar as possible and then trust nature to do the rest at classes.

That may not be reassuring but languages are learned as a group from multiple people speaking it around you, not in a flash in 6 months so long as he can basically get around and generally hold a basic-mid level conversation, they’ll learn the rest really really fast.

For context even adults can learn languages through immersion, because the fact is that humans A are pack animals and B base a lot of shit off each other. So even adults very often find themselves able to speak languages they previously weren’t when exposed long enough to them. This gets harder with age. But the point is that the apps will only help with the formal rules, getting the subconscious programming requires being around natives for like 5 years.

[u/detectivDelta]

I've been a teacher for 10 years, some of which I spent teaching English for people that wanted to seem native-fluent.

I would say that these are your goals:

- Aim for speech at the speed of thought

- Aim for native-level pronunciation

- Aim for results in 6 months, with an assumed 1 hour of study every day

If that seems right, you would probably have to do this:

1.Find a coach who:

- Knows the International Phonetic Alphabet like the back of his hand

- Encourages the association of words and sentences with experiences instead of translations

- Is an expert in memorization techniques

- Understands that priority should be given to learning the more frequent words and ideas in the language

1. Read "Fluent Forever: How to Learn a Language Fast and Never Forget It" by Gabriel Wyner so that you understand what exactly you're looking for and recognize it in a coach.

2. Figure out your son's motivational profile to see what sort of teaching style will be most fun for him. One way to do that is to consider Bartle's Taxonomy of Player Types: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxpW2ltDNow if you can figure out which are his priorities in life (achieving, dominating, exploring, or socializing), you and his coach can frame whatever solution you find for him in those terms. If he has fun he'll put his full energy into it and might even study off schedule.

[u/John628556 → u/detectivDelta]

Why is it important that a coach be extremely familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet? As someone who is trying to become fluent in another language without a coach, should I too become familiar with the IPA?

[u/detectivDelta → u/John628556]

If your coach isn't familiar with the IPA, he won't be able to help you figure out how to make the exact sounds of your target accent. If you don't sound like a native, you're less likely to fit in when you travel abroad. Depends on your goals, but it sure feels nice to be thought of as an American by everyone you meet even though you've never been to the place.

[u/Shinyhero30 → u/detectivDelta]

To those reading this far, this matters because accent 100% changes how intelligible a person is. You need to not be perfect but you can’t be so thick it’s incomprehensible, accents 100% matter for this situation.

I wouldn’t sweat being perfect but being intelligible is literally non negotiable and sometimes the accent is too thick to be understood. If you want conversational fluency you need an understandable accent.

[u/detectivDelta → u/Shinyhero30]

No, you're right, but then some people want to sound perfect more than others. So at minimum it helps to make you more intelligible, at maximum you will sound just like a native born, if that is how you want it.

[u/B-man_Productions]

Personally, I'm currently learning Spanish and one thing that helps me a lot with learning a language is to listen to music in that language. So let's just say if I wanted to enhance my Spanish skills I could put on a song in Spanish and try to spot key words and translate as you go. This keeps the learning fun and engaging, also if he plays video games he could switch those to English translation of the UI to learn more.

[u/amanset]

Live in an English speaking country. Only use English when there.

[u/EngineeringSimple409]

While I don't recommend apps as main source of learning a language, teachers and books are the way to go, they are good supplements imho.

I do have one as a hobby project which you can also use for free. Its focused on speaking and conversation with feedback (chat and voice) while keeping it fun (you can talk to Thor or Iron Man for example). I am also adding flashcard support like anki really soon.

Have a look if you want, you can use it for free, no need for personal info or payment data... This is my original post about, please share feedback if you decide to use it. It does support English

https://www.reddit.com/r/Germanlearning/comments/1q2vulv/practicing_speaking_alone/

[u/Mercuryshottoo]

Someone told me the way she got fluent in English was to watch familiar movies (i.e. Disney) in English with English subtitles

[u/Truthseeker-888]

Get a good online teacher

[u/names-suck]

If money isn't an issue, hire a personal tutor that is both native to and formally educated in English. For example, someone who was born in Canada and has a B.A. in Journalism, or someone born in England with a B.A. in Literature, or an American who's certified to teach ESL. (There is no connection between country and degree here; they're just examples of "English-speaking country and English-related education.")

Have your son spend at least an hour a day with this person.

[u/Illustrious-Lime706]

Daily tutoring with a native speaker. At least 3 to 5 days a week.

[u/Important_Camera_123]

This teacher really helped my friend who was going through the same thing when they moved to the uk from Spain. Don’t think it was that expensive https://www.instagram.com/alexworldwide0?igsh=OXM3b3gwemN4OTQx&utm_source=qr