How long will it take to become proficient in a foreign language?

People often ask: “How long will it take me to become proficient in language X?” This question is impossible to answer because a lot depends on a person’s language learning ability, motivation, learning environment, intensity of instruction, and prior experience in learning foreign languages. It also depends on the degree to which the target language is similar to or different from the learner’s first language or languages that the learner has learned in the past. Last, but not least, it depends on the level of proficiency the person wishes to attain.

   Different language skills

There is no such thing as across-the-board proficiency in a particular language. Proficiency is usually measured in terms of four skills:

• speaking
• reading
• listening
• writing

   Levels of proficiency

Two widely used sets of guidelines are used to identify stages of proficiency (what one can actually do in the language), as opposed to achievement (what one has studied). Both guidelines represent a hierarchy of global characterizations of integrated performance in speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Each description is a representative sample of a particular range of ability, and each level subsumes all previous levels, moving from simple to complex. It is important to understand that these guidelines are not intended to measure what an individual has achieved through specific classroom instruction but rather to allow assessment of what an individual can and cannot do in the language, regardless of where, when, or how the language has been acquired. Both sets of guidelines reflect differences in the amount of time needed by a reasonably capable English-speaking beginning learner of the language to attain a certain level of proficiency in that language.

•  ACTFL (American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages) has guidelines for speaking (1999) and preliminary guidelines for writing. The ACTFL scale goes up only to the Superior level.