Over- and Under-estimating Language Levels
English

Over- and Under-estimating Language Levels

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language learning
psychology
philosophy

Hi everyone, I am writing to you all in my native English today to try to start a conversation on a topic I've been thinking about a lot lately.

Recently, I wrote a post in Dutch, in which I took a short piece I had written over a year ago and tried to correct it, using the knowledge I have gained since then. At the time that I wrote the original piece, I probably would have described my level as a high A2, edging into low B1. Since then, I have seen noticeably large improvements in many different aspects of the language. I have been consuming a lot more Dutch-language media (mainly music and YouTube videos) and can understand more of what native speakers are saying at their native pace, and with less effort needed; I have practiced speaking to myself in Dutch for about 15 minutes a few times a week, and the words come so much more naturally to me; I have started reading more regularly in Dutch, and I have undoubtedly improved my vocabulary and become more familiar with grammar structures. However, I would probably estimate my current level as a low B1, overall. There are certainly some skills where I am a solid B2, at least, and others where I may be lacking (particularly my vocabulary, which is an issue I've discussed in other posts), probably closer to an A2. But overall, I would say that B1 is a solid estimate of my level. And to be clear: when I am saying that my improvement is noticeable, I mean that the improvement is so drastic since a year ago that my current level is unquestionably higher than it was even a couple of months ago. So, this is where the disconnect appears - if I have improved as much as I believe, how was I a B1 then and still a B1 now? Does this mean that I was previously over-estimating my level, that I am currently under-estimating my level, or some combination of the two? Alternatively, is the scale so broad that I can still be within the same level even after this much improvement?

Thus, some more general questions I have: What makes us more prone to over-estimate our level vs. under-estimate? Does this differ between languages for a singular individual? Do we sometimes conflate fluency with proficiency, causing us to believe that if we gain fluency then we must also have become more proficient?

Of course, I know the CEFR scale is incredibly broad and an imperfect assessment of language abilities. Because a language has so many different facets - reading, speaking, listening, writing, vocabulary, etc. - and these skills will very rarely all be at the same level, it is incredibly difficult to quantify an individual's overall proficiency in a language.

Another interesting possibility to consider is how our assessment of our own language level is impacted by our perceived competence. The "conscious competence" learning model has four stages: Unconscious incompetence, Conscious incompetence, Conscious competence, and Unconscious competence. As an individual passes through the four stages, they go from possessing very little knowledge of something and being unable to recognize their deficit, to recognizing their deficit and the usefulness of the particular skill, to then knowing and understanding how to do the thing, to finally possessing so much skill in the thing that it can be performed easily, almost like a "second nature". If we apply this to language learning, many of us go from the very beginning where we learn a lot of the basics quickly and feel like we already know a lot of the language (unconscious incompetence), to realizing how little we actually know and figuring out where we need to put more work (conscious incompetence; this is where I think the bulk of language learning sits, probably the whole A2-B2 area), to becoming confident in our language abilities and starting the transition from "learning" new concepts to "mastering" them (conscious competence; I would guess probably starting around the late-B2 or early-C1 stage, depending on the individual's mix of proficiencies in the different skills and what they consider to be the most useful skills in their life), to finally being able to fully function in their target language without the need to exert so much effort (unconscious competence; I believe this would not be a noticeable transition, hence "unconscious", so one could theoretically be at this stage for a very long time before reflecting and realizing this, *but* I would not necessarily categorize it as a C2 proficiency because many people with C2 proficiency must exert a lot of effort, whereas others with lower proficiency get feel more comfortable and use less effort). This may be getting a little too meta and a little off from where I started the conversation, but is it ever possible to be conscious that you have reached the Unconscious competence stage? On the one hand, the terms would suggest that once one is conscious of their competence, they would revert back to the "conscious competence" stage; however, if you are going about your everyday life and are hit with the sudden realization that the skill/language has become like a second nature to you, that you have both a high level of proficiency and a low exertion of energy, that does not immediately invalidate whatever progress you have made. Of course, one can never be perfect at a skill - not even their native language - so maybe the realization that one has reached Unconscious competence begins a cycle between Conscious and Unconscious competence, in which the individual works on refining certain skills to the point that each is no longer a problem and then refining another.

To tie things back together (and maybe I'm answering my own questions here), perhaps I was previously in the Unconscious incompetence stage, where I did not actually realize the complexity of the Dutch language, causing me to over-estimate my proficiency, whereas now, I am far more conscious of my incompetencies and starting to become confident in some of my competencies, which has made me either under-estimate my level or accurately predict it.

Anyway, if you have read this far, I would love to hear other people's thoughts on this topic of estimating language levels and our individual perceptions of our competencies. Please feel free to comment, no matter your level of English. I look forward to hearing from you all!

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