Post 305: What is the Advanced level of Language Learning?

Post 305: What is the Advanced level of Language Learning?

Listening and Speaking (Interpersonal Skills--How well does the LL understand and respond to target language questions?)
The advanced language learner can understand the target language and speak the target language just like a native speaker. If you have a younger learner, he could speak without an accent and for an older learner, he will speak the target language with his native language accent. 

Reading (Interpretative Skills--How well can the LL comprehend main ideas of what he reads?)
He can read anything a native speaker can read. He may lack certain slang and may have trouble understanding jokes or sarcasm in what he reads or hears.  An advanced language learner has native like language proficiency, but nuances in cultural meaning still escapes the language learner.

Writing: (Presentation Skills--How well can he present what he has learned?)
He/she can do a presentation at work just like a native speaker. However, he may speak with an accent and still have interlanguage errors so he needs to have a native speaker proof read his presentation. 

Language Control: How accurate is the language learner language?
An advanced learner has very good language control. He has been thoroughly immersed in the target culture. He can speak as fast as a native speaker. He will always have trouble with slang or jokes like mentioned above.;

Vocabulary: How extensive is his vocabulary?
The advanced learner can continue to extend his vocabulary by reading harder and harder books in the target culture. He can buy one of those calendars that native speakers use whereby you learn a new word per day. 

Communication Strategies: How does he make meaning?
Unlike an intermediate learner, an advanced learner has no trouble understanding the telephone and does not have to rely so heavily on body gestures or mouth movements to understand what the native speaker is saying. In fact, by this stage, the language learner has learned to talk, act, behave and even have some of the body gestures of the native speaker. At this stage, the native speaker may congratulate or compliment the advanced speaker for his almost perfect accent. He can interact freely and comfortably with native speakers without the hesitation apparent in intermediate speakers.

Cultural Awareness: What is his knowledge of the target language culture?
He has a thorough understanding of the target culture. He is beginning to make jokes of his own, but not very good ones yet. He understands the differences between the target culture and his own. He notices the cultural differences between the two cultures and like to talk about these differences with native speakers to get their opinion.

At this stage, the advanced learner can improve his conversation skills with non-scripted authentic versions of the target language to better improve his pronunciation in the target language and understand the conversational turns of that culture.  Tourists mistake him for a target culture native speaker.