Got stuck at C1 in English

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Ольга
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Got stuck at C1 in English

Postby Ольга » Thu Apr 27, 2017 1:57 pm

Hi there, guys!
I have come to ask a piece of advice.
I have got stuck at my C1 (Advanced) level in English.
I can understand 80% what natives write and speak, read lots of modern and classic literature, listen to English podcasts and audiobooks, write lots of essays and give to natives to check... But! My level has frozen around C1.
What should I do? I am ashamed of my speaking skills, I think I speak slowly and with a horrible accent.
I want to pass a CPE exam, but I can't, my mock exam's result is about 60 %.
I think I am not progressing at all. :x :(
Yesterday I listened to "All Ears Podcast". They spoke with such an awesome pronunciation, intonation, and speed of speech that I felt miserable and desperate.
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Voytek
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Re: Got stuck at C1 in English

Postby Voytek » Thu Apr 27, 2017 2:35 pm

My advice is you should go with listening and reading in English, particularly wtih materials which will help you improve your vocabulary, knowledge of the grammar and the pronunciation. Here you can find plenty of books with audio in non-regional English:
https://librivox.org/reader/2607?primary_key=2607&search_category=reader&search_page=1&search_form=get_results

https://librivox.org/reader/94?primary_key=94&search_category=reader&search_page=1&search_form=get_results

Also, it's a good idea to use Murphy's "Advanced. Grammar in Use".

And here you can watch a British serial for people who are learning English.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k89GF-i_Eyg&list=PLdYSWqTrWP2jyqWIdjsATbrb11uN_BMrF&index=1

It's quite simple but it will hepl you to get to know the pragmatic aspect of words (its using in social context).

I don't know whether you're using Anki, but you should try it for the words acquisition if you haven't done it yet.

Here you can find a great online dictionary which you can download audio files from.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-russian/
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Re: Got stuck at C1 in English

Postby Xmmm » Thu Apr 27, 2017 3:03 pm

Ольга wrote:What should I do? I am ashamed of my speaking skills, I think I speak slowly and with a horrible accent.


Native speakers of English generally view Russian accents very positively. If they can understand what you're saying without scrunching up their face or asking you to repeat what you said, I wouldn't worry about your accent at all.

I heard the former US ambassador to Russia speak on Echo of Moscow and the hosts gushed with praise about his excellent Russian. He was fluent, he made very few grammatical mistakes, he was clearly a C2 speaker ... but he had a thick California accent. They didn't care because he was easily understandable and that California accent probably just made him sound exotic. :)
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Re: Got stuck at C1 in English

Postby Serpent » Thu Apr 27, 2017 3:11 pm

It's better to speak slowly than to speak so fast that people can't understand you ;)
Progress is slow at this level.
If your writing is better than your speaking, try shadowing.
At an exam it's mostly important to make the needed phonemic distinctions (e.g. pronounce three and tree differently ;)), you don't need a perfect accent.

You say you ask natives for corrections. Are you receiving any? If your post is anything to go by, your writing is already great and mostly grammatically correct, but maybe a bit formal.
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Re: Got stuck at C1 in English

Postby aaleks » Thu Apr 27, 2017 3:20 pm

Ольга wrote:I can understand 80% what natives write and speak, read lots of modern and classic literature, listen to English podcasts and audiobooks, write lots of essays and give to natives to check... But! My level has frozen around C1.

What about series and movies? If you don’t have anything against series I’d offer you to binge watch a couple season of any series you like.
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Re: Got stuck at C1 in English

Postby neofight78 » Thu Apr 27, 2017 4:38 pm

Ольга wrote:What should I do? I am ashamed of my speaking skills, I think I speak slowly and with a horrible accent.


Whilst I've not heard you speak, this is almost certainly not true. I've lost count of the number of Russians who have complained about the quality of their accent and have said it's the thing they need to work on most. In reality they all have a perfectly acceptable accent, and they really need to work more on things like grammar.

To me the most likely explanation for this phenomenon, is that Russian pronunciation and accent is fairly standard with little variation. This gives an expectation that their English accent should somehow be "standard", however no such thing exists! For native English speakers we are used to the idea that everyone has a different accent which betrays from which country, region and even town a person is from. To me there is nothing more unnatural or unpleasant than a non-native speaker talking with a standard American or British accent, it's almost fraudulent. If you are understandable, and easy to listen to (which I'm betting you are), then your Russian accent is an asset and not a weakness in need of correction.
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Re: Got stuck at C1 in English

Postby YtownPolyglot » Thu Apr 27, 2017 4:46 pm

Don't compare yourself to a podcast. Remember that there are plenty of times when many of us who are native speakers don't understand something another native speaker has said.
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Re: Got stuck at C1 in English

Postby Arnaud » Thu Apr 27, 2017 5:03 pm

You can also use a book about accent reduction, like "Mastering the American Accent" by Lisa Mojsin (that can be found easily, cough, cough). Perhaps you'll be able to identify some problems you're not really aware of when listening to that book...
Without a recording, difficult to say how horrible your accent is (probably less than mine, anyway :lol: )
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Re: Got stuck at C1 in English

Postby Voytek » Thu Apr 27, 2017 7:46 pm

Just stick to the journey despite of the fact that you can feel clumsy when speaking English.

Listen to this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WEWClfpr0E
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Re: Got stuck at C1 in English

Postby Jbean » Thu Apr 27, 2017 8:17 pm

I agree with all of the above. Progress slows as your ability rises.

I also agree with speaking more slowly and being careful not to mumble because you are embarassed by your accent. Most English speakers are used to talking to people who speak less than perfect English. Since we don't view our language as being particularly beautiful, it's merely a tool for us. I'm a native speaker and I usually use subtitles for TV shows with Scottish actors.
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