Le Baron wrote:If someone was working on receptive skills (which takes quite some time and effort) and gets them up to speed, e.g. B1, shouldn't time and effort now be given over to developing active skills?
The way I interpret the poll question, we want to learn at least 2 languages to B2 level across all skills eventually in a certain timeframe. Let's say in 5 years from now, I want to get a B2 certificate in both within the same month. There might be a job offer that requires both languages and lets me use both afterwards.
Unless I am surrounded by that language, or have regular meaningful activities that include active use of language A, it means I have to artificially maintain active skills of language A while learning language B. This sounds like a waste of a lot of time and effort that I would rather use to increase receptive skills in language B, which are easier to maintain and have immediate practical use (I can read foreign books everywhere).
If however I were to live in a country where language A is spoken, the above does not apply, since I can make immediate practical use of active skills and therefore they maintain themselves to a large degree.
Efficiency is not only determined by the sequence of tasks, but also depends on which learning activity your situation allows you to employ and how desparately you need/want your new skills. Talking to an online tutor because you want to visit country X in 5 years is less efficient per hour spent than talking to a live tutor in-country in preparation for your residence permit in 3 month.
