reineke wrote:I am all ears
^ What the fox said.
I spent very little time speaking Spanish while learning it. Some time with a preschooler who only spoke the language. Some time interpreting for parents who only spoke the language. But almost all of my speaking came from media absorption...and some time reading aloud. I'd estimate I got to B2/C1 pretty much through that. Of course, I've had much more speaking practice since I started working as a bilingual teacher, but I'd say the main thing that's changed in my speaking is having a larger vocabulary from looking up so many random words (e.g., looking up eel yesterday - anguila in Spanish, anguille in French - after going to the aquarium).
Right now, with French, it's pretty much the same thing, except I speak to my kids. However, they're not teaching me the language; I'm teaching it to them. To avoid teaching them nonsense, I focus on getting lots of input--these days primarily from listening to the radio, with occasional TV and some / lots (depending on the month) reading. In contrast to learning Spanish, I've spent almost zero time reading aloud (beside when reading books in French to the kids). I started speaking to the kids in French at probably A0 in September and have clawed my way up to ~B1 as of January. I consciously decided to push the speaking hard because I wanted to start getting the language into their heads during their most flexible years.