Le Baron wrote:On the question of being in the country of the TL: the language very often doesn't come to you in the way you need or want; you have to go to it. It's up to you to make conversation with people, to initiate it. One of the grim facts of life is that people generally only talk to other people they don't know when they want something. In a situation of work you tend to be in the same boat and so the opportunity for equal casual conversation is higher.
In general most vocabulary past ordinary discourse is indeed gleaned from books, TV/films, listening to other people give talks etc. However base level speaking fluency is cemented with a much lower general vocabulary and the entire thing is training of a reflex action, not a memorisation exercise.
I think SRS is good at any stage. In fact I can't fathom the arguments for/against certain stages because they seem not to make any sense to me. You need to learn words and if SRS makes you learn words then you tailor it to your needs at the given level.
This makes sense. In the hypothetical scenario that I lived in a country of the TL, I might use SRS if my level was low and/or I had already started using it before moving there. But if I were to live in a country where English/German/Spanish were spoken, I'd never use SRS. I can already read comfortably in them.