german2k01 wrote:Did your spoken fluency improve over the course of months when you were attending classes? Did you notice any noticeable improvement?
Yes, greatly! From talking sparingly, with uncertainty, to holding actual conversations with a level of confidence. And as is so often the case you never notice it happening as a process. Too engrossed in doing. If people are levelling questions at you all the time, to which have to formulate fairly involved responses and this is happening all the time, it's going to cause improvement. Also the teachers correct you, but unlike people on the street they actually know what to correct and also don't demoralise you by pulling faces because you said one word which was wrong.
This is the value of such places. Taking you past the annoying barrier. And I deliberately chose to attend the same sort of programme the government uses for immigrants (though I had to pay), because they deal with people year upon year and have to turn out functioning speakers. They don't muck about teaching literature or taking your money for 12 weeks of footling about. When I experienced prior how the authorities taught immigration Dutch I saw it is a very effective method. After they've put you on the road, you can either aim for further higher qualifications or just improve on your own. There's no 10 years of ploughing the same furrow.