Time Needed for Speaking Practice

[Xmmm]

Let's say:

1. An English speaker has B2 receptive skills in a Romance language
2. Wants to develop speaking skills to B2, but is in no particular rush as long as they are making progress and can hit the goal in no more than, say 2-5 years.

How many hours a week of speaking practice with a tutor would be needed to have that kind of forward progress? Practice would with the tutor would be 100% in the TL. Like I said, speaker already has B2 receptive skills that he'll continue to work on. He's only looking to transfer from receptive to productive.

One hour a week? More?

(Obviously more is better. Obviously students are different. Obviously tutors are different. I'm just looking for an average "typical case" sort of thing. Thanks in advance ...)

[tiia]

I think the following points are important as well:
At what level are the speaking skills right now? What about the level of the writing skills? Writing and speaking are both productive skills and therefore I'm sure that the influence can not be (completely) neglected.
Does the student do some additional work for speaking at home alone?

[Xmmm]

I think the following points are important as well:
At what level are the speaking skills right now? What about the level of the writing skills? Writing and speaking are both productive skills and therefore I'm sure that the influence can not be (completely) neglected.
Does the student do some additional work for speaking at home alone?

Let's say the current level for speaking and writing is A2 and the student does no additional work for speaking outside of tutoring time.

[reineke]

Divide by 3 or 4:
https://www.languagetesting.com/how-long-does-it-take

[rfnsoares]

This topic is very interesting.
I believe once a week is great. The more important thing to have in mind is make a plan with your tutor and always be prepared for the session. I usually spend a couple of days before the session to read about about the topic, practice pronunciation and get used with the vocabulary that you are going to use during the session. You could start with simple topics, like introductions, food, hobbies, etc and then discuss books and articles.

[Xmmm]

This topic is very interesting.
I believe once a week is great. The more important thing to have in mind is make a plan with your tutor and always be prepared for the session. I usually spend a couple of days before the session to read about about the topic, practice pronunciation and get used with the vocabulary that you are going to use during the session. You could start with simple topics, like introductions, food, hobbies, etc and then discuss books and articles.

Yeah ... I only worked with this tutor twice, don't know what the game plan is yet. We're doing all the hobby stuff now. Blah blah blah. I'm able to understand everything, just when I reply I'm at a loss for words sometimes. Activation.

I'm asking the question because there are some reasons I want to keep tutoring hours per week at the minimum that allows for progress:

1. timezone and scheduling issues -- also the family doesn't like it when I lock myself in a room and say "go away"
2. the introvert's usual aversion to dealing with strangers
3. I plan to start up Russian tutoring again in the summer and am almost sure I'll need two hours a week there, so if I could keep Italian to one it would be great.

[MamaPata]

1. timezone and scheduling issues -- also the family doesn't like it when I lock myself in a room and say "go away"

How rude of them! (I had a skype lesson on Christmas day - I'm not sure my family really appreciated it...)

I don't really have an answer to your question, though I'll be intrigued to find out the answer. I have a big mouth (in all languages) so I've never had too much of a gap between my speaking and comprehension ability. Plus, I've always had classes, so I've pretty much always spoken from the start.

That said, I'm going to try and revive my Spanish in a few months, and I definitely notice a gap there these days, so we'll see how that goes.

(edited for typos)

[rfnsoares]

This topic is very interesting.
I believe once a week is great. The more important thing to have in mind is make a plan with your tutor and always be prepared for the session. I usually spend a couple of days before the session to read about about the topic, practice pronunciation and get used with the vocabulary that you are going to use during the session. You could start with simple topics, like introductions, food, hobbies, etc and then discuss books and articles.

Yeah ... I only worked with this tutor twice, don't know what the game plan is yet. We're doing all the hobby stuff now. Blah blah blah. I'm able to understand everything, just when I reply I'm at a loss for words sometimes. Activation.

I'm asking the question because there are some reasons I want to keep tutoring hours per week at the minimum that allows for progress:

1. timezone and scheduling issues -- also the family doesn't like it when I lock myself in a room and say "go away"
2. the introvert's usual aversion to dealing with strangers
3. I plan to start up Russian tutoring again in the summer and am almost sure I'll need two hours a week there, so if I could keep Italian to one it would be great.

Yes, this is a very difficult topic. I also do not have an answer... I speak for myself, I think that 1 hour a week is more than enough. So two days to prepare for the lesson and the other week days I have my study routine.

[Cavesa]

I'd say the out of tutoring activities are crutial. People not doing much outside of the tutoring sessions can't progress much.

I would like to add a few questions:
How good is your active knowledge of the grammar?
And how big is your vocabulary?

Sure, lots of things depend on practice. But I have noticed many times, that people struggling to speak are in reality often struggling due to their weak grammar (or gaps in it) and low vocabulary, not because of too little practice. Without strenghtening this base, people just repeat the same mistakes all over again, just paying much more money for making the mistakes.

If the grammar and vocabulary knowledge is solid and things just don't click together fast enough, it is probably only matter of practice. But if the usual struggles while speaking include searching for the right verb form, remembering only too basic vocabulary, or messing up the prepositions, it is a different story. Of course I don't mean occassional mistakes, everyone makes those even at a higher level. But systematic ones that appear several times per conversation, those are the main bottlenecks requiring study. And in such a case, I believe 1 hour with the tutor and 2 hours of independent work on strengthening the knowledge base would work much better than 3 hours with a tutor or conversation partner.

[Xmmm]

I would like to add a few questions:
How good is your active knowledge of the grammar?
And how big is your vocabulary?

Sure, lots of things depend on practice. But I have noticed many times, that people struggling to speak are in reality often struggling due to their weak grammar (or gaps in it) and low vocabulary, not because of too little practice. Without strenghtening this base, people just repeat the same mistakes all over again, just paying much more money for making the mistakes.

... And in such a case, I believe 1 hour with the tutor and 2 hours of independent work on strengthening the knowledge base would work much better than 3 hours with a tutor or conversation partner.

My vocabulary is pretty good. Low B2 at the moment but improves daily.

My grammar is not great. Weak B1, probably. I do know enough that I frequently correct myself before the tutor gets the chance, but I wouldn't want to take a test on it.

So something like 1 hour of tutoring and 2 hours of grammar a week from here till end of 2019. Sounds okay. Thanks!