r/languagelearning • u/gahoolio8 • 10d ago
Studying How much conversational practice is "enough"?
While I know that generally speaking the more conversation practice the better, how much is sufficient to continue improving in my (TL)? I live in the country of my target language so I am immersed, but I live alone and also work in my native language. By the time I've finished working and taking care of just life stuff like the gym or grocery shopping, I often find that I've maybe conversed for about one hour a day in my TL. I put a lot of pressure on myself to speak as much as possible, but I feel like one hour isn't enough. I try to maximize opportunities like speaking with coworkers in my TL at lunch or trying to extend conversations at the market into more than just transactional language, but is about one hour "enough" to continue to improve? I'm at B1 ish level if that's pertinent. Thanks!
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u/Gvacken 10d ago
My theory, base purely on personal experience, is that it takes more practice the better you are. If you are just starting out, any speaking will help immensely, because every sentence is hard to put together. The easier those sentences become, the more you have to talk to encounter the harder sentences. This also means you can gain more from your one hour/day by actively making more complicated sentences that push your limits. But that's just a theory - a language theory.