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Hi, everybody! I am Georgiana, your English teacher and founder of SpeakEnglishPodcast.com. My mission is to help you speak English fluently.

In today\'s episode, I will talk about an issue that is of great concern to language students. It is the much-feared\\xa0plateau.\\xa0

What is a\\xa0plateau? A plateau happens when you stop your progress despite continuing to do "all the right things."\\xa0

An interesting expression for this situation is:\\xa0to hit a plateau.\\xa0

For example:

"It seems\\xa0I hit a plateau\\xa0because I can\'t see any progress with my English, and I\'m still studying really hard!"

More literally, a\\xa0plateau\\xa0is a large flat area of land. This definition makes total sense because if you are walking on a plateau, you are not going up or down. You stay at the same height.

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Plateaus\\xa0are very common not only in learning a new language but in other areas\\u2014for example, a very common one is losing weight.\\xa0

Imagine that you\'ve been on a diet and have lost some weight. But then, after two months, you stop losing weight. You\'re still on a diet, but you\'re not losing weight anymore.\\xa0

The main problem here is not the diet. It\'s just that the body needs some time before it starts losing weight again. It has to adapt to the new situation.

This type of situation is very tough because when we experience it for a while, we can\\xa0easily lose motivation, and may end up\\xa0giving up. It is essential to understand better why this happens so that we do not lose motivation and will to continue.

I\'m sure many of you have experienced this.\\xa0

When you started learning English, you were very motivated. You have spent a lot of time listening and answering questions, but now\\xa0apparently,\\xa0you are not experiencing any improvement.

Usually, when we start listening or reading in the language we are studying, we notice a\\xa0constant improvement in our level.\\xa0

Every day we learn new words, expressions, and structures. We are happy and pleased and want to keep learning more and more. This is a wonderful stage.

After some time,\\xa0we no longer notice a considerable improvement, although we still see\\xa0small improvements. So we don\'t worry too much and move on. But a bit later, our progress stagnates, and well, it\'s when we start worrying.

This situation makes us\\xa0lose our motivation, and possibly, we are tempted to give up or at least postpone it, promising ourselves that we will continue to study with enthusiasm and motivation, but this seldom happens.

The main reason this happens to us is simple.\\xa0Our brain needs time to consolidate, structure, order, polish, and finally automate all this new knowledge.\\xa0

Learning a new language\\xa0is not only about learning new words but also\\xa0thinking\\xa0differently. That\'s why I always insist that you have to\\xa0learn in context.\\xa0This way, you can observe how words are used in a sentence, and that takes time.\\xa0

Think of it this way: when we learn math, we are using the conscious part of our brain to do calculations. To do this, we need to concentrate very hard. However, when we speak in our mother tongue, we can do this almost without attention and without effort. We can even do other kinds of activities while having a conversation.\\xa0

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Read the text here: www.SpeakEnglishPodcast.com

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