Am I a good Spanish student?

Is my Spanish practice effective? Am I really improving? Am I on the right path to communicating confidently in Spanish one day? Relax! — you’re not the only Spanish learner asking these questions. Keep reading to discover what the students I’ve met who have made the most progress all had in common.

In previous posts on this blog (Spanish workshop: listening to audios with transcripts / Repetition in Spanish practice. / How to listen to Spanish to improve my listening skills.) we’ve already discussed the practices that are often presented as the most effective for improving our level of Spanish.

Today, however, we’ll take a slightly different approach and look at five habits commonly found in a “good Spanish student”.

1. 5 habits commonly found in a good Spanish student.

To give some context to this statement, I’d like to explain what I mean by a “good Spanish student”. After more than ten years working as a Spanish teacher, I’ve had the opportunity to meet a huge number of students. Among them, I can clearly remember how some — with more or fewer lessons — managed to reach a level of communication in Spanish that matched their original goals. In most cases, this meant being able to understand native Spanish speakers and hold conversations with them in a variety of situations.

By a “good Spanish student”, then, I mean someone who follows a set of regular practices that are efficiently aligned with their final goal in Spanish. Below, I’ll explain the five practices that all the learners I’ve seen make the greatest progress have in common:

1.1. A clear personal medium or long-term goal: Whether for personal or professional reasons, having a goal to work towards is a common factor among successful learners. Interestingly, when the goal is short-term — “learning Spanish for my holiday in Colombia in four months” — success tends to be limited, if it exists at all.

This higher chance of success when your goal isn’t short-term is mainly due to the nature of language learning itself. Because it involves such a large amount of information, experiences and interactions, trying to master it in a short period of time can feel overwhelming, stressful and, ultimately, discouraging. Remember: "realistic goals lead to achievable outcomes."

1.2. Regular and varied practice. This can range from reading and translating, to listening to podcasts, audio clips, music or listening activities from specialised textbooks; and, finally, to language exchanges, travel or conversation classes. All the students I’ve met who now communicate effectively in Spanish had a wide range of practice and, in most cases, spent between 1 and 4 hours a week studying.

The explanation for this success is fairly straightforward: the more hours of exposure you have to Spanish, the better your ability to understand and recognise phrases and ideas. At the same time, variety not only improves the range of skills you develop, but also has a positive effect on motivation, making it easier to keep practising.

1.3. Interaction with native speakers. This is, without doubt, one of the most effective forms of practice, as it brings together all the elements needed for real communication. Beyond understanding the message, you must react to the situation, respond appropriately and stay engaged in the conversation. It also requires calm and self-control to deal with challenges such as unfamiliar accents, background noise or unexpected jokes.

This factor may be the most decisive when it comes to knowing whether you’re truly improving, or whether your practice is simply helping you accumulate knowledge you’re not yet able to use. Take advantage of every opportunity to interact with a native speaker — whether it’s for 10 seconds or 5 minutes.

1.4. Experimentation and a lack of fear of making mistakes. Don’t wait for the “perfect” situation to practise — any situation is the right one! To improve your understanding and, later on, your speaking skills, you need a high level of active practice. As a result, it’s only natural that plenty of mistakes, misunderstandings and pronunciation errors will occur along the way.

The students who adapt to this reality the fastest are the ones who, in the long run, reach higher levels of interaction in Spanish. Remember: "to speak correctly, you first have to speak incorrectly."

1.5. Speaking to yourself. As a particular example of points 2 and 4, this practice is worth highlighting. Interestingly, even though I never promoted it, many of my students have told me that during their individual practice, they sometimes speak to themselves. What’s even more fascinating is that, looking at these accounts collectively, all those who used this technique progressed faster than most who didn’t.

Just as we might practise a job interview before meeting the hiring manager, or speak in front of a mirror to prepare a presentation, why not articulate words, speak aloud, or simulate a conversation in Spanish? This helps us feel more comfortable and confident in real interactions.

2. Other common practices that are less effective.

On the other hand, there are some common habits I’ve noticed in Spanish students that tend to slow down progress rather than help it.

An obsession with grammatical perfection, relying solely on reading as your only form of practice, or constantly and systematically translating, is a perfect recipe for standstill — and frustration that can be hard to overcome.

This reflection on my experience observing patterns among Spanish students is by no means intended to discourage or eliminate these practices. In fact, I consider them perfectly valid when used in the right context.

On the contrary, based on my observations over the past ten years, I can conclude that among all the students I’ve met who made the most progress in Spanish, few — if any — incorporated these three practices as regular activities in their daily routines.

Feel free to share your own experiences with us, and who knows — in a future post, I may cover some other practices not included here. Thank you very much, and see you soon!