That’s why many traditional study methods ultimately fall short in the quest to be able to actually talk.

Learners who worry about the correctness of their language will not use it. Unfortunately, this is not how fluency is built. It’s rare to come across a native speaker who will correct you for not speaking perfectly as long as they understand you. An education that puts the ability to do that off until “perfect” language is available is also putting off fluency. The sooner a student can communicate imperfectly and work towards perfect the better.

There’s another reason for conversational preparation: the absence of listening practice. Classroom lessons are usually given in slow and excessively enunciated language. Real-life Spanish comes in different dialects, at different speeds, with contractions and colloquialisms. If you are not regularly listening to real audio, you might be able to pick up textbook phrases, but still struggle in conversations. Your ears need to be trained for natural speech in the same way your brain needs to memorize words. You can’t truly respond without being able to understand.

Another crucial thing that is lacking is the situational context. The problem with learning individual sentences is that there is no preparation for how conversations actually happen, with the subject of the conversation changing rapidly and an immediate adjustment in the response needed. A conversation is about nuance and intent and culture, not about stringing together sentences. Learning with a situational context helps to build the ability to adapt when a conversation takes an unexpected turn, and it keeps you from getting hung up on it.

The fact is, the ability to converse comes through practice, not through coursework. Speaking, hearing and responding, all on the fly, are the things that foster fluency. The classroom is fine, but it needs to be coupled with the real thing. Once the students move from learning Spanish to being in Spanish, even if it’s just for a little while, it becomes what it is meant to be: a language, a tool to express yourself, to clarify things, to communicate. It’s the shift from thinking to doing that cements the learning.