by Keisha Centa Putri
There is one feeling that learners often experience, which the stagnation of learning. When the learning is still going without any clear progress. Each day filled with learning practices for listening, speaking, or reading, yet very new vocabulary word, new tense, or even new idiom only seems to add a little knowledge—and these small improvement are so insignificant’ that it is often not recognized by you.
In the midst of this learning process, you are experiencing a plateau phase. In short, the plateau phase in learning is a feeling of temporary frustration in the learning process despite consistent effort, because it seems like there is just no visible progress. Although it sounds negative, this phase is normal to experience. During the plateau phase, your brain is processing and understanding deep and complex information, which naturally takes more time. Generally, when you experience this phase, it is most likely because the learning method you have chosen is repetitive without variation, which ultimately becomes too tedious for you.
Though you shouldn’t worry. As time goes by, your exposure to the language is accumulating. Consistent and active exposure builds deeper connections in the brain, especially with a variety of learning methods to overcome the plateau phase. Because this progress is cumulative, active learning activities such as watching videos without subtitles, speaking or writing feels more comfortable and easier than before. This is why fluency is often perceived as coming suddenly. It’s not due to some instant magic, but rather the result of hundreds of small, engaging experiences and learning moments that accumulate and process until they reach a clear point of development.
An Indian thinker and writer, Jiddu Krishnamurti, once said, “Learning is not the accumulation of knowledge. Learning is the movement from moment to moment.” This is a reminder to us that learning progress may often be indirect and gradual. From this perspective, learning can feel easier because you are not fixated on instant results, but on the results of your personal development in terms of mindset. Every interaction with the language you are learning will contribute to your learning progress. Over time, with consistent learning, each interaction will be connected, processed, and form much more fluent language skills.
Source:
- IDP IELTS. (n.d.). Navigating beyond the intermediate English language learning hurdle. IDP IELTS. https://ielts.idp.com/indonesia/about/news-and-articles/article-overcome-intermediate-plateau-for-learning-english/en-gb
- O’Brien, N. (n.d.). Why learning plateaus happen and how to fix them. TeachMe.To. https://teachme.to/blog/why-learning-plateaus-happen-and-how-to-fix-them-cm4r6w45n000o9jffx98u4t3f
- Sanusi, A. (2025, May 27). The learning plateau: Why you feel stuck and how to push through. Tech Crush. https://techcrush.pro/the-learning-plateau-why-you-feel-stuck-and-how-to-push-through/
- Ingeus. (2023, January 12). Cumulative learning all adds up to a better career. Ingeus. https://ingeus.co.uk/resources/blogs/cumulative-learning-all-adds-up-to-a-better-career
