How Writing Sentences Helped Me Break the Intermediate Plateau

I moved to Taiwan in 2020 to teach English and learn Mandarin. I took classes every weekday morning, and taught every afternoon and evening. After studying for 18 months, I took the TOCFL exam and achieved B1 level (HSK3).

By this point I was comfortable doing 'day to day' tasks in Chinese, I could order food and drinks, check into a hotel, go to the bank, etc. I'd also made a few local friends and was delighted when they would patiently let me practice the Chinese I'd been learning.

But here lay the problem: I would try to talk to my friends, but the conversation never felt fluid. It'd be clunky when I'd try to express ideas that I couldn't properly articulate. Often 'conversations' were me just spouting out various vocabulary words and hoping my friends would understand enough to clarify, by delivering a full sentence back at me summarizing what they thought I was trying to say, which I could then agree with, disagree with, or build on. Gradually my conversations got smoother, but I still felt like my 'output' ability wasn't matching my increasing class level.

The Input-Output Gap

I was supporting my learning with Pleco - both the dictionary, and the flashcard tests to help me prepare for the daily 聽寫 - as well as challenging myself to read some of the Graded Mandarin Readers. These are both brilliant 'input' methods and tools, and I will be forever grateful to the Pleco flashcard tests that I used for last-minute cramming on the bus to class, but despite all the additional knowledge and vocab I was learning, it didn't feel like I was materially progressing.

Now I look back, I don't think I was getting enough structured 'output' practice with the new words once I hit that intermediate level. The lower level words and patterns I'd learned were often used in my daily life, but once I was learning new words to say similar things, I didn't need to use these outside of class time. When I was speaking to my friends, generally I'd rely on lower level vocabulary that I was really comfortable with and had a lot of practice using. I was acquiring a lot of knowledge but didn't have a tool that helped me put it into practice consistently, efficiently, and in a structured way.

Creating Sentence Lab

Jump forward to 2024 and we created an early version of Sentence Lab, just for ourselves (my husband and I) to practice our Mandarin. We weren't living in Taiwan anymore, although we were continuing with our lessons twice a week. The original version of Sentence Lab actually centered around using target words to string together a story, responding to AI prompts - a bit like the game 'Consequences', if you've played that. It was just a fun way for us to keep up our output practice. Over time, we added a feedback function to review each sentence we wrote.

We found that challenging ourselves to incorporate new vocab from our Chinese lessons into these stories really helped us to understand the words better, and also to remember them. We started using the tool to prepare for our Mandarin lessons. To optimize our lessons, we didn't spend huge amounts of time on new vocab- our teacher would ask us to self-review the new words at the beginning of each chapter and highlight if there were any we were unclear on, which she'd then go through.

We found the Sentence Lab tool really helpful for this, as it clearly showed us whether we 'got' the new word, for example: when I look at a new character in the textbook, especially if it has an English translation next to it, it's really easy for me to think 'yes, I know it'. But, when I try to make a sentence, sometimes it becomes more tricky and I realize I might 'get' the meaning, but it doesn't necessarily mean I am clear on the usage. Using the Sentence Lab tool, if I wrote multiple sentences and repeatedly got feedback that they weren't quite right, I'd know to flag the vocab word in the lesson. Conversely, sometimes I'd immediately use a word correctly in multiple sentences, so I felt confident telling my teacher we didn't need to spend lots of time on that one.

The Power of Active Production

Since using Sentence Lab in my own Chinese study, I've found that it's not only helpful for reviewing new words, but it also helps reinforce previous vocab and grammar patterns- when I write full sentences to practice to new words, it's all additional opportunity to reuse previous vocab in new ways. I also just think it's more interesting- it definitely feels more creative to think of a sentence to use the new word in, rather than just memorizing it in isolation. I think it's also easier to recall the word and its meaning when I've already constructed my own sentence using it.

Where We Are Now

We've developed the tool quite a bit since the early version. The biggest change was moving away from the story element and focusing on sentence production, as we think this is what's helped us most with our own learning. We've also added spaced repetition functionality, so it's not just a case of reviewing the word once and then forgetting it. The goal has been simple: to give you a structured way to practice output, providing feedback along the way.

Most language learning tools out there are built for input: learning new words, reviewing them, recognizing them. Sentence Lab is designed to fill the gap on the other side, offering structured output practice, giving you a way to actually produce language through sentence creation, with feedback to guide you and spaced repetition to make sure the words stick. It's not meant to replace your teacher or apps like Pleco- these are essential. But, if you're stuck at the infamous intermediate plateau (like I was), consistent sentence practice might be what you need to start turning all the knowledge into actual fluency.