Overcoming a "plateau", help needed!

Hey,

I'm sure that some of you are in the same boat. I feel like I have reached a "plateau" in English. I don't know what to do to make more progress. I still have some problems when it comes to understanding every single word I hear or read. I rely less and less on English subtitles and sometimes I forgot in which language I've watched this or that, which is quite puzzling but thrilling too.

However, I don't dream in English any more, and even though my pronunciation has somehow improved recently, I'm less "fluent" in English.
It is quite strange because today I talked to a teacher in English and she spoke really fast because she thought I was getting everything and it went okay and then I said something but I didn't think it over in my native language or even English but that got me off balance. I'm not used to speaking naturally in another language, and I ended up stuttering and losing my confidence.

I also make loads of silly mistakes that I didn't make before, and sometimes I have to concentrate more in order to understand silly things.
But at the same time, English interferes with my native tongue and a third language - I think in English when I really shouldn't and just can't get round thinking in English when I *should* and *need to*.

Moreover, I struggle when I have to write something in English. Now, this really worries me because I almost never write in my mother tongue. And they say that practice makes perfect!

What would you do to overcome what I call a "plateau"?
I want to dream in English again. I want to feel confident when it comes to writing it and speaking it. It was all better before for some reason.

Well, first, what you wrote was NOT ungrammatical, so that's good.

As for that, it seems you have confidence issues and it's not that you're _plateauing_. Isn't it the case that when you plateau that you're not really aware of it, that you think your use of the language is A-OK, and that you have to more or less be told by others that you are plateauing?

Chill out, man.

You might just be getting complacent. You've learned "enough" English to be easily understood, so you aren't bothering to correct bad habits or expand your knowledge. And you might just be losing interest, too -- once you've reached that sense of achievement, it just isn't as much of a burning desire as it used to be. I think that happens with a lot of things -- you satisfy yourself with one thing, and you move on to another challenge.

Take some holidays from your English study every so often. You will find that this works wonders.