As a language learner, I tend to be keen in formulating sentences. I was always anxious with how my sentences will sound like if I chose a certain word to use. I fear that people will laugh at me for having grammar lapses. Thus, whenever I speak, I get scared. My mind will be haywire and will start to stutter. Especially in my country, if you speak other language that is different from ours, others will talk about you like you have done something wrong.
Not until when I went to college and I had a course in Language Acquisition. We had this topic called "Fluency vs Accuracy". Basically, fluency doesn't require you to have grammatically correct sentences. As long as you can be understood. On the other hand, accuracy needs to have precise grammar construction. It needs to follow grammar rules, whether spoken or written.
When I learned that there's such thing like "fluency", it made me a little confident to speak in English. My professor once said that making mistakes will teach you the right way. I made that as an inspiration to make my anxiety go away. It helped me a lot to gain courage. Now, I am here, trying to learn a new language.
