Couldn't agree more.
Each level has its own issues and learners deserve to be informed about them at the very least. That plateau is truly disheartening, and even worse, you never know whether it's finished or you are still lingering somewhere in the middle. (Incidentally, being in the middle implies there are some boundaries, which this plateau doesn't seem to have)
That was my comment there (don't remember where but that's behind the point). The topic itself is quite relevant to what I have been trying to do for the last couple months, so I was thinking a few more halfbaked ideas won't hurt.
Yess! I do hate this plateau as well but the truth is that it does exist in our minds only. Learners, the overwhelming majority at least, have never thought about this plateau and generaly perceive their learning as going up - probably not as fast as they used to but still. And they are right. Yes, there is a time when things seem to be hardly moving if ever but when you come to consider how much has just been done/ read/ learnt/ written/ practised, etc. during one session, you have to be honest to admit ascending/ going up and forward and in a finer way.
From the teacher's perspective, it might be largely the case of going up and down rather than staying still. If you have ever been planning 'a talk' or doing academic writing - business or exam stuff will also do - you can easily sense the outcome that can be at any level but definitely never going back to what it was during the LeadIn section.
So, no plateau whatsoever... Sadly, it is, eating away at us, blocking out creative thinking and virtualy paralising our study. The trick I have found so far is despite any disheartening failure - or as if failures - move on to the next stage. This way, not only will we save time for more enjoyable activities but might well turn the apparant 'down' into the most incredible success. (the crusial point being that we don't actually know how learning takes place. Nor can we check if it ever does. Pretty often learners progress as if against all the odds and absolutey miraculously but it's not true. What actually helped them was that sweat, tears and toil that we had considered a total falure.
Methinks the trick is to never give in