When we speak about learning Spanish, it is important to remember that this single objective can be broken down into various separate skills. To me there are four basic actions; reading, writing, listening and speaking. Everyone will have their natural strengths and weaknesses among these, and as your Spanish learning progresses you will notice that you are jumping ahead in one area but feel like you are making little or no progress in another. This is entirely to be expected and you must not let it discourage you.
For instance, I am pretty good at listening and copying accents and phrases, and I like reading as I can take my time and think about the meaning. But speaking for me has always been more difficult (as it is for many people) because it feels like you need to be on your game before it is even worth opening your mouth to try and say something.
Unfortunately it is all too easy to just practice the Spanish skills that you are most confident with, and avoid the difficulties of the others. But if you work on your weak areas, you will see that the improvements made will lead to subtle improvements in even your strongest area.
For example, practice in speaking Spanish could lead to a better flow when reading Spanish, as you become more aware of the natural stress patterns of the language as it is spoken.
