Understanding Your Native Language
You may have noticed that in addition to French, Spanish, and German lessons, I have also posted English lessons. English lessons are important for those learning English, but even more important (arguably) for the English student in pursuit of another language. While many foreign languages have advanced grammar structures that English lacks, others share quite a few things in common with it. Understanding your native language will help you to bridge gaps between languages and that will always lead to fluency.
While studying another language, you may come across words such as articles, tenses, moods, or aspects; these parts of language are not unique to English and they tend to work similarly in the romance languages. For example, English articles such as the and an work almost identically in French and Spanish, and being able to coherently communicate about the different parts of language allows you to converse clearly with other students of language. I find that as my knowledge of English grows, so too does my ability with other languages.
In short, it is important to understand your own language so that you can put clear names to concepts and separate them in your mind. When you begin to bridge concepts, such as definite articles in Spanish and English, you form connections that help your brain to realize that these are not truly different words, but different ways to convey the same concept. This realization helps to drive home fluency of another language and solidify it.