I’ve been seeing the use of the phrase “functinally illiterate”, and it got me thinking that I don’t think there is such a thing when it’s speech instead of the written word. There are plenty of instances I can think of where I or someone I knew was simply not capable of or didn’t want to try to understand something that was said. Is there something that means not bring able or refusing to comprehend speech when that person is fluent in the language being spoken?
If they can’t understand or express themselves in that language, they are by definition not fluent.
Inability to express themselves is not a part of it, just comprehension.
You do not know what fluency is
If you can’t understand a language then you aren’t fluent in it.