LanguageLover is right. I am experiencing the same things right now. I am far from the need to tranlate my thoughts before speaking, and I've always tried to avoid this. Get comfortable with the vocabulary you have now. Get a routine in "thinking in English". I know it is hard, but it's the only way.

And - of course - read. Read. Read. If you feel a little uncomfortable about unknown words, start with a book you know. You'll get the gist (the general meaning) even without knowing all the words. Don't look up every unknown word. (It might frustrate you because by the time you have looked the word up, you have forgotten what you had read before.) Try to get the meaning across  without worrying about the "exact translation".If you're satisfied with one author, stick to him/her for a while. Every author uses his/her own certain vocab, and it gets easier with every book you read.

Writing: how about writing a diary in English? Probably it will not contain too difficult thoughts at the beginning, but it helps you to express yourself. Again: use the dictionary as little as possible. And DO NOT TRANSLATE!!! Try to get along with your current knowledge. Read your entries after a couple of months - you will probably notice mistakes yourself, find a different way to express yourself so that you do not sound as awkward as you did when you wrote it.

Granted, reading and writing does not have a huge influence on your actual speaking skills, but it is a start. Believe me, it does help. I'm speaking of experience. I did the diary-writing when I learnt Dutch, and I have done the reading stuff in English. (Have done because I started to read books in English six years ago after several years in which I had done nothing for my English. It works.)

mrs95th

It just take time. I am a non-native speaker of English.  I started learning English seven years ago; during first few years I was unable to understand English directly. I needed to translate it in my native language.  Then I started to understand many things without translation as I got familiar with words and sentences.  Now I can think in both languages it just depends on who I am talking to and what subject I am thinking of.  For example, I think in english when I am doing my homework, but multiplication and division I still do it in my native language as it is the fastest way for me and thats how I learned it.  When, I am talking to my parents, my native languague take over the thinking process.  Same thing with the dreams, some dreams or parts of dreams are in English and others are in my former language.  However, when I am thinking by myself and not actually in a conversation with anyone I often start thinking in one language and the other language takes over without even my realization.  When I am thinking I usually don't notice the different languages being used, rather I feel like thinking in a hybrid of both; It is like thinking in thoughts that have same equivalence in both languages. 

Many times when I am watching a movie in one language, and switch to a show in a different language, I understand completely and don't even notice that langauage has been changed.  This also happens when I am talking to my parents on a phone in my native language, while chatting with friends at a same time; I don't notice the different between the two languages, I don't think about which language to use with which person, my brain just sort out the information itself.

By the way I am trilangual, but I don't use the third language in coversations, I just watch movies in that language. I can read and write in that language, but I can't think in that language.   Basically, that language is for my entertainments only - for movies and for music.