Is fluency in Foreign Language skills related to automatic thinking in that language?

From my experience when we first learned a foreign language, we tended to translate from our mother tongue. Consequently, we were quite slow to be fluent regarding our speaking/writing skills. I wonder if there're such problems for people learning/mastering your foreign language skills and what are some practical ways to improve your fluency. I sometimes tell my bachelor degree students, "Think in English, then write/speak in English"; or this approach is too difficult for them. I mean they need to read more, speak more so that they can immerse in that language till, over time, they can express themselves more automatically.