Photo by Thibault Penin on UnsplashWhat is comprehensible input?
Comprehensible input consists of two words: “Comprehensible”
(something that we're able to understand) and “input” (in terms of language
learning, this refers to the language that we're receiving by reading and
listening). The opposite would be “output”, where we have to produce something
ourselves by writing and speaking.
The combination of these words means that we're reading or listening to something that we can more or less understand. This became a theory of language learning that was created by American linguist Professor Stephen Krashen. It basically states that the best way to learn a language is to receive this comprehensible input of the language that you're trying to learn. It suggests that we don’t have to understand every single word of the input because our brain is able to naturally work the rest out through context. The general idea is that if you receive this input at the right level of difficulty for you (not too easy or too hard), your brain will be able to absorb the language and start to learn in a natural way.
Advantages:
It works – Short and sweet. Imagine that you had to
do a grammar test in your own native language right now. You don't have to
explain any of your answers; you simply have to fill in the gaps for these two
sentences:
Yesterday, Izzy ___ some flowers for her friend Bethan.
A) buyed B) bought C) buying
Answer: Yesterday, Izzy bought some
flowers for her friend Bethan.
Jack is ___ tennis with Chris.
A) playing B) play C) plays
Answer: Jack is playing tennis with Chris.
Those who speak English as a native language will've
answered both correctly (I hope…). I also imagine their thought process would’ve
been as simple as seeing the answers and instantaneously thinking “bought…playing”.
Their thought process would NOT have been, “Okay, question 1
is in the past tense, but it can’t be 'buyed' because the verb buy has an
irregular form in the past tense, so it’s 'bought'. And question 2, well, the use of 'is' which is the conjugated form of the verb 'to be' suggests that it’s the present continuous
tense, which means that I need to find the present participle, which is 'playing.'”.
The reason that native English speakers went through the
first thought process rather than the second is because they didn’t learn
English through grammar rules and studying; they learnt it through absorbing
comprehensible input of the language.
If you then asked all the English
natives who just took this test to explain their answers, the majority would
say “I’m not sure why but it definitely is the right answer. I just know it”. And that is the key: they never learnt these
rules; they acquired them through comprehensible input. It's a case of
repetition, repetition, repetition, and more repetition. To use a real-life
example, in the early days of trying to learn Spanish, I kept coming across
a thing called the ‘subjunctive’. The subjunctive is a grammatical mood that some languages have. We won’t worry about the exact details, but it
involves changing the conjugations of verbs depending on what ‘mood’ the sentence
is in. It is much more common in Spanish than it is in English, so I was having
a lot of trouble with it. My Peruvian friend was using it in a written conversation with
me, so I asked him to help me with it. He replied, saying he had no idea what
the subjunctive is, but I pointed out the parts of the messages where he'd
clearly used the subjunctive forms of the verbs, and he said he still had no
idea. He just knew that in this sentence, the verb had to look like that. Why was
this? Because he doesn’t speak Spanish fluently because he studied the
grammatical rules; he speaks it fluently because he has absorbed comprehensible
input his entire life. So, don’t be surprised if you ask a friend one day to
explain something in their language and they can't do it, because there is a high probability
that they won’t know why; they just know that it's correct.
Research shows that children generally say their first words around 12
months old and can start to produce simple sentences around 18 months. Do you think that in the
first year of their lives, when they can’t even walk, they are marched down to
school to study their grammar book? Of course not. They hear the language from
their parents and absorb it. If you showed a child a picture of a dog and asked
them what it was, they would probably be able to say the word “dog”. If you
then showed them a picture of 3 dogs and asked them again, they would probably
be able to say “dogs”. They’ve correctly made the noun (dog) plural by adding an
“s” to the end. But what if, instead of showing them the pictures, you just
asked them “How do you make a noun plural?”, do you think they'd have any
idea what you’re talking about? They’d be more likely to fall over and start
crying than explain their answer.
This is how we all learnt our native language. After reading
about it, I decided to try it, and I noticed it worked incredibly well. It's also endorsed by famous polyglots such as Steve Kaufman, who speaks up
to 20 languages and says this is the main tool he uses to learn languages.
It is fun - at the start, when your level is low, you have to begin with very simple things that are unlikely to entertain you. But bit by bit, you're going to improve, and soon you’ll be able to watch content that genuinely interests you. Have you ever thought you could develop your language learning just by watching Netflix or listening to a podcast that you like? If you can make the language learning process fun, you'll be stunned at how much progress you can make.
Disadvantages:
It is a long-term strategy rather than a short-term strategy – it requires patience. The example of you learning as a child did
not happen overnight. It took years to develop and master. You cannot expect to
use comprehensible input for a week and be able to have a 3-hour discussion
about global warming and politics with a native speaker. You'll always improve, but
it takes a long time. It won't be useful for studying for a test that you
have in 3 days.
You need to find the right level of difficulty – this is very subjective, and there is no clear guideline on how to find it. You really have to decide on your own. I typically try to find content that I understand about 70-80% of, which means I have 20-30% that I don’t understand, but my brain will start working it out through context. This isn't always an easy thing to find. If you go for something that is too easy, you won't improve. If you go for something that is too difficult, you'll just frustrate yourself. You also eventually need to start increasing the difficulty slowly, and this is another thing that isn’t easy to do and takes time to master. You need to be able to factor in the type of content you are receiving (the language used, the accents, the speed, how many people are involved).
Summary:
It may have become fairly obvious early on in the article that I'm a massive fan of comprehensible input, and it's the main tool I use nowadays to improve my languages. It's natural, and more importantly, it's fun. You can eventually reach a point where you're reading or listening to something to enjoy the content rather than doing it to practice. For example, I read and listen a lot about language learning, sports, and healthy living, which are things that interest me. I’ve now reached a point in Spanish and French where I can do this to enjoy the interesting content as if it were my native language. Also, don’t assume this means I have a perfect understanding of the content. I don’t. There are still a lot of times when I have absolutely no idea what was just said. But it’s not enough to affect my overall understanding, so it isn’t a problem, and this way my brain will be able to adapt to the higher level of difficulty. As I mentioned, however, it is a long-term process and requires a lot of patience. If you have an upcoming exam, I wouldn't suggest using this as your main source of revision because it'll take time to see some results.
Key vocabulary:
Absorb – to take something in
Short and sweet – a saying that means something is straight to the point
Instantaneously – instantly, at once
Acquired – to develop a skill
Coming across – finding
Probability – the likelihood/chance of something happening
Endorsed – to be a fan of and recommend something
Subjective – based on or influenced by personal opinions
Typically – normally/generally
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