A few days ago I introduced you to Pr.Dr. Stephen Krashen and his revolutionary ideas on how you actually become more fluent and more confident.
Then I’ve shown you a proven example of renowned polyglot Steve Kaufman who speaks 10+ languages fluently applying Stephen Krashen’s ideas of Comprehensible Input.
And here I’ve shown you the research of the past decades supporting the Comprehensible Input Hypothesis.
In sum, research shows that:
- languages are acquired only when people get aural or written comprehensible input
- grammar practice and explanations, most metacognition, performance feedback, and output are of minimal or no value
- drills and any other kind of output practice don’t help acquisition
- there are predictable, unavoidable, error-involving stages and sequences of acquisition of “grammar” which cannot be changed
- learners’ speaking the target language does not help learners acquire it, and often slows acquisition
- comprehensible input methods (including T.P.R.S., narrative paraphrase a.k.a. Movietalk, free voluntary reading, watching subtitled target-language video and Story Listening) do more for acquisition than do legacy methods that involve drills, rule-teaching and practice, forced output, etc.
You see that it clearly debunks “output” or “speaking practice”.
Take a special look at point 13:
13) Does speaking improve acquisition? NO. Despite (a few) studies which try to make the case for output, there isn’t a strong one. See Krashen’s response to one such study here, and his examination of Swain’s output hypothesis– and the research testing it– here.
In another study, English-speaking students were taught Spanish structures (subjunctive and conditional) via various mixes of input and practice output. In this study, students who
- got input only did very well
- got input and did limited output (“practise”) did no better than input-only students
- did more output (“practise”) than getting input did significantly worse than those who got more input.
Today let me share with you a great interview polyglot Steve Kaufman and Pr.Dr. Stephen Krashen had together a few years ago.
In this interview, you’ll learn the #1 thing you need to understand to become more fluent and more confident at SPEAKING (Hint: It’s NOT practicing more speaking.)
So don’t miss the interview and check it out here.