how we acquire language: abundant input

Here’s the idea: If we provide students with enough comprehensible input, the vocabulary and structures they are ready to acquire must be present in the input. This means that we might not have to make sure that they are there: we don’t have to deliberately focus on certain points of grammar given enough comprehensible input.

Just give students lots and lots of comprehensible input and they will acquire and grow substantial grammar and vocabulary and their overall language competence.

So one of the primary goals in acquisition-based teaching is to first focuses on providing students with abundant comprehensible input for building a solid intuitive (mental) capacity of the language which enables them to produce the language fluently and accurately, rather than immediately embarking on language production (speaking and writing).

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the best forms of “optimal” input

“Optimal input” is input that is comprehensible, compelling, language-rich and abundant, and research found that the best forms of optimal input that satisfy all those four conditions so far is listening to stories.

Listening to stories is also a very powerful and pleasant way to familiarize and lead students to the second best form of optimal input, which is reading texts.

Library of abundant quality resources is thus one of the core components we need provide for students and teachers alike to practice reading aloud: books that are compelling, comprehensible and serve the development of the good life.

is error correction helpful for developing fluency?

“The major, who had been the great fencer, did not believe in bravery, and spent much time while we sat in the machines correcting my grammar. He had complimented me on how I spoke Italian, and we talked together very easily. One day I had said that Italian seemed like such an easy language to me that I could not take a great interest in it; everything was so easy to say. “Ah yes,” the major said, “Why then, do you not take up the use of grammar?” So we took up the use of grammar, and soon Italian was such a difficult language that I was afraid to talk to him until I had the grammar straight in my mind.”

(E. Hemmingway, In Another Country)

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Some research shows that when we focus on rules when speaking, we produce less information, and we slow down. This can seriously disrupt conversation. Some people “over-monitor” and are so concerned with grammar and accuracy that speech is slow and even painful to produce as well as to listen to.

So if we want to speak fluently, then over-actively checking everything for grammar before it gets out of our mouth is going to be a hindrance rather than a help. It makes us anxious and it slows down our language production.

One of the primary functions of student output is to let the teacher know where students are in terms of their acquisition. If the teacher notices students having difficulty in speaking with fluency, then the first thing to consider might be to provide them more input so they may acquire and develop greater intuition of the language. Once they begin to feel click with language, they will be able to tap for fluent self-expression.