What Is Comprehensible Input?

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Information What Is Comprehensible Input?

Title	:	What Is Comprehensible Input?
Lasting	:	10.10
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Views	:	140 rb

still have no ideas what material should i choose at the very first stage
Comment from : SkyAaron Brink

I think that some "front loading" of grammatically syntax (not necessarily detailed grammar) allows me to attempt to acquire harder "comprehensible input", or acquire easier "comprehensive input" faster Ie this speeds up the acquition of language skills, as more or faster input reaches the LAD in Krashen's model that turns into acquired language brbrSo, I think that this "front loading" of essential grammar will speed up the knowledge acquisition process more than just reading or hearing comprehensible input without some knowledge of the high level rules of grammar brbrThe reason I posit this hypothesis is that grammar allows us to grasp and decode word order, the tense we are reading or listening too far easier and faster than attempting to do this on our own with no guidancebrbrSure, some people could learn a language just using the learning approach with input (comprehensible or not), as there are always a certain number of people who have such minds and skills and can manage this brbrIn fact, I am pretty sure there are gifted people in the world who could learn another language no matter what method they used!brbrUsing learned language, especially grammar and some culture, in the way described also helps improve the efficiency of the monitor system in Steve Krashen model and eventually will lead to a very good understanding of grammar, as you see, you are acquiring and monitoring grammar too 😀 brbrClearly, you want to maximise the benefits of the acquisition method whilst minimising the cost of the overhead of studying at least the structures of grammar like types of clauses, tenses, word order and what parts of the language generally get conjugated or declined and which parts don't and what the range of these variations might be without studying them in detail a sort of "Grammar lite"brbrI'd guess a good balance between comprehensive input vs learning would be 80 to 20 Many people think that learning grammar is boring, so for these people I suggest "just in time" grammar learning to support the "comprehensible input" being consumedbrbrMy gut feeling is that this combined approach would lead to proficiency 5 to 10 faster with a lot less output errorsbrbrOf course, none of the above is going to really improve your speaking ability brbrSure, acquition, learning and monitoring will allow you to assemble words in more or less the correct order that you want to communicate, and this is probably good enough to write quite well in the target language, as you have plenty of time to think about what you want to write and you aren't overloading your short term memory either with your "constructed in the head word by word output" brbrBut speaking is entirely a different matter You can muddle through with just acquisition, learning and monitoring, but to really master speaking, you need to speak and speak very often in the target language so that the monitor system isn't required to do so much work and because practice allows you to "chunk" speak words and so don't have to spend so much time in your head constructing the sentences you are going to say
Comment from : David Brisbane

Steve Krashen produced his paper in 1982 and yet his model does not appear to be widely used
Comment from : David Brisbane

I remember when I was young and was asked a question by an adult that I couldn't answer it because my grasp of the language was not good enough brbrI felt I knew the answer required, but I couldn't string the words together correctly without prodding by an adult brbrI'd would have been about a 3 years old at the time brbrIt is almost like that again now that I am on the cusp of being fluent in German as a second language Tough to say the correct words in the correct order with the correct ending, but easy to write them 😂🤣😂🤣
Comment from : David Brisbane

Thank you very much Steve
Comment from : Carlos Eduardo Naranjo Suárez

no thai on lingq :(
Comment from : martin workman

but reading Chinese does not make sense, we focus on the pinyin, ignore the characters, so it is insane it seems
Comment from : John Lammergeier

Well said, Mr Kaufmann,brcomprehensible and compelling are the very drivers of learning languages, which should be viewed more than tools of learning something new on a specific topic, learning about cars directly from the materials written by the inventor or manufacturer of the productbrI also find instructive to read manuals of say a TV set in several languages just for the pleasure of finding out the different approaches tto explaining the same phenomenon eg in taking remedial actions Many thanks ad all the best Paul, 67 retired teacher - non-native speaker ofEnglish
Comment from : Bajusz Pál

Be aware that many academics reject Krashen’s theories as untestable and not based on empirical evidence My view is that if you only listen, you don’t develop an active command of the language, and you won’t master some aspects of grammar such as case endings in German Of course CI is essential, and key, you’ve proven that, but spaced repetition, speaking and grammar study are, in the opinion of many, required for adult learners
Comment from : Leif Goodwin

@Steve Kaufmann So after coming across this concept the first time it just made so much sense because this is how we learned as children! Now being an adult I found that if one of knows a story in their language which has been translated from another language this helps tremendouslybrbrIn practice I am starting with the Bible since I have mastered it well in English Now I found from my early experience that because I am already familiar with the Latin alphabet, reading the Bible in Latin was not difficult; Koine Greek was a bit more difficult but not completely foreign as I was used to tracing the etymology of words and becoming familiar with Latin and Greek terms; the most difficult by far is Hebrew, but because I saw the connection between the letters of the three aforementioned alphabets and how our letters came from the Hebrews the connections in sounds and concepts aren't hard to see
Comment from : Jeremy Castro

Thank you stephen kaufman I am learning english I am learning because I want a good job but I not have idea the imput comprensible is a very good way to learn lenguage and can understand I am learning with imput comprensible brAnd i can understand very much but i need more words and i need more because I want bee C1 in english
Comment from : Mike29

Thanks so much
Comment from : Morgiana Etienne

Thank's for the explanation Steve
Comment from : Higgs Hullsman

I just curious where could I keep getting those materials that I can understand 10 percent?
Comment from : yunfeng wu

Hello Steve Big fan Question I am reading mangas to learn German, it is wotking so well but I find myself understanding a word without being able to tell its exact meaning Should I stop to look it up or should I just go on since I "know" what it means? brbrThanks for your time
Comment from : Coach Andrés C

I'm reading your book The way of the linguist - A language learning Odyssey I've been learning English by myself and I'm really excited about being a linguist
Comment from : Laynne Cris Andrade

Do you think its possible to have 100 comprehension in a language?
Comment from : Adam Louis-Klein

Surely if input is comprehensible to you, you already know it?
Comment from : joggerjeff

Hi sir is it helpful during the journey of understanding the unknown words in the target language be assisted by finding the meaning in an english dictionary? Will it constitute to memorization?
Comment from : Behind the Scenes

It's so funny how all the Polyglots i've been following, which are very impressive for me, are so much talkative on given topic to the point where you can't even follow but never went directly to the point because all the important things that a learner wants now are included in their private courses but never provided for free
Comment from : Nazim Boutgoumas

Hi Steve, thaks for bringing us this approach on compelling CI, it adds so much on Stephen Krashen's explanations because at 50 times of listening, yes, the compelling is still there as you said, not on the content of the text perhaps at this far, but on the passion for learning and feeling the brain work on the run
Comment from : Sayuri Iura

Sir could you tell me what's its implications for foreign language teaching ?! Thank you
Comment from : Nada

Thank you very much for your clear pronunciation
Comment from : kolli soraya2

Thank you for describing how to start learning a language It is extremely frustrating watching video after video, and searching all over, and no one talks about complete beginners and how to get to the point where you can read or understand stories It is like watching a cooking show and all they say is bake bake bake and they fail to say anything about what ingredients or mixing and you have no idea how to get to the bake bake bake stage
Comment from : Ron Lugbill

youtube/wYLVvJmZeSk
Comment from : jose luis riascos solarte

para los que apenas empezamos en el ingles otro canal genial para realizar unas buenas clases es este @
Comment from : jose luis riascos solarte

I learned a lot from this video, thx 🙏🏻
Comment from : Ranposa

I struggle to find any comprehensible input in chinese even peppa pig is ass
Comment from : British Rav

so if you only don't know about 5 of the words it's supposed to take forever, but if you read the same thing over and over again for 50 times it's supposed to take much less time? I call bullshit!
Comment from : Jemand

This makes absolute sense to me I couldn't agree more
Comment from : tc socal

i think for content to be really compelling, it needs to be relevant to your life or you really care about it if the comprehensible input has less to do with your life at this moment, it's less impactful i guess that's how kids learned fast, because the language they learn is what they need here and now, it's real life not just idea
Comment from : meril a

Ευχαριστώ πολύ, Στηβ! Τα λες σπουδαία!
Comment from : travatemekiasklaiw

I signed up for lingq and hearing that you listen to a story 40 to 50 times is encouraging I never thought I would have that much time to settle in with a certain story or dialogue until I get to comprehend every piece of information out of it in my target language I'm using it for European Portuguese and finding material is muito difícil but with lingq it's available even if it's not as varied as Brazilian Portuguese
Comment from : The Natural Yogi

Thank you very much, sir
Comment from : Fine xxx

I feel like I'm learning how to learn
Comment from : James Williams

great explanation
Comment from : YesWay relaxation club

Iam learning English, me own method is merge the tips For me, translate to my native language is bad I'm my opinion, learn a new language with input 80 or more, is the better way, I'm my casehonestly, i started since 2013 only this year, i decide change my mindset
Comment from : Fabio Santos

Hi Steve I was happy to come across your channel (subscribed!) that highlights the wonders of CI! I started a Spanish CI YouTube channel due to the pandemic and remote teaching and I find it truly to be a compelling way to teach a language
Comment from : Sarah Kelso

Hi I think Bahasa Indonesia (indonesian) is the easiest languange to learn You can learn it with comprehensible input on this channel: youtubecom/channel/UC87kNP67aPeGk3QqRSWuZnw
Comment from : Comprehensible Indonesian

Comprehensible means that while may not understand every word of a sentence you do understand the over all meaning by using context, pictures and any other clues
Comment from : William budd

Steve, do you listen to the same story 30 to 40 times?
Comment from : Maryam Qadri

steve tengo una pregunta, digamos que quiero usar un recurso con input por mis oidos y otro recurso con input leyendo, que porcentaje del recurso usado debe ser comprensible? 10 20 30 50 90 ?
Comment from : c FG

I've been studying with comprehensible input for 6 months now and I have improved so much with my target language Now I can't think of studying any other way
Comment from : Spanish After Hours

Comprehensible input for beginners CAN be compelling That's my hypotheses:-) And I am trying my best to implement this Putting complicated adult themes like history and culture in simple words in the target language Shouldn't we all (teachers and content creators) aim at this, to simplify the path of beginners? Let's be honest It's boring to death watching kids' cartoons or readimg fake-text-book-materials at the beginners stage We need to do something with that brSteve Kaufmann is one of those inspiring examples - invesigating, experimenting and motivating Thank you so much!
Comment from : Comprehensible Russian

Great explanation lingo Steve Be cool to grab a coffee one time if your ever in Kelowna Cheers richard (Spanish, French, english)
Comment from : ouimetco

What about grammar? I teach intermediate students and find them making similar grammar mistakes often
Comment from : dakine

We are the comprehensible teachers !!! 👍😃💪 brThanks for the upload Steve ans let's keep the spirit up!
Comment from : French Comprehensible Input

Steve is the OG for language learning! brSteve是语言学习的老炮!
Comment from : Jason Zhang

I spent about a year learning Dutch (as a native English speaker, so it is a very closely related language) doing duolinguo deliberately studying grammar, and I got absolutely nowhere I'd say after about a year I was at maybe an A1 to low A2 level at most About 3-4 months ago I decided to change it up and focus on listening to comprehensible podcasts and tv shows about 1-2 hours per day, and my ability to understand both written and spoken dutch has increased tenfold About a year ago when I was focusing on language learning apps and other instant gratification programs my own cognitive dissonance would not let me accept the fact that it was not helping It is really hard to accept that what you have been doing for so long is (mostly) useless
Comment from : greenmug

What is this "on link" he's talking about?
Comment from : JM Inglês Técnico

This is really helpful I have to teach my native language to new students and struggled cause it was my first time And I think I got a sense of how I will teach Thanks :)
Comment from : 백구

You are my motivation Steve Thank you so much for sharing your thouths with us Greetings from Korea 고맙습니다!!!
Comment from : joseph joseph

About this comprehensible input, I've learned more English from your videos for being comprehensible than watching series
Comment from : Luam Fernandez

Hi, i'm a native spanish speaker and c1 level in english I'm trying to learn japanese and i have no clue where to get material i could barely understand, i cannot figure out when one word starts and finishes I can't find comprehensible input on this language
Comment from : blaxpy

So deep down, to acquire a foreign language, learners should have the motivation to learn this language themselves Teachers cannot really tempt them by using compelling content at first
Comment from : Jindan Wang

Thank you so much
Comment from : Marco Maciel

GREAT WOK!
Comment from : محمد النور

How do we find Paul Doucets (not sure on spelling) course? I'm in NJ and figure he's closer to me
Comment from : ScreenPrintR

A Canadian uses a hockey stick metaphor tres comun As far as I've seen, TPRS is so far, the best method for language teaching/learning at the moment Give Blaine Ray what is due to him, mention his name Also, as a teacher, one needs to address the fact that many people are illiterate in their L1 or their mother tongue When we teachers are able to overcome that hurdle, we will have succeeded
Comment from : Giles Porter

Comprehensible input is essential! :-D
Comment from : French Comprehensible Input

Hello Steve, wouldn't you say that if you had an extensive number of resources that are edited drawing from a given and fixed word list (say the B1 level word list for the specific language) you could have both constant repetition (of the word list) and novelty (from the extensive number of material)?
Comment from : Myplaylist

Hi Steve, I've been learning English by listening to podcasts with the transcript, and I know the power of repetition, it's really necessary I've also noticed that even after repeating a podcast many times and learning all the vocabulary in it, things still remain a little bit superficial in my mind, but when I get back to that podcast after some weeks, it seems like the new words and expressions are stronger now, as if they are more deeply rooted in my memory, and I have a better and clearer comprehension of everything So this is one my techniques now, while studying something new I'm also reviewing some old materialbrThanks a lot for this video
Comment from : Alexandre Lopes de Castro

E shoh qe ke nje liber rreth shqiperise A mund te flashesh gjuhen shqip?
Comment from : David Hullinger

I wish the end of the hockey stick was also curved Such slow progression in the later periods! :)brThanks for the CI reflections!
Comment from : Sarah Breckley - Spanish Teacher

When reading on my own It is never explained by anyone as to what do I do? I read but how do I know what the words mean? Do I have to have a dictionary next to me and look up every word? It will take an hour for every page
Comment from : George DeCarlo

Sir, I have a question regarding this subject Could please help me with this?
Comment from : Monotheism تەوحید

Awesome video, not sure why people down vote it, they must be window lickers as this is solid advice!
Comment from : Sean Perkins

when should i need a ountput?? like writing and speaking
Comment from : Amateur Badminton

Facebook chat taught me a language from the start it worked Duolingo helped Lessons helped tooand now Im faced with speakinga task I view as starting a new language in all but name
Comment from : Andy harpist

Awesome explanation with clear examples make me more understanding about this input thanks a Million sir
Comment from : Sharma

I want to learn Russian With the alphabet already in my mind since a high school bet, I now started last week to revisit basic words and further deep dive into the vocabulary The best way of learning I found, is by watching some English vlogger walk around the fallen USSR, talking and drinking with the locals, hahah It's working!brBasic conversation mixed with enjoyable content always worksbrI can now be charismatic enough to get one Russian on the friendly side and start a simple convobrI love itbrPS: I do get to have an advantage: Russian grammar gets quite close to my native language, Romanian, so it doeas make the process better, even though I learn it through English
Comment from : aESTheTiC

thank you so much Steve!!
Comment from : ambra ambrosini

this was the most helpful video I've ever came across because I knew that I remember things that are either relateable to me or I enjoy getting myself into I'm currently learning Korean, and I'm trying to find ways to learn everything I need to know to be able to speak and think in said language may even learn another language as well This was also a very motivating video so if I need some I'll be more than happy to go back and remember what I can do to make learning fun again
Comment from : Alliyah Waring

Do you know any programming languages?
Comment from : Jesse Brace

Anyone has any tips on how to tackle Hebrew at the beginning? I want to read stuffs but if you know about Hebrew, it's not enough just to learn the alphabet to read the letters but knowing A LOT to be able to read them since the vowels aren't there a lotttt of times or you have to guest between 2 or 3 vowels
Comment from : jeffrey marte

Stopped at 6:00 for a note :brIt's also apply to memory and understanding in general , you need to have a lot of input when you want to remember some complex concepts let's say , and also you will remember better and fester if this input will be stories or even mental stories , if you will engage with the data from all sides
Comment from : musical element of life

what should we do when we have no understanding?
Comment from : Mani ravandi

What makes a language input comprehensible? In one sentence
Comment from : Simeon Kouadio Kouame

Hi Steve i like your videos too much i want to improve my listening pls help me I've been studying listening compression for 4 years but it doesn't work
Comment from : Gilmar Vianna

Forgive my ignorance, Steve; you have produced quite the number of videos through the years, so you may have talked about what I am about to ask you in a video that I haven't watched As you point out in this video, the problem with comprehensible input (in lack of a better way of phrasing it – it's not exactly a problem) is in the very beginning, when nothing is comprehensible When 0 of the material is comprehensible, it takes ivery/i long to acquire the language; children spend years and years getting through this phase What do you do to get from the point of just starting out and comprehending nothing, to a point where you can start learning through comprehensible input?brbrI've been thinking about this myself, and the best solution I can come up with is to indulge in studying the language intellectually for a little while to begin with It's necessary to have a foundation from which all subsequent acquisition can grow I'm not an experienced acquirer of language, so it could certainly be that my inexperienced mind simply cannot produce any better solutions on its own, presently More specifically, when it comes to this phase of studying the target language intellectually, I'm talking about getting familiar with the target language's phonology, the sounds that exist in that language I'm talking about getting familiar with the basic structure of the language, like the syntax, and memorising a few hundred of the most frequently used words None of these things are meant as actual learning, but are meant to provide a good foundation Like you and Krashen have been talking about in your videos, acquisition happens when information is related and associated to knowledge that is already possessed Getting familiar with how the target language looks and sounds, and especially memorising a few hundred of the most frequently used words, will provide hooks that actual acquisition can attach itself to, and this should take a few weeks at most Getting a good sense of what the words mean isn't important The hardest part is establishing a lexical entry in the mental lexicon Once established, revising and adding to those entries is easy, and that will happen naturally through comprehensible input It would be interesting to see what your process is in more detail, although I can imagine that it may change each time you pick up a new languagebrbrI very recently learned about Krashen, and so over the past few days I've been devouring material on him and his language acquisition theory voraciously His talks on literacy are very interesting, and I must say that my interest in reading has skyrocketed to enthusiastic levels as a result I've learned a great deal, and have through videos on the topic happened upon your videos with Krashen This isn't the first time I've come across your channel, however I've encountered your channel several times over the years, and you always have interesting things to say I just had a look through your videos on this channel, and there are so many interesting topics! I really ought to go through them I rarely subscribe to channels on YouTube, because I almost always find that I only enjoy a small subset of the videos that they make, but that doesn't seem to be the case here, so you have earned yourself another subscriber, good sirbrbrThis comment turned quite a bit wordier than I expected, which unfortunately isn't uncommon I hope you don't mind
Comment from : Arctagon

Steve's remarks around 9:10 sounds like Assimil's approach with regards to grammar
Comment from : Jack O Lantern

Hi Steve, I also listen to my stories several times I download them on my mp3 player and listen to them when I walk to the metro station and back, or when I travelbrI would like to ask you two questions:br1) Could you please recommend a book by Stephen Krashen? I tried to choose one, but I couldn't Some of them are older, I am not sure which one would be betterbr2) I am at B2 level in Spanish, and continuing further to achieve C1 level Do you think, it would be a good idea to start French at this point? Or I would mix them? I am also considering Russian and German
Comment from : hapgull

I have a few books in English that are really entertaining for me and I read them with pleasure from time to time It's beneficial in at least two ways I can clearly see my progress in English and every time I pick up new vocabulary without noticing it Of course these books are compelling for me I can't imagine to read something unintetesting and boring over and over again Cheers :)
Comment from : Marcin

Sem duvidas
Comment from : FATOS Salvar Sua Vida

I think the videos of my youtube channel 'Le français illustré' offer a truly comprehensible input to learn French Come and consult them Thank you, and thank you for your video Jerome Paul
Comment from : le français illustré

If you don't know even 10 percent of words in a text, you're going to have to look up 5-10 words on each page Most people just aren't willing to persist with this, as it causes frustration and boredom Hence the need for explicit vocabulary instruction in a classroom environment where most students are not sufficiently motivated to wade through unknown words by themselves The limits of implicit vocabulary instruction are elucidated in 'Bringing Word to Life' by Isabel Beck et al
Comment from : Anfear Glag

No me canso de ver sus videos Steve, todo lo que dice hace perfecto sentido Desde que descubrí lingq y su canal, no he parado de leer y escuchar todo tipo de material tan interesante Es usted una gran inspiración Muchísimas gracias!😊
Comment from : Patricia H E

As an individual working on his 5th language and a teacher I've always been intrigued by language acquisition We did a study this year with kids between the ages of 5-9 We have a curriculum that consist of 60 units Basically the students are taught 15 units per quarter They take a monthly quiz which determines the level at which they understand the curriculum and at which overall level they are within the English language Out of my 6 classes ( each consisting of 8-12 students ) we took 3 of them and did the normal amount of exposure time per unit The other 3 I fast tracked They were exposed to all 60 units within the amount of time the other class was exposed to 15 All of the information was recorded to an excel sheet to analyze the data of each student per class What we found was that at the beginning, the students that focused longer on each but less units did better on the monthly quiz This is to be expected as they reviewed the same unit for an exponential amount of time longer Once we reached week 6 we started to notice some irregulaties in the students performance By week 14 a painfully obvious trend had taken hold The students that were fast tracked through all of the units had caught up They were averaging the same on the monthly quiz as the children reviewing them for longer periods Where the fast track students really stood out was the quarterly English level test We found that by 6 months the fast tracked students were performaning on average 33 more efficient in the overall language of English They had a better vocabulary Better listening skills and score much higher in comprehension We also found they were able to express themselves in much greater detail than the students taking the "slow and steady" method The results showed that it is better to expose yourself to more variety and less efficient to review the same material over and over and over The results are to be expected Are you learning to pass a test or are you learning the language to use it in the real world ? Basically, we found our curriculum is incredibly successful at teaching kids how to pass our test Not how to use the English language effectively in real life situations
Comment from : OrlandoPrime

Bonjour Steve, je vous écris en Français car je sais que vous aimez notre langue, vous êtes un exemple pour moi, vous avez dans les 70 ans je pense et vous êtes toujours aussi actif, toujours cette envie d'apprendre, vous avez une mémoire formidable et une bonne forme physique, j'espère vous ressembler à votre âge A bientôt Anthony
Comment from : Anthony

I tried to learn by storytelling, but didn't work for me I thought so boring to listen to the same story over and over again
Comment from : Marcio Zuba

A few things here: comprehensible and compelling are two different things I think you're confusing them a little bit Comprehensible content isn't always compelling and compelling content isn't always comprehensible That's why you are sort of right that it's hard to stick with comprehensible because not enough is out there and it's just not compelling enough to always go for that so you start going for things that are 10-30 percent incomprehensible But that being said at that point it's not comprehensible input and for that reason and that reason alone is why you have to listen to it up to a good 30- 60 times you would've gotten the gist of the story or article in only 5 to 10 times of listening/reading if it was comprehensible input which is the whole point of why ppl are pushing it bc theoretically at least it's the most efficient/time saving way to learn a language
Comment from : I Heart Nihon