Comprehensible input - Key to success in language acquisition

We acquire language when we understand what people tell us. Comprehensible input, in my opinion, has been the last resort of the language teaching profession. We’ve tried everything else. We’ve tried grammar teaching, drills and exercises, computers, etc. But the only thing that seems to count is getting messages you understand, comprehensible input.

Talking is not practicing. It will not help you to speak Spanish out loud in the car as you drive to work in the morning. It will not help you to go to the bathroom, close the door and speak Spanish to the mirror. I used to think those things help. Now I think they don’t.

On the other hand, if we were a German class and we could hang together for a couple of weeks, say an hour a day of German, and I could keep the input light and lively as in the second example, you would start to acquire German. It would come on its own, and eventually you would start to talk. Your speaking ability would emerge gradually.

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