Hello and welcome to the first post of our new series called Language Unlocked: Facts and Findings on Language Learning & Use, the series where we delve together into the fascinating world of language learning, grounded in research and cognitive science.

Today’s topic is Understanding comprehensible input and its impact on language acquisition. So what is language acquisition? “The natural process by which people and especially children become able to understand and speak a language, without having lessons or learning rules” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2023) In other words, it is a natural way of learning a language, like how children acquire their native language.

Using language acquisition to learn a foreign language is a unique approach that differs significantly from formal language education. The main differences are that, compared to learning a language in a classroom environment, language acquisition is a subconscious process, language is absorbed through immersion (consuming content in the target language), and the newly acquired language is used in context.

An important idea that we often hear when we talk about language acquisition is Stephen Krashen’s Input Hypothesis. According to the Hypothesis, language acquisition happens when students are exposed to input that is just a little bit beyond their current skill level—often represented by the symbol “i+1.” (Krashen, 1982) This means that the information should be understandable yet sufficiently difficult to encourage learning.

Evidence supporting the Hypothesis

So how can we, as adults who are learning a foreign language, use the input hypothesis to our advantage? We can consume media, written or digital, such as books, short stories, movies, and series in your target language that is just a bit harder than our level. If you are a beginner, you can watch shows for kids or use graded readers and if you are more advanced, you can try harder and longer books or series with harder vocabulary. To make it easier, take a book you already read or a show you saw in your native language and read it / watch it in your target language. As you already know the plot, you will be more focused on the language rather than the action.

Is language acquisition different for adults than for babies? Well, adults have an advantage since they can also study the language actively, not only passively. While babies only rely on the input they get from people around them, adults can study language and grammar structures and reduce the effort it takes the brain to adapt to a new language. Therefore, we recommend a mixed approach of using comprehensible input and self-study to learn a language really well.

But maybe you are wondering if I only do input (reading and listening) how will I be able to speak eventually? Let’s look at babies. They get hundreds or even thousands of hours of input before outputting. They don’t speak right away, but as the brain gets used to the language, they start speaking and it becomes easier and easier. Even if in the beginning, what they are saying comes out wrong and they have errors, eventually, they start having fewer and fewer errors.

This was all for today. Hope you enjoyed today’s topic and stay tuned for the next parts of the series!

Bibliography

• Cambridge Dictionary. “Language Acquisition.” Cambridge Dictionary, 2 Aug. 2023, dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/language-acquisition;
• Krashen, Stephen D. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Pergamon, 1982.