Comprehensible Input
I had a great audio question sent in today about learning with comprehensible input. So in this episode, I cover some of the ideas behind the comprehensible input method, and then explore the input hypothesis from Stephen Krashen and how these ideas might benefit your language learning methods.
As always, keep in mind we are all different and learn in different ways, but I think a lot of these points will be relevant to most of you. Perhaps you can take something away today that you can implement (add) into your own study routine.
Here’s an illustration of comprehensible input – stay within the green circle.
If you stay within the blue circle (your comfort zone), you may always feel good about your level because you understand everything, but you’ll never improve here.
The large dark blue circle is too far out of your comfort zone. You’re likely to get frustrated and/or bored if you spend time here.
The green circle is optimal for learning.
Here’s the article I used in parts of this podcast episode:
Has this episode made you think about your own learning style?
Will you make any changes?
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Hi, Michael! I am a listener from China. I really appreciate your podcasts and your dedication which helped me a lot in learning English. I hope you can keep on crafting the podcast with your distinctive style, I really enjoy it. I have been worried and anxious lately because I have no idea how to improve my English writing skills. So could you recommend me several books about that or some useful tips? Thank you! Have a good time!
Hi there! Thanks so much for listening and for your kind words. I definitely have no plans to stop the podcast, so don’t worry!
We have a course on Level Up English for Writing that I think should be really helpful. It’s a popular one and gives members the chance to practice with feedback too. Here’s the link: https://courses.levelupenglish.school/courses/writing
As for books, I honestly can’t think of any so sorry I can’t help there.
But my advice is to try to develop a daily practice of writing. Maybe you could also base your writing on something you read too? For example, read an article and they do some writing to share your own feelings on the article. It’s a great opportunity to practice new structures you learn while reading.
And don’t forget Episode 99 where I talk about this topic more.
Good luck!