Language Learning From Input
Do you want to learn another language? Language learning doesn't have to be hard or stressful. You can learn naturally and easily with input.
Do you want to learn another language? Perhaps you’ve been trying to do so for a very long time, even paying hundreds of dollars for classes, tutors, textbooks, online programs, and software. Are you satisfied with the results? Many are not. What, really is the secret to successful language learning? What does it mean to learn a language from input?
Natural Learning
In order to know the best way to learn a language, you don’t have to look any further than yourself. Why? Because you already are a language learning expert. You’re fluent in at least one language, which you learned in your home without even stepping foot into a classroom or paying a single penny. As a baby, you learned naturally and effortlessly by listening to others around you. That is called input. With enough input, you started to understand, and eventually, speak.
See this graph, based on an MIT experiment, in which the first two years of a child’s life has been carefully recorded. You can easily see that the baby only says a word after it’s heard that same word/phrase many (if not hundreds or thousands) of times.
That is the way our brains work. We naturally pick up language from the world around us. This is the power of input. We can learn a new language simple by exposing ourselves to it and creating out own immersion.
What is Input for You?
But do the words “immersion” and “input” mean that you have to move to the country where your target language, or the language you are learning, is spoken? Not at all! With today’s Ipods, mp3 players, Youtube, and Google, you can easily find hundreds of hours of content in your target language.
Input can be anything, from songs to cartoons, to talk shows or audio books or popular magazines. You can certainly find enough content to fill your daily life with the language, and let your brain to the rest.
Steve Kaufmann, who speaks 12 languages himself, describes in his book The Way of the Linguist what he calls interesting content. He claims that input that is interesting to you and that fits your needs, goals, and personality is much more likely to help you learn the language quickly and in an enjoyable manner.
Absorb a Language—Don’t just Study It
A textbook or two can be very helpful in your language learning, as can a class or audio program. But those things should not be the focus of your learning. They should be, at most, occasional accents, but never detracting from the invaluable time you can spend with the language directly.
With input, language learning can be fun and easy, and much less stressful than preparing for school exams. If you want to learn another language and become bilingual, don’t just study a language—absorb it!
Sources:
Kaufmann, Steve, The Way of the Linguist
Philip DeCamp and Deb Roy, "How a Toddler Learns to Talk", Forbes.com