Comprehensible input is part of the Input Hypothesis developed by linguist Steven Krashen. Simply, it states that people can acquire a second language more effectively by exposing themselves to comprehensible input. Watch the short demo video below to get a better feel for Comprehensible Input learning. I’ve written more about it here, too.
These stories use visual or sound cues to help the learner understand the meaning without a direct translation (or very minimal) and circling questions. In other words, this simulates your brain’s steps (without realising) when you learn your native language. If you think about it, we don’t directly teach babies about grammar rules or phonetics.
They learn to imitate the sounds the people make around them by associating them with the actions they are doing or pictures in a book they are pointing to. As you can imagine, this takes a long time. Generally speaking, most toddlers can’t string a complex, comprehensible sentence together until they are at least 3 or 4. So don’t be too hard on yourself if you feel you’re not learning “fast enough”. Stay focused, the best learning happens without you realising it.
As an adult, you have the advantage of not needing to learn concepts. You already know them; you need to associate them with different sounds. For example, you don’t need to understand what a chair is; you need to know what it is in Portuguese (cadeira). This saves you a lot of time in comparison to babies and children.
Are you ready to give it a try? Watch an example below:
Please let me know how you get on! Vote here to let me know which topics interest you. Or click below to start.