I'm a native Spanish speaker. And when he said "when the conversation gets so interesting, you temporarily forget that you're using another language" I realised that his speech was so interesting that I had forgotten I needed to pay attention to his English words and what they meant.
Same, lol. My native language is Russian, and I'm so happy to be fluent in English. I'm currently learning Japanese, and I have a goal to achieve basic fluency (B1-B2 level according to the European system) in less than a year. Wish me the best.
If you want to learn any language, just focus on what Stephen Krashen said; “ We acquire a language in one way and only one way, when we get more comprehensible input in a low anxiety environment” Thanks Stephen 🙏🏽
I teach at a Japanese kindergarten and the way he demonstrated the German lesson in lesson #2 is how I'm going to teach from now on. Superb! I have no clue of German but I understood his lesson well.
I could barely understand half of this video one year ago and now I understand almost everything. Stephen Krashen's method really works for me learning English.
@@NamNguyen-dj2ou Yes, I consumed massive input in English for 2 years and at the end of those years I could pass the C1 Cambridge Exam. At the beginning I could barely understand the sample B1 exams of the web. But 2 years later I passed the real C1 exam and with 196/200 points, which means that I almost had a C2 level, which corresponds to >200. Then, I started to learn German from scratch the same way and now I understand 99.9 % of all of what I hear in German, just the same as with English. I am now preparing to pass the C1 Goethe Exam.
@@ancapcitorw5162 What exactly did you do during those 2 years, did you hire an English speaker to talk to you or did you watch videos to make the input easy to understand, can you explain clearly in detail what you did? , how much time do you spend each day doing it, and how do you feel in 6 months, 1 year about your ability to understand, read, speak, and write. I look forward to receiving your answer
A brilliant talk. This was how I learnt German: comprehensible input in a low anxiety environment. Also this was a TED talk before there were TED talks haha
This video explained in 15 minutes how I spent 9 years in school taking Japanese classes without learning any Japanese but a friend of mine could teach herself Japanese in 2 years without any formal training
I've been studying linguistic theories for a quite a while now... After Your majesty Chomsky, you, Mr. Krashen, are one of those who have my deepest admiration and respect. Thank you for such amazing contributions to language teaching and learning.
@@juliaherni5357 As far as I understand that is not the case: there were some critiques in the early 80s before there was actual time to gather the necessary data, while now there seems to be pretty much consensus on these points. Note that I am not in the field but just interested in it as a layman, so I refer to sources which talk about this stuff. The first that comes to my mind is Episode 50 of the "The motivated classroom" podcast which can be found on Spotify. Regarding for example the discussion that emerges in the episode I just mentioned, do you have counterarguments?
@4:50..."probably The best kept secret in the profession. We acquire language in one way and only one way. When we understand messages. We call this "comprehensible input". We acquire language when we understand what people tell us not how they say it, but what they say or when we understand what we read. 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."
"We acquire a language in one way and only one way, when we get more comprehensible input in a low anxiety environment" absolutely true! I've learned English in school for years but still at intermediate levels until now, you can't acquire a language using traditional methods, i knew that in a hard way from my experience.. I'm still trying to improve my English by listening, watching and reading everything in English.. thank you very much for your helpful speech
He is a scientist. He has contributed so much to bringing us back to the science of language acquisition when so much of the language teaching pedagogy was focusing on individual learning traits as in the concept of learner centeredness but, I think he does tend to paint a picture of the learner as being at the mercy of their own learning process.
I'm from South Asia, specifically Bangladesh, a country very close to India. Our culture has been heavily influenced by India, specifically the modernism of Mumbai and Bengali traditionalism from Kolkata. As a kid, there was a huge craze for Indian drama which would air daily on the TV, and the womenfolk of our country were crazy about some of them. They would put all their work aside, sit down in front of the TV, and watch the new episode every night (they used to usually air at night) for 30 minutes, where there was ad for 10 minutes in between. Keep in mind that back then we didn't have any subtitles (they have English subtitles now), it was pure Hindi all the time. But it didn't matter. I saw my mom, my female cousins, my grandma - everyone irrespective of age sitting down in front of the TV and watching it every night and being able to perfectly describe what was going on in the show. We had no need for Hindi to be honest, I do admit that our Bengali language and Hindi have a lot of similar words, which definitely helped, but it was still fascinating to see these women understand everything from the modern day Hindi to adaptations of Hindu mythologies, which weren't in the modern Hindi language. My own case was similar. I used to be addicted to various Hindi dubbed cartoons which used to air. To this day, 15 years later, I cannot tell you a single thing about Hindi grammar, I can't even write Hindi, nor can my female relatives. But all of us can understand Hindi when someone is using it colloquially, even after knowing that the Hindi used in daily life is much more rough and faster than the one used in these drama serials. We've been to India 4 times, and despite never "talking" in Hindi beforehand, we could communicate efficiently with the local people when necessity took over. And it's not just about me and my female relatives. Every woman in our country no matter the residence, from my mother who has proper education to a random woman in the countryside who cannot even compare in educational qualifications, all understood Hindi, as proven by my visits to my native village by myself. And it's contagious let me tell you that. From just being near them, not even paying any attention, I, my dad and probably many other men from different parts of Bangladesh could understand Hindi more or less. That said, there are several variables like I mentioned, like how Hindi is actually pretty clear, more familiar to us and easy to understand, but still, it's a fascinating experience. Thanks for reading this far too
This is a life-changing concept and reality: we only learn languages unconsciously, when we understand messages. I use this approach with my English students and they make much faster progress than with traditional approaches.
It's not reality though. Note that the implication of believing that it is is that the entire field of linguistics is somehow corrupt and has been resisting this "reality" for over 50 years now, for reasons that one can only surmise. What is life-changing about this model is that it moved teachers to start focusing more on meaning and communication instead of focusing so much on out-of-context grammar instruction and drills. But that's pretty much it.
@@bofbob1 It still holds true. Everyone I know has tried to learn languages in schools using traditional methods with out-of-context grammar studying, endless vocabulary tests and forcing to speak the new language from day one. What Krashen talks about is the complete opposite in how we think about (acquiring) learning languages. So yeah, it is quite "life-changing".
@@robertt1743 Exactly. Dogs don’t learn commands by doing grammar lessons all day. You give them a command, and if they get it right they’re rewarded. Immediate comprehensible input that what they did was correct.
I've made a video series #opetp to help people experience this for themselves in the shortest possible time. Would you like to try it? I would love to interview you afterward. It's stories with pictures and gestures, but in a tiny conlang of 120 words. 20 minutes a day for a month is enough to experience subconscious acquisition.
I am German and I had 7 years of english in school. And after that, it was about 1983, i wanted to read a novel in english(Kurt Vonneguts 'Cats cradle'). I was shocked, how little i understood. Then I sat down one evening with a paperbook dictionary and started to go through. Iooked up every word that i didnt understand. That took quite a while. For the first 2 pages i needed 4 hours. The next day i made 4 pages in 4 hours. I finished the book(about 200 pages) after 3 weeks. I think thats the motivation of what stephen is talking about. My next book in english( 'Shibumi' by Trevanian) i read without a dictionary. I didn't understand every word, but i understood very well the plot.
@@sardorrakhimov1512 try watching foreign tv shows with the subtitles in the language you want to learn, this will help you connect the dots because they will use language in connection to the events of the episode right in front of your eyes and it is meant as entertainment so you won't get bored.
@@sheikhan1995 i saw a study that said having them in the language can help with learning it but having them in your original language lets say English for example results in no progress
That's literally how I learnt English but it was more of "self" input at the start, when playing a game and seeing it written down "Play", "Quit", "Options", I'd select "Play" and the game would start, selecting "Quit" would close the game and finally with "Options" it would bring up a menu with a bunch of stuff to tweak. After this "self input" period I started getting a lot of "normal" input which was hours and hours of YT and talking with random people, and now here I am. Never touched a single app or textbooks, never learnt any grammar (aside from looking up when to use "you're" or "your" for 5 minutes), never memorized any of those complicated grammar PDFs or anything like that.
i took the low anxiety part of this very seriously and started out language learning by reading very basic, funny cartoons. it took the anxiety right out of me, and im now doing it again with my third language!
@@adzriekunyu That’s a pretty old post above. But I too read Mexican comic books for Spanish. It’s great because you learn slang and street culture. Cartoons would be great too but haven’t tried yet.
i watch a cartoon for french language learning (Miraculous) and it is really helpful, makes me look forward to absorbing comprehensible input, and the formulaic structure helps me understand more nuances with every episode
@@morgaaaaaa I am also trying to learn French! I've been watching The Dragon Prince on Netflix. I change the audio to French, and keep the English subtitles. Yesterday I started watching a little bit of Hilda (also animated) the same way. i think it does help. The main words are repeated over and over again with pictures. Which cartoon do you watch, Morga?
It gives me unalloyed pleasure to be the only Lecturer of English in Egypt who follows in Dr. Stephen Krashen's steps in minute scrutiny. I've almost read each and every word he has written on Second Language Acquisition. I have also come to believe that Krashen is probably one of the best language professors on earth! Whatever people say about Krashen and his theories, I will cleave, unceasingly, to them till death. M. Shahawy Egypt
This man and also Steve Kaufmann have helped me more than any teacher to begin to actually acquire a language. Language acquisition through comprehensible input makes it enjoyable rather than a burden.
Kaufman's just a salesman. His videos are infomercials for his company. He also employs shady practises like charging for subscriptions that have been cancelled.
@wyverntheterrible Kaufman is a real polyglot with methods that you can learn without paying a dime on youtube. He also is running a platform about language learning and advertises it on his channel. What is wrong about that? I never installed his app but learnt a lot from his methods. Stephan Krashen himself has met Kaufman and speaks highly of him in another presentation I saw.
@@mohsenvh3619 I use his site, it's good, but everything he will advocate is to influence you into buying into his 'input hypothesis' adjacent product. Which is a pretty good one, which I pay for. However you need to realise that's his primary goal with his videos etc. They're infomercials. I've also heard him speak russian and he's b1 at best, yet says it's one of his main languages. So id take his claims with a pinch of salt. He also will delete even the MILDEST critical comments from his channel. Again, it's a pitch.
I love the way this presenter concluded his speech, one concise statement which says it all about his presentation. Very easy and helpful for the audience's memory. Thank you for sharing the precious video.
@@porte-majestuoso Some people are selflessly dedicated to teaching, and teaching how to learn. It's an utterly selfless act. Ok, he may be being paid for teaching and this video, but it's bigger than that.
My school French teacher would often speak to us in French, using words he never taught us, and expect us to just vaguely figure out what he meant. If it wasn't immediately obvious what the words precisely mean, or even sound like, over time through repeating the same sort of things it began to become clearer.
My German teacher does the same. Most of the time she speaks in German only. Even when some students ask what's the meaning of a particular word, she explains it in German and we actually understand. She is very strict about not using any English words in her class
This is such a compelling topic. Can’t believe that i haven’t found out this for 8 years learning English at school more or less. The lessons i got from this speech are keeping anxiety at bay, relishing challenges and learning from conversations that allow me to learn from other’s responses. I am challenging myself to leave my comments on every video i watch on youtube. This comment is my first step .
Him: you need motivation to learn a language Me: crap Him: you need self esteem Me: shit Him: you can't have anxiety Me: HOW DID I EVER LEARN ENGLISH IN THE FIRST PLACE
if talking were required to improve our speaking skills, children would never "take off", they would never get to produce a single sentence. Evidently all children make progress (it is a fact) not because they speak but because they all come up with ears and they start listening from the day they are born (and even before that) and they keep hearing language every day for many hours year after year.
Yes, but more importantly, audio input is usually accompanied by meaning, someone points to a dog and says "hey, look the dog", enough times and in enough contexts that the children knows that the dog part means the animal being pointed at. Meaning is important in language acquisition.
That's not a fact at all. In fact, the best predictor of a child's linguistic ability is not how much his parents talk to him, but how many turns he has in a conversation.
I admire this man's work so much, he has contributed several ideas to the field of linguistics that the world was not ready for in his time. In a research paper I wrote, I included his theory on 2nd language acquisition and was so amazed by his logical ideology. I don't understand why his ideas are still being ignored. We know the communicative approach is not effective for fluency, we can see it in classrooms, in the students. This man is a genius. I hope the world will see this one day.
This is great!!! Thank you! I will be a 1st year elementary school teacher soon. As an Adult Third Culture Kid (ATCK), my heart goes out to English Language Learners, whether they were born in the U.S. or not, as well as their parents and other family members. I spent 2 months working as an Assistant English Teacher in Japan. It was an amazing experience, and I wish I could have stayed longer. However, culture shock is real, and it takes time & practice to learn culture, language:spoken & written. I want to be patient with all my students, ELLs, in SPED, GT... like people have been patient and helpful to me! Being genuinely caring in the way you interact with people goes a long way. Best practices based on proven research is another important piece. I"m also learning that kids coming from poverty need more supports to help them succeed with academic language...experiences going to the library, to the zoo, parents who are well educated and have time to spend with kids, not just work 2-3 jobs to pay the bills...
I love this man. He illuminated my whole teaching practice and made clear to me why some students come to turn into fluent speakers and some don't. Heck, why I became a speaker and a teacher having never really been "taught"!
Dear professor Krashen, when you started to write the 3 important rules to learn and get more easy the LANGUAGE ACQUISITION (minute 12, Second 20) I unfortunately recognise myself in the 3 rules but most of all, in the third one: “… the lower the anxiety, the better language acquisition”. While I was studying, and in my entire lifetime, I have had anxiety, low self-steem and depression. Even though, at the age of 48 I go my Bachelor´s Degree in English Studies, though again, because of those 3 factors are still within me, my pronunciation is very good and my level of English is B2, unfortunately, I still haven´t been able to even start studying in order to get the C1Cambridge Level. I feel very frustrated about it as my personal circumstances are still very difficult. Anyhow, I truly thank you Mr. Krashen for bringing about these hugely important factors when it comes to learn almost anything in life.
Thank you mrounds5 -so-oooooo much -for posting this video. In the past two days I have read hundreds of words by other people attempting to explain "comprehensible input." I still didn't know exactly what it was. The examples were always in the i + 1 form, which meant zilch to me. And, here within the first 3 minutes of this video, I've got it. We need to understand "messages;" we need to understand "what" is said. So simple out of the horse's mouth. Thanks again.
I want to tell a story. My mother tongue is Bahasa Indonesia. Both of my parents' mother tongue is Batak, a tribe language. I was raised speaking Bahasa Indonesia, but I understand Batak language and can speak decently. Surprise: MY PARENTS NEVER TAUGHT ME!!! I learned it by picking up words & phrases every time my parents talked to each other in Batak language. (they spoke Bahasa to me but mostly spoke in Batak to each other). Not joking, they never taught me any words. NEVER. But you can ask me any word in Batak and I probably understand it. The power of our brain is really unbelievable.
Watching this video in 2019 with a big smile on my face... Tons of dope, knowledge, lived truth in a single video. I'm leaning German this year and I get impressed with the way I could understand German 😮🤐🤐
So true about speaking! I recently said something in Spanish (I am learning it right now), for fun, to a colleague. Her response was so valuable, I immediately learned how to say something in everyday Spanish. Basically, I asked where the staples are and when she didn't understand my Spanish word for staples she said "Las que?". Now I know how to say "the what?" So cool! In other words, her response was more valuable than my attempt to speak.
Why couldn't this be extended (similarly) to other sciences like Mathematics or other sciences deemed as "languages"? It is true that many things can be interpreted as a language but people seem to refrain methodological intuitiveness. It always bothers me why educational institutions don't seem to care about that. A reply is greatly appreciated.
That's really true. I myself am really good at mathematics, but unlike my peers who also get good grades I don't do homework or practise. What I do instead is watch videos with proofs of theorems. I think the problem is that schools in general are very conservative regarding how to teach. Just look at schools and technology. We have so much technology and still after 200 years it's still a class of 30 students listening to one guy speak. When the goddamn radio came out people came up with ideas on how to have a system for them to tune it to class from home. That being said I think comprehensible input doesn't perfectly apply to let's say mathematics. Krashner defines two types of learning:acquisition and conscious learning. Acquisition is what language learning is about, a skill that does not require awareness. But conscious learning is what linguistics is about, having concious understanding on why things are as they are such as grammar rules. And although fluency in a science may fall under unconscious skills, the majority is about understanding structures and concept so that you just not exclusively are able to recite it or recognise, but to also be able to reason upon it, discover new connections, make new theories.
@@midnightkiteflight6333 As a jazz musician and educator id be more than intrigued to hear how you've applied this directly to teaching what you've listed above!
@@brianblades6177 Sure. I'm still working this stuff out and trying things, of course, but here goes. I'll start with two disclaimers: 1. Krashen talks about comprehensible input, which implies that the input must have meaning, i.e. something that can be understood. Music doesn't have any meaning (semantic value), so the term has to be used a little differently here. 2. I am doing a (roughly) eighteenth century italian style of music. I don't see why it couldn't work for jazz, but good to know. With that in mind, you have probably noticed that music, like language, is roughly 90% the same. There are many dozens of stock phrases that we use every day to indicate certain things. Same goes for music. Certain phrases sound like the start of something, others sound like the middle, others sound like the end. Others seem kind of static. I'm sure there's other examples too. These are usually referred to as schemata. An analogue from Jazz would be the 2-5-1 progression. Once you learn that, you hear it everywhere, right? So this becomes a mental model through which you *comprehend the input.* The idea is that by seeing enough of these schemata in enough different places *in enough different contexts* you will just kind of "know what works," because you're used to what they sound like. As for improvising, it's like starting to speak a language. There's not much point until you can understand, because again, you will just know what works. Even if you can't explain it. So that's my rough outline so far. Even now I realise how rough it really is. Either way, I hope it didn't put you to sleep!
I thought this video was interesting... I thought it was going to be boring but as I continued watching I found him charming and interesting... I honestly find his German lesson cool... I was surprised how much of a difference it made to watch him draw the picture. M. Guerrero
Just amazing!! If he lectured this way in German, unlike in my boring classes I'd eagerly listen for long periods and maybe, start speaking like Itomi within 6 months....
Very informative in how we acquire language.. as a side note, its also interesting how self esteem, anxiety, and the assumption the student will succeed comes into play according to Mr. Krashen. As one child who gets good grades is receiving the same classes as another child who is struggling and failing, perhaps its not one is smarter than the other. Other factors may be at play, like if one is treated more favorably over the other, or emotional abuse, which affects the self esteem which affects the comprehensive input.
Sadly, when schools force teachers to "fit" the content of the first YEAR of language into one semester (18 weeks), we don't have a 5 month silent period. Our "standards" require that students be able to read, listen, speak, write, and compare cultures. Suggestions?
Hello professor Thank you so much for your help and advice. I really appreciate your job. I wish you peace and happiness under the sky of prosperity. All the best. Take care and have a good time. Your follower from Algeria not Nigeria.
Hello, Mr Krashen, thank you so much for all the info you have shared on this video. I just have a question and I hope you reply back to me. The question is: Can the natural approach method be used to teach all languages tenses or does it have a limit in which the students must study Grammar? Good regards I am from Nicaragua.
@@zuhursalad2625 I highly suggest watching Learn French With Alexa on RU-vid. She really helps and, if you like, I suggest you connect with some people on online games who live in either Quebec or France, they can help you out your listening and pronunciation.
I am impressed by his passion and conviction, and he has convinced me that for comprehension, we must listen. I am not convinced that speaking is irrelevant if we wish to learn to speak.
Wow! In a 15-minute video, he summed up the problem with how we are teaching second (etc.) languages and quite clearly showed how to correct it! Genial!
Is there a directory of language teachers, programs, classes whatever by location that uses these methods and students that have come out of them with success?
Most language teaching focuses on remembering. It begins by teaching you all the pronouns. For example, in my old Spanish book, they taught the word for, I, you, he, she, it and so on all at once. Then they list all the verb forms at one estoy, estás estamos and so on. You get an endless list of rules, and items. The book also has exercises that are missing a single word per sentence. Then you have to add that word. At first, you're given two options to choose from, for example, hablas or hablo. Then a similar exercise where you need to add the missing word, but you don't get any options. However, you can always go back and look the word up on a previous page. You'll have vocabulary tests, irregular verb tests and so on. But the one thing you'll never learn is to PRODUCE a COMPLETE sentence from the beginning till the end. You'll keep filling in those missing items, but you'll rarely ever produce a sentence from start to finish. So, you never develop the mental abd procedural skill to do so. Years later, you realize that you've learn a couple of words, but you can't speak the language, but you don't know why. It's because you never learn to put even the simplest sentence together by yourself. In a typical classroom, the teach will be the only one SPEAKING the language while the students have the role of filling in the missing words. Language Transfer is a non-profit organization that addresses the most important factor missing in normal classrooms, the sentences producing part. For example, in the free 15-hour-long Spanish course, you'll produce close to a thousand sentences. While doing so, you won't be presented with all the words (I, you, he, she) etc. at once. Rather, you'll only be presented with the words you need in order to produce a given sentence. Language Transfer has a website and a RU-vid channel. I found out about Language Transfer in 2015 when I was trying to learn Spanish more effectively than what my teacher taught me.
I learned English as an adult (I'm 32 now but I learned it in my nmid 20s) and it's amazing how I cannot avoid understanding what he says. And yet learning a third language seems impossible but it'd be the same way.
Such a brilliant talk , i saw someone challenging himself to leave a comment in every yt video to reduce anxiety and i think that's a good idea ( I'm an Arabic native speaker and my english level it's under average )
In my english class we had to read a bit from the chapter out loud and then translate it. We would go through each student like this in order. Soooo instead of listening while others were reading I calculated the part I would have to translate and make sure I got it. Needless to say that I didn't learn much that way. I only started to learn when I got my ipad and therefore a steady access to the internet. I started with memes. Within a year I went from not having any clue on what's going on to top grades.
