On Extensive Input

Following after the fashions of some of the well-known language learning blogs and the theories of Stephen Krashen I became a devotee of extensive comprehensible input. what is extensive comprehensible input?Essentially the theory goes that we learn languages by exposing ourselves to messages in that language that are understandable. Enough exposure to comprehensible input (messages) and the brain will naturally acquire the language. By extensive it is meant that you expose yourself to large quantities of language but without repeating or analyzing the language too much. The theory is that by seeing so much input overtime you will see many words and phrases repeated in different contexts that allow you to acquire the language without intentionally learning it. Just read things that interest you and listen to content (radio, TV, music, movies) constantly and eventually your vocabulary and understanding of the language will grow. This is somewhat similar to the way we learn our first language. As a native speaker of English I have (as a rough estimate) a vocabulary of about 15,000-20,000 words. I learned most of these words not with my head buried in a dictionary or with a teacher demonstrating words to me and then making me repeat them until they stuck, but by encountering these words in the environment as they were relevant, such as when the people around me spoke them, when I heard them on television or when I read them in a book as I got older.

This was an enticing theory initially, as it meant I could read things that interested me in Chinese or veg out on the couch watching TV for hours and it would improve my language skills as a result. Now this is true to an extent but I’m afraid that if you were to make extensive input the entirety of your study method as I did your language growth will stall in some areas.

For example, I read quite a few novels in Chinese as a part of my method at one point in time. As a result of this I think I greatly improved my reading ability and reading became easier as time went on. Although my reading ability is to an extent very genre specific, I’m much better at reading novels than things like newspapers or even complicated Facebook status updates. I found that although I was exposing myself to huge amounts of Chinese structures and vocabulary, I was very rarely able to turn this into output. The words that I learnt through reading would be able to be recalled the next time I saw them in a novel; however they would not necessarily be available for conversation when I needed them. I had a good passive recognition of vocabulary but often found myself unable to find the words I needed when speaking. I also found that learning new vocabulary through extensive reading sounds good in theory but doesn't really work out that way. Firstly, in order to get to the point where you can guess words from context, so that you can understand most of the input without needing a dictionary you need to know 95% of the other words in the text. As those in the language acquisition game know, once you get to the final 5% those final words become less and less common, to the point where many new words I read in novels when I initially started reading I have yet to see again, dozens of novels and over a year later.

The passing interaction you have with new vocabulary in this method isn't enough to learn them and turn them into words you can use in your everyday speech. So I find that if you want to improve your output you need to be much more active in acquiring new vocabulary with regards to intentional review and practice. However extensive input does have a good influence on strengthening the structures and vocabulary that you have already learned. It’s immensely beneficial to see vocabulary and sentence patterns that you already understand in different contexts; it broadens and deepens your understanding of them. However I find that it can be difficult to rely on extensive input for your initial learning of these words, especially if you want to convert your learning into output and active vocabulary.

Recently I've been much more focused on intensive input followed by deliberate practice and output through writing and speaking. I find that this is helping me convert my input into output and making what I’m learning a part of my everyday language that extensive novel reading and TV watching did not. 

So you can supplement your learning with some extensive listening and reading practice, it's an enjoyable and  relatively relaxed way to study that will help you to reinforce what you already know, but I don’t recommend making it the backbone of your study regime as it might not improve your ability to speak as much as you hope.