Look at all the books in this photo! I took this picture in Prague at a museum. Amazing!

So what is comprehensible input?

INPUT is everything you take in. In the case of language acquisition, it's reading and listening to English texts.

COMPREHENSIBLE means understandable – which means that you should be able to easily GRASP (take hold of, seize, understand) the text, even if you don't get every single word. This is how babies learn their mother tongue MOTHER TONGUE (the first language of a person) by the way.

The concept of comprehensible input is that the level of the texts you read and listen to are a little bit higher than your CURRENT level (your level NOW). In this way you are challenged to FAMILIARISE yourself with (become acquainted with, get to know) new words and new grammar structures, but they are not so difficult and OVERWHELMING (too much or too intense to cope with) as to make you feel FRUSTATED (upset, annoyed and discouraged) or BLOCKED (hindered, prevented from completing a task).

So this will be the procedure for our learning:

• There is a new lesson for everyday. You can already IMPROVE greatly (get better, enhance in quality) just from reading the introductory texts slowly and carefully.
• You will get THREE audio files per week. Plan your day: when can you listen to these? Maybe while COMMUTING to work (the regular travel between your home and your work or school)? Or while WASHING THE DISHES (also possible, especially in the UK: doing the washing up, doing the dishes), DOING THE LAUNDRY(washing the clothes)? Walking the dog? Relaxing in the bath? Make it a fun and REJUVENATING (refeshing, restoring, revitalising) time for yourself.
• You will also get ONE sophisticated text for reading every week – quotes and extracts from the LITERARY CANON (high literature). Find a nice time and place to read it in peace. You should not have to hurry.
• At the end of the week there will be a quiz or offer for practice. Make that a game for yourself. You can also use this time to catch up with any of the listenings and readings.

The more time you spend doing easy and fun things in English, the faster you will ACQUIRE the language – like a child learning its first language. But remember: you're not in school. The goal is not to reach a certain level, but to enjoy the process as much as possible. TAKE DELIGHT IN (enjoy) the moment – however COMMONPLACE (repeated and unoriginal) that may sound. Do you want to try that?

If you would like to find out more about the concept of comprehensible input, please check out the works of Dr. Stephen Krashen and Jeff McQuillan. I will also introduce some material from them through the course of our journey.

PRACTICE OFFER

You may have noticed that I am highlighting certain expressions with a nice GOLDEN colour in my posts. They are suggestions to EXPAND (increase, enlarge, broaden) your vocabulary – so if you find any new words among them, take a moment to stop and SOAK IN (absorb) the word WITHIN the context. You may even try and INVENT (make up, create) a new sentence using this expression.

Feel free to drop a comment down below, sharing one word or expression that was new to you in this post (it doesn't have to be a golden word) and adding an example sentence of your own.

Do not be afraid of making mistakes – mistakes are our friends. They offer new OPPORTUNITIES (possibilities) to grow and GET RID OF (eliminate, remove) our psychological BARRIERS (blocks, obstacles).