Josh, you have created a bubble where Japanese is not necessary, so you don’t think about it, just like millions of immigrants before you. A spaced repetition system is your best defense against forgetting, it forces you to think about the input again, and again, and again.
Introduction
Education brings back sour memories of kind adults shoving shit down my throat. When I was young, it was teachers telling me to follow the rules. Now I have influencers on screens clamoring to sell shortcuts for faster results. When it comes to language learning - I eventually discovered - the rules do not help you communicate. Shortcuts are even worse, they lead to baby talk. In this context, Krashen’s The Natural Approach has been a refreshing read, especially considering my goal to understand messages and communicate ideas at a near-native level of Japanese. Focusing on extensive exposure to acquire the language over time was exactly what I needed to hear. It has inspired me to push forward with a study routine that is easy and enjoyable. Krashen does miss a few things though. The rules and shortcuts still have a place. Josh, you must not ignore the cemetery of intelligent individuals who moved abroad, surrounded by a foreign tongue, and went to their grave without speaking a lick of the language they were exposed to. You will soon be one of them. Time to remind yourself that extensive exposure requires fine-tuning, and mastery in any skill demands deliberate practice.
| Krashen’s Five Hypotheses |
|---|
1. Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis: People acquire a language rather than directly learn it |
2. The Natural Order Hypothesis: Language is acquired in a predictable order, from simple to more complex. Error correction should be minimized. |
3. The Monitor Hypothesis: Conscious knowledge of vocabulary and grammar should not be used in daily conversations, but where there is time to reflect. |
4. The Input Hypothesis: The language the individual is exposed to should be easy. The learner should understand over 90% of whatever he or she is consuming. |
5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis: Anxiety levels should be minimized so students have a good attitude about their language studies. |
Extensive Exposure and Spaced Repetition: A Deadly Combination
If I had read The Natural Approach two years ago, I would have considered it a bunch of bullshit. Krashen puts forth five different hypotheses, but the most popular one is the Input Hypothesis, “This hypothesis (Input Hypothesis) states simply that we acquire (not learn) language by understanding input that is a little beyond our current level of (acquired) competence…listening comprehension and reading are of primary importance in the language program, and that the ability to speak (or write) fluently in a second language will come on its own in time” (p. 32). I spent two years in Japan and my Japanese sucked. And I wasn't watching Kurosawa films either. Programs aimed at toddlers stilll flew over my head. I know a host of immigrants who come to the States and never learn the language they are surrounded by. And we shitty language learners try. We join classes. We buy textbooks. We make promises. We set goals. We give the language a real fucking go. And we are exposed to comprehensible input… but the output never comes.
Perhaps we give up too soon, or fail to try hard enough. It is certainly easy to lose hope when you spend hours at your desk pouring over textbooks with characters like Jane and Bob exclaiming, “Nice to meet you,” the only comprehensible input in your target language. Even after immersing in these humiliating tasks, you finish your studies feeling good about your accomplishments, until you step outside and into reality, like the other day when you went with Naomi to buy a car. After nearly four months of spending at least two hours a day, every day, studying with comprehensible input, the used car salesman’s might as well have been speaking Jivenese. While you were busy trying to wrap your head around their words you noticed their eyes fixed on you. They could have been admiring your haircut or asking why you smell like McDonald’s and you would have wore that same stupid grin. It is easy to lose hope when your work does not translate to communication in the real world.
The weird thing now is that you still have much to learn, but you are confident. These situations don’t bother you as much as they once did. You know you will reach near-native level Japanese, but how? What has changed from all your past failures?
Flashcards and the commitment to review them for at least an hour, every day…. for fucking years. Spaced repetition systems with pre-programmed review times add the element missing in the Input Hypothesis, it forces you to think about the language. Your brain likes to forget things, it makes living tolerable. Losing your virginity feels like an important memory, but the word virgin hardly ever comes up in casual conversation, so it is easier to forget. Memory is the residue of thought. Most of us have better things to think about than preschool level vocabulary in a foreign tongue, even when we live abroad. Just like you did, Josh. You found some friends who speak English. You speak English with your wife and family. You work on the computer at a job that requires you to speak English. You have created a bubble where Japanese is not necessary, so you don’t think about it, just like millions of immigrants before you. A spaced repetition system is your best defense against forgetting, it forces you to think about the input again, and again, and again.
From Intermediate to Advanced Fluency
If I had a nickel for every student who complained about their English even though they watch American sitcoms every day, I would have about $1.65. English is the world’s lingua franca, and if you speak it as a second language, you are bound to hit a wall after reaching the intermediate level. Strategies that had worked when you started feel like a waste of time. You still cannot express what you want to say when you want to say it. Certain sounds feel awkward. You make the same grammar mistakes when you speak. And you continue to surround yourself with English, but these stubborn problems persist. A Youtuber, Matt v. Japan, brought up this issue with Krashen in an interview, and he stuck to his guns, emphasizing the need to rely on comprehensible input, relax, and eventually you will get it. He might be right, but I have some experience with advanced English language learners who required deliberate practice in specific skills to improve their English test scores. I own the site TST Prep. We specialize in preparing students for the TOEFL® test. When I first started, I thought most of our students would be high school graduates with dreams of studying in the States. Our most popular demographic turned out to be middle-aged immigrants living in the US who need a 26 in the TOEFL Speaking section to become a licensed pharmacist. I have never encountered a more motivated group of students, and it probably has something to do with the six-figure salary. There is a prevailing wisdom amongst pharmacists that they have to practice a lot and take the test over and over again. Eventually, they will get the score they need. If this were true, we would not be in business. Thousands of students every year hit this wall. They need deliberate practice on specific skills.
The point is that comprehensible input does not appear to be enough for many. I already touched on the first part, the importance of review, which can be solved with a spaced repetition system. I often meet students who practice a lot and never review previous tests. This is one of my first recommendations for struggling TOEFL students. The second part is identifying specific weaknesses in their speech and crafting a study plan with practice designed to address these issues. Some students struggle with intonation, their voice rises and falls at awkward moments. This is something you hope the Input Hypothesis would solve, but sometimes it does not. The student is given a single sentence to listen to and identify the points where the voice rises and falls. They focus solely on intonation, not pronunciation, comprehension or anything else. They will do a series of practice like this for no more than ten minutes a day. The idea is that this deliberate practice leads to a heightened awareness of the speech music the student needs to adapt to do well on the TOEFL. For some, these language features reveal themselves in the process of acquiring the target language through time, so they never have to bother with deliberate practice. However, the English language is vast and complicated and, in my experience, nearly every student suffers from a blind spot. All it takes is a teacher to point out the weakness, and provide short, deliberate practice with spaced repetition that, over time, will increase awareness and improve overall English fluency.
Josh, you love Krashen’s Input Hypothesis. It has freed you from textbooks and worrying over memorizing lists of vocabulary words. You no longer fret over your lack of progress, and instead focus on consistency, receiving comprehensible and enjoyable input every day for hours a day while using a spaced repetition flashcard system. This forces you to repeat what you learn, boost your comprehension, and introduce an incremental amount of new vocabulary. Still, the time will come when you need to do some deliberate practice with pronunciation and grammar. Yes, even grammar, the thing you shat all over in your last rejournal entry. Keep the deliberate practice short, less than 15 minutes a day, which will reduce the likelihood of you punching holes through the walls. Apply what you have learned through Krashen, plug the content into a spaced repetition system, and let the algorithm do the rest. All you have to do is show up.