Comprehensible Input Community Members Unite! Calling all students and teachers interested in Acquiring Languages by way of Comprehensible Input*** (see my explanation below)!!! Please join and let's discuss ways that help you acquire the language. We can share resources and connect with each other! What language are you trying to pick up? What's your motivation? What are you listening to, watching, reading, etc.? Any good links you can share with the group to advance us along the road to our language acquisition? I teach English and Spanish, and I am trying to acquire French also. ***Comprehensible Input, according to Second Language Acquisition research, is the way in which we *acquire (different from *learn) languages. Just as when we were babies and young children, we had to take in a lot of the language and understand it, in order to eventually speak, so do we acquire a second (third, etc.) language at any age. We must be exposed to lots of rich (interesting), comprehensible (understandable) input (messages whether spoken or written), over and over and over. What is in our heads--grammar and vocabulary--is unconsciously absorbed by our evolved language-oriented brains. What gets in our heads (and we eventually are able to speak or write) is not learned by memorizing grammar rules or vocab lists; rather what gets in our heads and flows effortlessly (eventually) is acquired through lots of recycled input that we find interesting and understandable. As teachers, I believe we should be teaching for language proficiency through comprehensible input that connects with our students' minds and hearts. As language learners, I believe we should find ways in which acquiring language is a fun, or at least interesting endeavor instead of thinking that it must be a nervous endeavor of hard work. These are values I think are necessary for any community to thrive: Similar Values, Goals, Worldviews, and Kind People who Genuinely want to Be Together.

The best way to "learn", pardon me...not "learn", rather acquire a language is my absorbing tons of spoken and written messages that are rich, interesting and recycle vocabulary, but are a little above the current level of the learner (this is referred to as "i + 1" by Dr. Stephen Krashen who is the top researcher and professor of Second Language Acquisition, and who coined this concept of the way we get language in our head: Comprehensible Input). Language "learning" should *not* be hard work. It should be a blast, a fun journey, a party in our brains! Haha, because we are hard-wired for language acquisition. Goodbye grammar textbooks :( Hello natural grammar acquisition through receiving interesting input :)

¿Dedicación? Sí, señora. ¿Trabajo duro? ¡No, señor! No vamos a "aprender" un idioma, sino vamos a "adquirir" el lenguaje. A través de input comprensible (o comprehensible input en inglés) podemos adquirir el idioma como lo hicimos con nuestro idioma maternal. Solo hay que escuchar a personas, series, etc. y leer libros, artículos, etc. que nos sean interesantes. ¡Y ya! Esto es la manera, pues la única manera según las investigaciones de Second Language Acquisition de Drs. Stephen Krashen y Beniko Mason y otros. Yo he experimentado que ha sido la manera en que aprendí el español, el portugués, y como voy aprendiendo mejor el francés.