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Links:

To learn more about the UK Mandarin immersion retreats visit: https://mandarinretreat.com/

Blog with information about the immersion retreats: http://imlearningmandarin.com/2022/08/14/i-tasted-full-immersion-for-the-first-time-on-a-weekend-mandarin-retreat-and-you-can-too/

Essie Birt's Twitter: https://twitter.com/Essie_M_B

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Professor Stephen Krashen has arguably had more of an impact in the  field of modern language education than any other living academic linguist.

His Input Hypothesis – a group of five hypotheses developed  in the 1970s and 80s, argues that comprehensible input is the key  component required for successful second language acquisition.

Language education in schools and universities has traditionally been  based on the belief that practicing speaking, vocabulary memorisation, repetition drills and grammar rules are the keys to learning a second language.

According to Krashen, however, studying information about languages in the form of grammar rules and practicing speaking through repetition  drills are of marginal importance. Instead we acquire languages when we  understand messages through reading and listening to our target  language.

If we follow his principles, our task as language learners is simple:  seek out reading and listening material we find compelling and  comprehensible, then consume enough of it until we’ve internalised the  language. If we get enough comprehensible input appropriate to our  level, our comprehension skills will consistently improve and our  ability to speak the language will then gradually emerge.

The online language learning community is full of influencers and learners – myself included – who have been inspired by Krashen. The likes of Steve Kaufmann and Matt Vs Japan (who I interviewed for this podcast) are examples of what can be achieved when Krashen’s principles are applied successfully.

But Krashen is not without his critics and there are question marks  over how applicable his ideas are to learning Mandarin. Can Mandarin pronunciation and tones be acquired through comprehensible input alone or is in necessary to  learn rules, use rote memorisation and repetition drills to become  proficient? And what about grammar? Can we acquire Mandarin to a high  level without deliberately studying grammar rules?

In this episode I want to take a critical look at the input  hypothesis. To do so I’ve invited two Mandarin learning experts, both of  whom have appeared on this podcast before. Professor Karen Chung is a linguist with decades of experience working at National Taiwan University. Daniel Nalesnik is the founder of the leading flashcard website hackchinese.com 

Together we explore the strengths and limitations of the input hypothesis in the context of learning Mandarin.