I've searched i +1 several times but nothing comes up and I have no idea what it means. I ask because I was reading the great debate (vocab vs sentences) and one of the argument for vocab depends on this concept. Can someone show me some threads or give me a brief definition? Thanks!

so "i" equals sentence and "1" or "x" or "6" equals number of things not understood?

つまり...

Make the purpose of every new sentence you add to teach you one new thing. Nothing more, or you're probably doing more damage than good.

Yes, basically. The i stands for all knowledge you already have, and the 1 stands for the one new thing you are learning. In this methodology, every sentence should have only one grammar or vocabulary point you did not already know.

So...

Going really basic here, if you know what 私, は (as a particle) and です (copula) mean, but you don't know what a 猫 is. Then "私は猫です。" would be a good sentence.

That's simple, but I hope it gets the point across. It's really just so you don't overload yourself with too many new things in one sentence/SRS item.

icamonkey Wrote:In this methodology, every sentence should have only one grammar or vocabulary point you did not already know.

Going really basic here, if you know what 私, は (as a particle) and です (copula) mean, but you don't know what a 猫 is. Then "私は猫です。" would be a good sentence.

...and on the other hand 我輩は猫である probably wouldn't be :-)

Thank you all, I think I got it!

pm215 -

BJosh, i+1 is part of the Input Hypothesis of a linguist named Krashen. (I dunno if he started it or not). It just means aiming for material a little above your current level. People here apply it as 1 new item per sentence. Here's a link to a summary of his ideas.

Quote:The input hypothesis answers the question of how a language acquirer develops comptency over time. It states that a language acquirer who is at "level i" must receive comprehensible input that is at "level i+1." "We acquire, in other words, only when we understand language that contains structure that is 'a little beyond' where we are now." This understanding is possible due to using the context of the language we are hearing or reading and our knowledge of the world. However, instead of aiming to receive input that is exactly at our i+1 level, or instead of having a teacher aim to teach us grammatical structure that is at our i+1 level, we should instead just focus on communication that is understandable.

btw -this is not an endorsement of Krashen - just fyi.