Sebastian
Member
Registered: 2008-09-09
Posts: 582
I recently watched this video interview with Steve Kaufman (from LingQ, which is a sort of online SRS plus reading content provider of sorts and Stephen Krashen, known for concepts like N+1, the affective filter and language acquisition v/s learning, among many others.
Here they talk about topics like language acquisition v/s learning and the importance of input (and particularly, reading).
It's a very interesting and enjoyable video, so I thought some of you could want to watch it too:
The Linguist: Discussion with Stephen Krashen
What do you think about the matters discussed? Do you agree with Krashen?
Steve Kaufman is one of those people I generally enjoying listening to. His approach is something relaxing and his interest for language comes through well, without being " "preachy", a little dramatic, as others can get sometimes.
And Krashen has a lot of interesting scientific experience in the field, which is something I find engrossing.
The conversation itself was a nice listen. They were honest enough and said effectively what was needed. Krashen is well aware of the weaker areas in formal language classes, and in my opinion is making a earnest attempt to invigorate the educational aspects, but there is only so much you can do without a larger support base. Kaufman is well and truly experienced self-learner and knows what works well for himself, and many others seem to enjoy using his language blog/website.
The only aspect I would comment upon is that it was a little short. I would have enjoyed if they touched upon those comments which were insinuated to be discussed after the interview, during the interview. A sound file would have been more than enough, if bandwidth limitations were a concern. -But I'm just a whore for this sort of content. 
Ampharos64
Member
From: England
Registered: 2008-12-09
Posts: 166
Interesting listen, thanks. I was reassured to hear Krashen say that a key problem is the availability of input that is comprehensible and compelling, as a beginner that's already one of the problems I have, and I think proponents of the input method often forget what it's like to be a real beginner when barely anything is comprehensible. I probably have a very low tolerance for 'noise', and for me that's actually worse the more compelling something is - if I'm interested in something I can't stand not to fully understand it. I'm kind of encouraged that it sounds like people doing this type of input method may understand less than I realised, too. It does make it sound like maybe a lot of the input actually needn't be perfectly comprehensible, a bit more than just +1 maybe?
He puts the idea of skimming much, much better than AJATT does, I think I actually 'get' it now.
Last edited by Ampharos64 (2013 March 05, 12:56 pm)
Animosophy
Member
Registered: 2013-02-19
Posts: 180
Thanks for sharing! This deeply interests me. I've never heard of Kaufman until now but it seems like he's had a significant impact on the language learning community.
I'm curious how soon reading native "authentic" material will benefit beginning learners like me. I've only gone through 670 kanji and half of Tae Kim's grammar guide, yet apparently just 874 of the most common kanji in Wikipedia covers 90% of its content (pretty sure that's enough for comprehensible reading). Reading is a receptive skill just like listening after all, although it is harder to multitask... I know I'll start reading in Japanese sooner or later, I'll just have to see how I progress.
