How Can You Make Your Language Learning Input More Comprehensible?

When you are learning a new language, you will need to find comprehensible input to study with.

This can be hard to find as a beginner, but there are some ways that you can make the material you are using more comprehensible

What Is Comprehensible Input In Language Learning?

Input is simply anything you read or listen to in your target language and comprehensible means that you can understand it.

You do not need to understand it fully, so long as you have a basic grasp of what material is about, this should be good enough.

(You can read more about What Is Comprehensible Input In Language Learning?)

Why Comprehensible Input Is Important In Language Learning?

You need the material to be comprehensible so that you can make sense of it. When you read or listen to your target language you need to have a general idea of what you are listening to or else you cannot process it.

A lot of language learning, and more importantly language acquisition happens subconsciously. Your brain basically tries to decode what it is listening to and tries to make sense of it.

If you do not understand a single word, your brain is going to have no reference points to try and decode the message. It is going to struggle to see any patterns and struggle to recognise what is happening.

If you are able to understand some of the language that are you imputing, your subconscious is going to be able to recognise a lot of patterns from what it already knows and start building links to what you are not being exposed to.

How To Make Your Language Learning Input More Comprehensible?

If you are struggling with the material you are studying with, you can try and make it more comprehensible and therefore more useful to you using the following techniques.

Understand It In Your Native Language First

If you are reading or watching something in your target language, it can be good to do this with something you have already seen before in your native language.

This is why books like Harry Potter are always recommended when you are learning a language. The chances of you already knowing the story is very high. When you come to read it in a different language you already have a basic idea of who everyone is and what the general concept is.

You might think this is “cheating” as you already know the story and you are not using your new language, but in fact this is just giving your brain the basic framework to allow it to start processing the new language much more easily.

Learn More Vocabulary

This may sound too simple, but its simplicity works. The more words you know, the more you will be able to comprehend.

There can be a benefit to learning the most common 1000 words. Many people say this is a waste of time, but initially it can actually help you quite a lot.

It can very quickly start to give you little pieces of the puzzle and when you do listen to, or read something, it can help you get a very basic understanding of what is going on. 

If you have a book in your target language, you might read a page and not understand it. This isn’t great, but if you go through and learn what every unknown word is, you will very quickly get an understanding for what that page means.

Now if you go back and read it again, you should have a much more comprehensible understanding of it.

Visual Support

If you are watching something, subtitles can be a huge visual support. You will probably notice that without subtitles you don’t quite catch all the words or recognise them, especially if the language is spoken quite quickly (which it probably will be if it is a native speaker).

However, the simple act of being able to read what is being said, while also listening can massively increase your understanding.

Of course not every video will be available with subtitles, but if you can find ones that do, they can be extremely helpful. 

Other forms of visual support can be harder to find, but if you can get them, they are extremely helpful.

If you are talking with a language partner on a video call, getting them to hold up objects they are talking about can really help you understand massively.

If you ever watch children’s television you will see they do this quite a lot. The same goes for when you read children’s books. You will find that there are a lot pictures to help explain what is being written about. 

Find Simpler Material

If you are struggling to find input that you can understand you may have to take a step back and try and find something simpler.

You will need something where they talk slow, or use simpler vocabulary and sentence structures. Basically you need something that a child is going to understand.

The problem is that this can be pretty boring or too simple at times.

If you have a language partner or tutor, they can talk to you in a way that is a little slower and simpler, which can really help.

You can also look for “beginner” videos on youtube, which will have been made for adult learners and are a little more interesting than kids’ material. 

Conclusion

Having the material you are studying be comprehensible is vital if you want to make progress with your language learning.

If you are struggling to find things you can understand, hopefully the tips above will have given you some suggestions to be able to make your material more comprehensible.

(You can read more about – How To Find Comprehensible Input For Language Learning)