So that's one of the major benefits of outputting, of speaking is
that you're getting back input that you're very interested in.
Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here.
Today to talk about languages.
And today I'm going to talk about output.
All right.
You'll hear me talking all the time about the importance of input.
Uh, getting the language in you.
I even did a video where I said don't speak in the language you're
learning, a bit controversial perhaps.
And I'll explain why I made that video, but of course, eventually
we want to get to output.
We want to speak the language.
Prove to ourselves that we can say things in the language.
We want to communicate with people in the language.
Output is important and the languages that I speak the best and probably
understand the best are the ones that I have spoken the most.
So you do have to get to output.
So I want to talk a bit about output.
Okay.
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Output.
First of all, everything that has to do with language learning
is governed by the three keys.
In other words, your attitude towards learning towards the language,
your interest, your confidence.
Second of all, the time you spend with the language with the language,
not sitting in the classroom, having someone explain something
in English, but with the language.
So that can be listening.
It can be speaking.
It can be writing.
It can be reading.
Time with the language.
And of course the third thing I always mention, the ability to
notice what's going on in the language and I'll get into those.
But the reason I made my video saying don't speak in the language you're
learning is because there is too much emphasis on speaking on speaking early
as if, if you don't speak right away, or if you don't speak as you're learning the
language, you'll never be able to speak.
That's not true.
You can speak when you feel like speaking, eventually you have to speak a lot.
Some people are in a situation where they're surrounded by the language
they would like to, they have the opportunity, they have the need to speak.
They speak early.
Other people as is often my case where I'm learning here in Vancouver, I'm
learning Persian or Arabic or Greek.
I'm not there.
I'm here.
So I put most of my effort into input because it's easy to arrange.
I'm spending time with the language while in my car.
I'm spending time with the language when I sit down with a book, so
spend time with the language.
However, in all of those cases, after a couple of months, I start outputting.
I start speaking initially a small amount and eventually I
built it up to more speaking.
And so I think there are different kinds of speaking.
Obviously, when I lived in Japan, I could go into any store and use
whatever I had in the way of words and gestures, and I could be communicating.
And every time you output, obviously you're speaking to someone,
you're getting input and input is how we acquire the language.
And so you are triggering input that's very relevant to you.
So that's one of the major benefits of outputting, of speaking is that
you're getting back input that you're very interested in, but if
you're not in that situation, then you have to organize the output.
You have to, uh, set up online to find someone to talk to, which can
be done through italki or at LingQ.
Uh, or as in my case here in Vancouver, we have Korean speakers in Vancouver.
We have Chinese speakers in Vancouver.
We have, uh, Persian speakers in Vancouver, so I can find those people.
They might be clerks in a store or a teller at a bank or someone sitting
beside me on a bus and I can initiate this kind of spontaneous interaction
in the language, which is fun to do.
However, again, the more words you have, the more you understand
of what they're saying, the more meaningful that interaction can be.
The same is true when you're talking to a tutor online.
I know when I started in these languages, whether it be Czech or Korean or whatever,
the first few sessions are very painful.
I can't really understand what the other person is saying very well.
And I don't have many words.
Uh, maybe I have some words that I have passively.
I haven't started using them.
I can't find them.
So it's a bit of a struggle.
You simply have to persevere.
And I think this is another important point, uh, with, with language
learning, don't be discouraged.
It's not performance.
You are not a, a diver in the Olympic games.
You're not a figure skater.
No one is going to be grading you I'm, I, I guess if you're in
a classroom, someone might grade you, but typically that's not the
situation you're trying to communicate.
You're struggling to understand what the person is saying.
You're struggling to say something and, and the, the
objective is simply communication.
And, um, on that basis, you shouldn't be discouraged if you struggle.
Because again, if we remember the three keys, as long as you have a
positive attitude and you spend time with the language you will improve.
And of course you have to notice, and this is the other thing that
happens when you speak with people, you notice the words you're missing.
You notice the difficulties you have with grammar.
Now you also notice these things when you're listening or reading and noticing
is kind of a very important part of acquiring the language, because until you
notice certain things, you aren't going to be able to produce them in your output.
So if we're focusing on noticing while we're speaking, noticing the...
mistakes we make, noticing what other people say, we will gradually improve.
One of the things that I do at LingQ to improve my ability
to notice, say conjugations.
If I look up a word in LingQ, click on it, we have a variety of
dictionaries there that are available.
Uh, I don't just look up the meaning of the word.
If it's a verb, I'll go to one of our conjugating dictionaries.
It might be Context Reverso, which has conjugating dictionaries for Greek,
for Arabic, for the romance languages.
And I'll see, okay this particular form of the verb, what is it?
Okay.
And then at the same time, I look at all the other forms of the
verb and that's just gradually helping me to notice, although I
won't remember what I saw there.
It's just slowly helping me to notice.
And so then when I next speak with my tutor, for example, I
did in, in Persian the other day.
And she sort of reminded me that I don't always use the subjunctive in Persian
and I should pay more attention to that.
I should notice more.
So I started noticing more.
And then the next time I spoke with my tutor she told me at
least that I was doing better.
Bear in mind in your output activities if you were speaking with the tutor
or whatever the case may be, you will probably continue making those
same mistakes for quite a while.
It's not because you notice something or because your teacher corrects you that
you can immediately develop the habits you need to speak correctly all the time.
It's part of this gradual process of getting used to the language, noticing
things, developing new habits and so forth, but you'll need to do this
in order to be good at outputting.
So I'll get back to my original statement: it doesn't matter when you
start speaking, it's not as if the language is going to go away from you,
you can always come back and speak.
You can always review the grammar rules again.
You can always work on improving your accuracy.
The first thing is to let the brain get used to the language
without worrying about it.
And so when you speak, you just let it all hang out, say whatever you're able to say,
listen to what the other person is saying.
Hopefully you're gathering some new habits.
Mostly I find when I'm in that situation at an early stage in my outputting,
I'm just thinking about words.
I can get the wrong tense, the wrong person it doesn't matter.
The meaning comes across because language is quite redundant, but I need words.
I need to know the verb for want, need, go, come.
I need to know I need the words first and foremost.
And that's my initial goal in outputting is to somehow muster the vocabulary
that I have been accumulating passively and try to use it in some way.
And I'll use it incorrectly, but gradually as I continue outputting
continue noticing, continue with my input activities I gradually
develop better and better habits.
So basically on output, that's my advice.
Focus on your input activities.
Make sure you stay positive attitude.
Makes sure you spend time with the language.
Listening, reading and speaking, try to notice what's happening.
Try to notice your mistakes, try to notice structures and words that you
have trouble with and just keep doing it, keep enjoying it and gradually
your output ability will improve.
So I hope that was useful.
And maybe a bit of a countermeasure to the video that I put on earlier
about not speaking in your, in the language you're learning.
Yes.
Do speak in the language you're learning when you feel like it.
And don't worry about how you do.
Thank you for listening.
Bye for now.