Are you struggling to learn Arabic? Comprehensible input is the solution. Here are some steps to help you achieve fluency in Arabic:
- Find something you’re interested in and read, listen, or watch it in Arabic.
- Don’t worry about understanding every word.
- Incorporate Arabic into your routine every day.
- Take small steps every day, and don’t focus too much on advancing to the next level.
- Commit to a two-year plan of daily input.
In this blog post and video, I explore how to achieve fluency in Arabic with comprehensible input. I explain what comprehensible input is and how it can help you learn Arabic faster. I also provide practical advice on how to apply the Optimal Input Hypothesis to allow you to get fluent quickly, fit it into your busy life, spend less money, and most importantly, enjoy the process. Whether you are a beginner or an intermediate learner, this will help you take your Arabic skills to the next level. Join me on this journey to fluency and start speaking Arabic with confidence!
Are you struggling to make progress with your Arabic language learning, no matter how much time and effort you put in? You’re not alone. Traditional methods may not be working for you, but there’s an approach that could change everything. Let’s explore how to achieve fluency in Arabic with comprehensible input.
What is Comprehensible Input?
Comprehensible input is the language that we understand when we listen or read. It’s the messages that we can comprehend, even if we don’t understand every single word. The key is to understand the overall meaning and gist of the message.
You may require some help in the form of Comprehension Aiding Supplementation. These are the actions, gestures, pointing, drawings, etc, that can help you understand what is being said. As long as you are not translating into your first language, the message is considered comprehensible.
Four Key Features For Optimal Input
To optimise your Arabic language learning, comprehensible input also needs to be:
1. Compelling
Compelling input is interesting and exciting enough to keep you, the learner, engaged. The content should be driving our motivation. You should not have to be digging deep to tap into your inner long term goals, or other external sources of motivation.
2. Rich
The content should be rich in language, with enough language to explain what is incomprehensible. It’s important to avoid filtering out the language to isolate grammar and vocabulary. So, set piece drills, exercises, made up conversations and text are all out. Look for authentic input and reading.
3. Abundant
Abundant input refers to the amount of input that the learner needs to be exposed to every day. The more input, the better, and it’s important to aim for a little bit of input every day.
How to Implement Comprehensible Input
Here are some tips on how to incorporate comprehensible input into your Arabic language learning:
1. Find What You’re Interested In or Excited About
Find content that you enjoy, such as hobbies, places you like to visit, or anything that you’re interested in. It just has to extremely interesting or exciting. Read about it, listen to a podcast, or watch a video in Arabic. You need to get to a stage where you are enjoying it so much that you forget that it is in Arabic.
2. Tolerate a Little Bit of Noise
As a learner, you need to tolerate a certain amount of noise and not run to the dictionary at every opportunity. Instead, try to understand the overall message and gist of what’s being said or what’s been written.
You may have to choose input which has limited noise. I tend to tolerate only 2% noise. Think about how low that is- just 2 ambigious words every 100. This means that I’m enjoying the input and doing a lot of it to get my i+1. I call this my 98% rule. You need to find out what your personal tolerance is and ensure that you’re consuming enough comprehensible input to stay engaged and motivated.
3. Include Arabic into Your Routine Every Day
Even if it’s just for a few minutes, include Arabic into your routine every day. It’s important to have plenty of input in your life. If like me you have a low noise tolerance like I mentioned above, you have to make up for this with a huge volume of input.
4. Avoid the Temptation to Jump to the Next Level
Avoid the constant desire to get to the next level. The focus should be on doing small i+1 steps every day until you notice a big leap. The commonest reason for quitting that I hear from fellow learners is that they “hit a wall” or that they reached a step too high to jump. Also, remember that fluency is a numbers game. You only become fluent by visiting words, phrases and expressions again and again and again.
Two-Year Plan for Fluency
If you can include comprehensible, interesting, and relevant input into your life every day for about two years, the evidence shows that you will become fluent in that time. The key is to ramp up the volume over time, aiming for about an hour of input every day. This doesn’t have to be a straight hour, split it up if you need. You’ll probably find you’re eventually doing more than an hour.
Conclusion
Comprehensible input is the secret to mastering Arabic fluency. It’s important to find what you’re interested in, tolerate a little bit of noise, include Arabic into your routine every day, and avoid the temptation to jump to the next level. If you can commit to a two-year plan of daily input, you will become a high intermediate to low advanced level learner and a competent self-teacher.
The journey may not always be easy, but you need to try to make it enjoyable and rewarding. Give comprehensible input a try and see how it can transform your Arabic language learning.
