Input

Getting English into your head

• What is input and why you need it: Input is a short word for "English sentences that you read or listen to". When you read and listen to English sentences, they stay in your memory, which lets you build similar sentences yourself. Input — not speaking, writing or grammar tests — is what you need to use English grammar and vocabulary like a native speaker.
• Why you need to take charge of your English learning and get English input on your own, without relying on English classes.
• How much input do you need to speak English fluently? Tom tries to estimate how much input you need to get from basic English skills to fluency.
• Why you shouldn't rely on grammar rules: Because grammar rules are difficult to memorize and because building sentences by using grammar rules is very slow. You cannot use English fluently if you have to think about grammar rules.
• Why your input should be fun: Thrilling, enjoyable and/or funny content is the key to your progress.
• Formal and informal English: two kinds of English that you will have to learn.
• Reading is easier than listening: Written English is much easier to understand than spoken English. It is also easier to build your vocabulary with written English.
• The power of reading — two cases: These two stories show what can happen to your English if you get lots of input.
• Great output skills without output practice? Richard Boydell's case shows that to learn good output skills, you may not need output practice at all.

How to get English input

• Reading websites and books is the easiest way to build vocabulary and grammar for beginners.
  • How to get the most out of English texts
  • What to read: tips
  • What to read: specific recommendations
• Listening to recordings, podcasts, radio stations and audiobooks.
• Watching movies in English gives you spoken English input and helps you learn informal English vocabulary. You will often have problems understanding movies; we present a few techniques to help you with that.
• Adventure games are video games where you control a character who talks to other characters. They give you lots of spoken English input and are fun to play.
• Example sentences in good dictionaries. There are also specialized search engines for example sentences:
  • The British National Corpus has nice examples from a wide range of sources (both written and spoken). Unfortunately, the free search is a bit slow and, of course, the BNC only includes British sources.
  • There is also the Corpus of Contemporary American English, if you can handle the powerful, but complex interface.
• E-mail. Like forums and blogs, e-mails from native speakers are a fantastic source of "everyday English", which is normally the kind of English you want to speak most of the time (except for some formal occasions). Communicating with a native speaker over e-mail gives you a lot of pleasure, as well as an opportunity to practice your writing skills.
• Software. You can start using English versions of your operating system, yourword processor, and other applications. Besides learning English, there are otherpractical reasons to do so.
• If you use SuperMemo, you should add example sentences to your items. Reviewing your collection will give you regular input and help you keep it in your head.

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