We should respect what goes on in the deeper mind as it does its work of creating language systems. We should listen to TPRS/CI experts like Judy Dubois when they speak like this:
…it seems so obvious today that the world is round, that it’s hard to believe that the vast majority once thought otherwise and laughed at Columbus. One day it will be just as obvious to everyone that languages are acquired without any cognitive effort, that comprehensible input is the only way to teach languages. I would even say that all other methods seem to work only because accidentally or coincidentally students are getting some comprehensible input. If they weren’t, none of them would ever learn to speak the language….
It’s easier to measure subatomic mass of objects than measure what happens when CI is going on. We could focus on structure and the mechanics of language, or we could let our deeper minds do that for us. It’s our choice. If we prefer to do it and make language learning into a mental exercise, however, then we are dumb asses.