DIGESTING INPUT and OUTPUT
This is a hodgepodge of recent thoughts on the benslavic.com blog that I have tried to organize to help me think more clearly about input and output:
Susan Gross: “My really BIG ERROR (How did I forget to put it down as number one or two???): Output. I thought that practicing output would make my kids better at output. I did speaking activities (darling, adorable, cute, creative ones) all year long. That was my biggest error. It was the hardest thing to fix!”
INPUT
According to Krashen’s Input Hypothesis, output exercises don’t lead to output. Only input leads to output. Output is the result of input, not the cause of it. Writing a lot doesn’t make students better writers. Reading and listening make them better writers and speakers. Either we do input most of the time (in the form of listening and reading) or we do something else that is not helping the students.
What is input? It is target language, in speaking or print, which the student can understand. If the student does not understand it, it is not input.
Input based instruction focuses on listening and reading. Output based instruction tends toward writing, speaking and grammar study. Traditional language instruction is output based and includes lots of faux output and worksheets. Output based instruction is difficult and academic so students think they are really learning something.
OUTPUT
Forced output beyond the level of acquisition is making students “practice” what they don’t really know yet. But language doesn’t work that way. Language is acquired.
Forced output means making students to use what they are still subconsciously trying to figure out how to use; forced output is the nurse demanding that you pee in a cup.
In the lower levels I am more determined than ever to become an input monger. “No output for you!” shall be my internal reply to demands for output.
But if a student cannot help it, if the words pour out almost against the will, then it is OK. If output emerges spontaneously, it is permissible. Output is a natural process that occurs as a result of digesting input. Like other bodily functions, output happens. Similar to digestion, when students get enough good input to chew on and digest, there will eventually be output. Output will be almost involuntary. It will just emerge.
When famed biology writer Lewis Thomas was counseling students he would say: “Do not become an ornithologist if you can help it. But if you can’t help it, go ahead, it’s OK.” In our language classes maybe we should adopt a similar refrain: Don’t speak Spanish if you can help it. But if you can’t help speaking in Spanish, go ahead, it’s OK.
TPRS also has output. In the lower levels it often appears as 1-2 word answers. Output also shows up in retells and free writes. But the output in TPRS is not expected to increase proficiency; it helps the teacher to monitor the acquisition process. Output makes no contribution to proficiency. Dictations, illustrations and acting out the stories are not precisely output, but are used as checks for understanding. The purpose of output in TPRS is to allow the teacher to monitor the student’s progress and adjust the input.