What is comprehensible input?
If you’re at all interested in taking your foreign language skills from absolute beginner with knowledge of only a few basic sentences to fluent speaker, comprehensible input is going to work gangbusters.
It’s a language learning theory, first conceived by Stephen Krashen, that suggests you get better at a language by understanding messages that are just a bit above your current level.
Let’s say you’re learning Spanish. You know some basic stuff like “Hola” and “¿Cómo estás?”. Comprehensible input would be like watching a cartoon in Spanish where you can kinda guess what’s happening because of the visuals, and you understand most of the words but not all. Or it could be reading a simple book where you get the gist of the story, even if you don’t know every word.
The idea is that by constantly exposing yourself to slightly challenging material, your brain starts to fill in the gaps. Over time, you understand more and more without having to translate everything back to your native language. It’s like how babies learn their first language—they’re surrounded by it, they understand bits and pieces, and eventually, they start speaking it.
Now, with that in mind, we thought we’d put together some comprehensible input content for you to boost your vocabulary and skills. Our offering comes in the form of “busy” images that are accompanied by detailed descriptions in multiple languages. This way you can quickly pick up new vocabulary in your target language and also get a sense of how the language is used in context.
Note: This content assumes that you have at least some knowledge of your target language.