Best for
- Learners moving beyond controlled lessons
- People using video, stories or podcasts
- Readers balancing flow with lookup
Watch for
- No universal comprehension percentage is established here
- Input was described as necessary but not sufficient in the original hypothesis
- Constant translation can break attention
A careful definition
Stephen Krashen described input focused on meaning and containing language slightly beyond current competence, made understandable through context and world knowledge. The original account is a hypothesis, not a guaranteed formula.
The practical question is not whether you understand an arbitrary percentage. Ask whether you can follow the main situation, identify important turns and use support without losing the thread.
Choose and adjust material
If every line requires a lookup, reduce difficulty or add support. If nothing requires attention, increase complexity or move to a less familiar topic.
Prefer support that preserves attention: an aligned transcript, a useful image, a short definition or a replayed phrase. Full translation can help when meaning is genuinely blocked, but constant translation turns the activity into decoding.
Turn input into a week
Repeat a small amount, save a few useful phrases and include a separate output task when speaking or writing is part of the goal.
A simple review loop is enough: note what remained difficult, return once with less support, then choose whether to repeat, lower the difficulty or move on.
Decision criteria
Primary sources
Material claims link to primary or authoritative sources. A link is not an endorsement.