Introduction: This article is sourced from antimoon, and the original link can be found here: https://www.antimoon.com/how/input-howmuch.htm. The purpose of this article is to translate, modify, and improve it in Chinese to motivate Chinese learners in the community to study other languages.
How much information is needed to fluently use English?
Few people realize that being fluent in a language requires a stronger memory than learning organic chemistry or European history.
How much do you need to know to speak English correctly? Of course, in terms of speaking, you need to know about 10,000 words and phrases, which is equivalent to a medium-sized dictionary. But that's only half of the battle. The other half is the details, such as idioms, collocations, and so on:
- We say "I walk," but not "he walk"; we say "he says," but not "he mays"; we say "Is she young?" instead of "Looks she young?"; we say "He did it," not "He didn't it"; we say "She looked beautiful," not "She dressed beautiful."
- We say "Mary likes cheese very much," but not "Mary very much likes cheese" or "Mary likes cheese much"; we say "He might have eaten the cake," not "He could eat the cake" or "He has might eaten the cake"; we say "What did he eat?" instead of "What he ate?" or "He ate what?"
- We do an exercise, but make a mistake; make a phone call, but have a conversation; do a job, but take a break; take a break, but make a jump.
- You can have a bad/terrible headache, but not a strong/heavy headache; you can get great/enormous satisfaction, but not big satisfaction; you can be a heavy smoker, but not a hard/strong smoker; you can have a heated debate, but not a burning debate; you can have a fast car, but not a fast look; you can clean your teeth, but you can't clean the dishes.
Books like "Practical English Usage" have 600 pages of detailed rules. I hope to tell you that they are unnecessary and can be ignored, but in fact, when anyone who is fluent in English speaks or writes, they follow almost all of these rules.
If mastering a language requires so much knowledge, then why can everyone speak at least one language fluently?
Not everyone is an Einstein. Many native English speakers are not good at acquiring knowledge, but they can easily use the local English dialect (whether it is standard English or African American Vernacular English).
A face you recognize.
The principle of being able to remember a large amount of language details is the same as being able to recognize faces. Consider how much information is needed to recognize that a face is indeed Bill: the size of the head, the eyes, nose, eyebrows, lips, teeth, ears, chin, cheeks, forehead, hairline, hair, wrinkles, spots, and the color, shape, relative size, and position of facial hair. Imagine how many pieces of paper it would take to write down a detailed description of just one face and how difficult it would be to remember them. However, all of us (even those with poor memory) can recognize thousands of faces with just a blink of an eye.
We can do this because we don't have to remember people's facial features like we do with historical facts. Our brains have a special module that can immediately record all the data when we see a face. Then, when we see a face, this module can answer the question "Do I recognize this face?" effortlessly. We never think, "Hmm, the convex shape of this person's nose, the distance between the eyes, and the asymmetrical shape of the upper lip match my friend Peter."
Just as everyone (whether smart or not) has a face recognition module, everyone has a language module. This module stores facts about word meanings, vocabulary usage, grammar structures, pronunciation, etc., so you don't have to remember them like historical facts. The face recognition module allows you to answer the question "Do I recognize this face?" based on the knowledge it has about faces, and the language module's task is to generate correct sentences based on its understanding of the language.
How does the language module acquire facts about language? Unfortunately, this requires some research. Long lists of rules (as shown above) are not enough—the language module existed before grammar books were invented, so native speakers can use the language correctly without understanding grammar rules. The language module obtains information from language input. When you read and hear sentences in a single language that conform to the language rules, it gradually builds a database of facts about that language.
How much input is needed to become fluent?
Well, the language module in your brain needs correct sentences. But how many sentences do you actually need to become fluent?
First of all, this question is a bit misleading because there is no one-size-fits-all answer for all cases. The number of sentences you need will depend on many factors:
- The difficulty of the sentences (for example, if you get sentences that are too simple or too complex, you won't learn much)
- The style of the sentences (if you read too much formal language, it won't help with your spoken expression)
- Your learning speed (if you can expose yourself to more sentences every day, then overall you will need fewer sentences because you will forget less information)
- How you acquire sentences and your level of attention to them (in the process of reading, you can analyze each sentence more carefully so that you can get more information from each sentence, but your reading speed will also be slower)
- Your innate ability (some people need more input before they start speaking, while others can "pick it up" quickly)
- How close your native language is to the language you are learning (Dutch speakers need less input to learn English compared to Japanese speakers)
As for me, it took about 3 years to go from basic English skills to fluency. During those three years, I was exposed to approximately 1,000,000 English sentences (not necessarily different sentences). About 400,000 were written sentences (books, SRS reviews, dictionaries, classroom reading), and 600,000 were spoken sentences (TV, recordings, listening to teachers, listening to American relatives, classroom listening).
Please note that these are very rough estimates. The actual number of sentences I was exposed to during those three years could be 700,000 or 1,500,000.
"Wow!"
I know. One million is a big number. But when you break it down, it doesn't seem so daunting:
So, if you want to follow in my footsteps, you will need to get approximately 60 pages of written English materials and 6 hours of spoken English materials every week for three years (assuming you already have a basic level of English to understand this article. If you are a complete beginner, you need to reach that level first). If you think that 60 pages and 6 hours per week is a lot, consider the following:
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Using an English-English dictionary with example sentences and SRS for review may take up about 15 pages of written English materials per week. This leaves 45 pages for reading (websites, books) each week.
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When you first start reading in English, 45 pages per week may seem intimidating. But I assure you—you will soon become addicted to reading in English!
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Keep in mind that listening to teachers, having conversations in English, watching English videos on YouTube, playing English games, etc. all count as "listening time." (Please note that to get 6 hours of "pure" spoken English, you may need to spend 30 hours playing video games because in typical games, most of the time is spent on other things like shooting zombies.)
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In conclusion, mastering a language requires a large amount of input, including reading and listening materials. Through a large number of example sentences, the language module in your brain gradually builds a knowledge base about the language. To become a fluent user of a language, you may need exposure to millions of sentences. Although this number may seem large, you can gradually improve your language skills by organizing your study time effectively and choosing appropriate learning materials.