Everything other than talking to a native speaker is auxiliary, and none of it will get you speaking on its own.

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Where this collides

• Cannot both be true

  The practical instruction that follows from the research is simple and hard to do: listen and read a great deal.

  Lewis says everything other than talking to a native speaker is auxiliary and none of it gets you speaking on its own. Kaufmann says the practical instruction that follows from the research is to listen and read a great deal. They are giving a beginner opposite advice about what to spend the first months doing.

Shared subject first, then similar wording. They may agree or disagree.

• A beginner cannot learn from material made for native speakers: at the start, authentic media is noise. SKSteve Kaufmannby 20 Jul 2026language learning
• A language is a set of skills to be built, not a body of facts to be known. LLLuca Lampariello19 Aug 2021language learning
• A person who studies a language for years and cannot speak it was taught the wrong method; it is not a failure of talent or of effort. SKSteve Kaufmann13 Apr 2026language learning
• A teacher who does not insist on the target language is a bad teacher. BLBenny Lewisby 12 Oct 2012language learning
• Conversation with native speakers teaches a language far better than a classroom. DPDavid Perell24 Sept 2021language learning

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