A korrentour readingWhat is a korrent?
Drawn from what Steve Kaufmann said
language learning How an adult picks up a second language: input against speaking practice, immersion against slow habit, and whether a teacher can do it for you.
Word for word, with the source under each one. They did not write this page.
Canadian former diplomat and lumber trader who speaks twenty languages
Classroom activities like grammar drills and vocabulary tests feel productive. You are doing something. But none of it builds the network your brain actually needs.
Where this was said
↗What Is Second Language Acquisition?blog.thelinguist.com
All 3 korrents from this piecethis one is 2nd
Added to korrents 13 Apr 2026 · How quotes work · Something wrong? Tell us
Cannot both be true
Speaking is learned only by speaking a lot; no amount of study substitutes for it.
Lewis says speaking is learned only by speaking a lot and that no amount of study substitutes for it. Kaufmann says learning happens through exposure to language you can mostly understand, and that drills which feel productive build nothing. This is the input-versus-output argument in its plainest form, and both men have decades of languages behind their answer.
In tension with
Young credits a no-English rule with compressing years of learning into months, which is an output-first account of what did the work. Kaufmann credits comprehensible input and says classroom drills build nothing. Immersion supplies both at once, which is why the two men can point at the same three months and disagree about what caused the result.
Our reading — they may agree, disagree or merely touch the same thing. Closest first: a shared subject counts for most, then how near the wording is.