There is no threshold of vocabulary to cross before speaking begins; the change is a decision, not a level reached.

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Where this collides

• In tension with

  A beginner cannot learn from material made for native speakers: at the start, authentic media is noise.

  Kaufmann says authentic material is noise to a beginner, so the start has to be graded input. Lewis says there is no threshold to cross before speaking begins and that the change is a decision rather than a level reached. Both are about the very first weeks, and only one of them has a stage that must be got through first.

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

• The hard part of speaking from the start is not the gaps in what you know but making peace with not knowing the simplest words. BLBenny Lewisby 12 Oct 2012
• Reaching a conversational level in a language within three months of arriving is not something to expect. SYScott H. Young2 Sept 2014
• What stops people speaking a new language is not missing vocabulary; it is being unwilling to be heard sounding stupid. BLBenny Lewisby 12 Oct 2012
• Speaking badly is not a failure on the way to speaking well; it is a stage that has to be passed through on purpose. BLBenny Lewisby 12 Oct 2012
• Speaking is learned only by speaking a lot; no amount of study substitutes for it. BLBenny Lewisby 3 Oct 2011

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