Make it Compelling

Is there something you could do all day long every day? Video games, novels, skateboarding, chess, chatting with that special someone, binge watching The Office? Anything that can easily hold your attention for hours at a time is compelling, and that is a key factor in language learning. The best kind of input is both comprehensible and compelling. That means the content you read and watch should be easy enough to understand, but interesting enough that you would enjoy it even if it didn't help you learn a language. That's the sweet spot, and it can be harder to find than you might expect. If you can find a novel or a television series that sucks you in until you finish, this is a language learning gold mine, because it takes the pain out of studying. I mentioned in the last page that childrens books can be an okay form of input because they are fairly comprehensible, but they are usually not very compelling (you wouldn't bother reading them if they did not help with language learning). The best thing to do is look for comprehensible input material designed for adult language learners. Here are a few examples:

My Language Stories series on Amazon

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