It’s a wee bit mathematical. It’s nifty
It’s neat. Some people hate it. Some people love it. I'm talking about the i+1 meme.
It was coined by Stephen Krashen (the font from
which so many good things flow).
The idea is to expose yourself to another
language in the right manner. Think of it not as a pot of soup in which you are uncomfortably simmering - because of the heat - but as a bath you're happy to soak in. You’ve got
to remain in a comfortable language bath for a good while for for the language to ‘get in’, right? That's what Krashen means by 'exposure'.
If the conditions in that soup are too
extreme, then you won’t be able to tolerate it. Not too hot, too salty, to
acidic, too noisy (noisy?), not too spicy, not too lumpy, not being stirred
around too much, or be left to stick to the bottom.
Personally, I prefer a modified version: i+1/2
I feel that it is better to have soup whose consistency provides an i+1/2 environment. The language learner needs to be exposed to text that provides a slight and pleasant stretch. That means that the soup consists mostly of familiar language, but to also contain something slightly unfamiliar. Not something totally new. Just something that the learner is ready to improve their understanding of.
That's what I mean by the ‘half’ part (of the i+1/2 term).
I feel that it is better to have soup whose consistency provides an i+1/2 environment. The language learner needs to be exposed to text that provides a slight and pleasant stretch. That means that the soup consists mostly of familiar language, but to also contain something slightly unfamiliar. Not something totally new. Just something that the learner is ready to improve their understanding of.
That's what I mean by the ‘half’ part (of the i+1/2 term).
If that extra fraction was completely
unknown, it would unduly stress the learner. That wouldn't be optimal. Rather, one needs to be allowed to nicely
age/pickle/marinate/mature/cook without rush.
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