Everything this guy says is spot-on. I completely agree with his entire spiel. It's at the heart of the problem with Korean English testing, and it's a problem for the years-long trendy thinking in FL-teaching circles that tra-la-la oral-proficiency curricula can just rely on people "watching soap operas" to really learn a language. He's also right that language learning should involve stress, effort, and discipline, and that the priority shouldn't be to try to make the learning (well, "learning") as smooth and easy as possible. You can't really learn or improve on anything unless you pressure-test. Sure, learning shouldn't be a thoroughly unpleasant experience, but it also shouldn't be absolutely free of pain and effort, either. Develop your active macroskills along with your passive macroskills. Yes—that's the key.
One thing, though: I'm not sure I agree with how he reckons with Stephen Krashen. I may need to watch the video again to see whether I've understood him correctly, but it sounded to me as though he were making Krashen out to be someone he's not. Otherwise, in terms of language-learning philosophy, I think everything this gentleman says is absolutely correct. What a relief to know I'm not the only one thinking this way.





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