Unlike Krashen, I don't think exposing oneself to conversation (comprehensible input) is that necessary at the early stage. I think the best thing to do is to learn vocabulary. I agree with him that grammar is only useful in the only stages in making input more comprehensible. So I think that studying grammar early on, with this purpose in mind, is helpful. So that by the time, one is exposed to input, one has the necessary tools to make that input comprehensible. I am mainly talking about people like myself where comprehensible input is hard to come by in our lives. In that case, I think we should not stress too much about whether we are getting access to that input or not. If not, we can watch movies and listen to audios of people speaking the foreign language to get some kind of idea of how the language sounds.
I think at the early stages, in MY case, exposure to basic vocab would have been useful. I never learned the basic 600 words or so first when I learned the Korean language. I think a solid course in this and nothing else is really a good idea. After that, a study of basic grammar would be useful. Then a simple reader would be good to introduce at this stage. Then more vocabulary study from easy books. Then progressively harder vocabulary. Lots and lots of vocabulary until one has got quite a good bank of vocab words (about 2000 - 3000). So I think concentrating on vocabulary in my case would have been helpful. Then when I watched dramas and read books, my comprehension level would be high. I can concentrate on the action and story and listen to how the sentences are put together instead of thinking, "I don't understand any of the words they are saying. What are they talking about?"
So I think building up the basic vocabulary is so important. It doesn't really matter how one does it, so long as one does it, and does it early. One doesn't have to do extensive drills because a certain percentage of words are going to be forgotten regardless. But because one has spent time learning them once, picking up the vocab a second time will be easier. Also seeing the vocab in context in movies and readers will make it easier to remember vocabulary. So at this stage, one wants to be exposed to as wide range of common vocab words as possible.
Then one is not lost in a maze later on when reading/conversing/listening and watching (movies, dramas, TV programs).
Then one can concentrate on just the grammar or the sentence structure or the meaning of the sentence.
So I think the importance of studying vocabulary is not emphasized as it should be in a lot of current theories out there. Nobody likes to learn masses of vocabulary and everyone wants to be fluent fast, but there is no getting around it. Superior foreign language speakers have a wide range of vocabulary. They are able to recognize the words in speech and in writing (reading).
I wish I had concentrated on vocabulary early on. I wish I had studied the grammar books, I had done the vocab drill books and just memorized the vocab books. I think I confused myself by hopping around too much, going to reading, then studying vocab, then watching dramas, then trying to get comprehensible spoken input.
I should just have studied the grammar book once. Then I should have gone through some of the basic vocab books like the 600-word Magic book (for children), then memorized more vocab from other books (children's books), then moved onto higher level vocab books. (I need to buy higher level vocab books. Pity the books that are available to me are English -> Korean and not the other way around.)
I think then after I had acquired enough vocab to recognize most words in a newspaper article, I should have studied the grammar book again. I should also study the book "Using Korean". When I studied the Korean Grammar in Use for a second time, I should have studied in a way so that the contents were clearly organized in my mind. When I studied that book for the second and third time, the contents were a jumble in my mind. I should have spent time clarifying confusing points in my mind and then lightly gone over the other areas. I should have understood how the different grammar points relate to one another. Instead of studying in rote fashion from beginning to end as I did, I should have been more selective in what I concentrated on and what I studied in depth. I could have studied the grammar book with different aims each time I studied it. I could concentrate on vocab one time, spelling a second time, a broad overview of grammar points a third time and so on. And of course, listened to the mp3 audios a lot. I wish I hadn't worried about pronunciation so much when doing the listening. I would have picked this up on repeated listening. Then I should leave the listening for later as I am mainly concerned about grammar, spelling and vocab at this stage.
Then I can tackle books, starting from real easy books and moving onto harder material such as news articles. Then I can supplement this by watching dramas I enjoyed. I wouldn't need to read subtitles much. I would be able to watch them without subtitles as I recognize most of the vocabulary. And then it's a matter of focusing on how the words are put together, thinking about how the grammar I have learned is applied in real life speech.
Then I would spend time tackling harder vocabulary and so on and attempt to read harder stuff just striving for understanding of the material. I wouldn't try and translate the sentences or reproduce the sentences in writing. I am just trying to become comfortable reading Hangeul and not being put off by the 'weird' (unexpected) endings.
Korean grammar IS confusing. I have heard that Korean grammar is 10 times more complex than Japanese grammar and that's saying a lot. I do think Korean grammar is complicated. It's not only the different speech forms that you use for addressing different sorts of people, it's also the order of the sentences and the passive forms, the endings, the conjugations and so on.
Colloquial speech is the WORST. I can't make head or tail of manwha! Maybe it's because my vocab is still poor. Could be. I really need to up my vocab level to understand manwha for adults.
I can't understand even ONE sentence myself in St Marie.
So vocab is the key. I think if one studies vocabulary intensively for about two months and try and pick up as much vocab in that time period, say about 8,000 - 10,000 vocab words, then one can learn the language VERY quickly. Then one can learn the grammar quickly and then start reading and talking and listening.
Reading and talking and listening (and understanding) will be much easier after that. A lot of the input will be comprehensible. So I think many people study grammar too early first. Grammar should be studied after one has studied vocabulary. I wish I had learned vocab first. Just common basic words that everyone needs to know. About 600 first and then a study of grammar and then back to studying vocab.
I think you can learn any language FAST if you concentrate PURELY on vocab in the early stages. Do not hassle yourself with anything too much - just study vocabulary and some basic grammar. Vocab should be learned before grammar. A little listening to get the pronunciation right is OK at this stage. When you are learning vocab you are probably sounding out the words at this stage, so knowing some pronunciation rules is helpful.
But the priority is aiming to pick up as many vocab words as you can. It doesn't matter whether you forget the vocab words the next day, later on when you learn the words again, you will find it much easier to put them into your permanent memory bank.
Then one should check what vocab level one is at by doing some reading. If one cannot read a newspaper yet, time to break out the vocab books and learn higher-level vocab.
Then after one has acquired a lot of vocabulary, one can relax and watch movies and dramas that one enjoys. Doing these kinds of activities is much more enjoyable when one has a lot of vocab under one's belt.
Learning really accelerates at this point. One is not hampered by having to look up a dictionary at every third word and one can read for pleasure and understanding. Things will be more comprehensible including speech and text.
Then one can concentrate on just picking up the grammar naturally and not worry about the vocabulary. One can focus on refining one's language ability. One can concentrate on how Koreans put their words together, how they express themselves, the "style" of the language.
One is just reading and not looking up reference materials so the reading is smooth.
I think this is the KEY.
