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If you're learning Spanish, you might be afraid of speaking. You've probably heard that your mistakes will become permanent if you speak too early. If you are using a comprehensible input-based method, you might have heard that you need to just listen, without doing any speaking, until you've accumulated 600 hours of input. On the other hand, Benny Lewis from Fluent in 3 months tells you to "Speak from day one". Who should you listen to? How much input do you really need before you start to speak?
Video chapters
00:00 Why you need to practice speaking
04:10 What does "speaking" even mean?
07:06 Do you need 600 hours of input before speaking?
08:53 How long should the silent period last?
12:04 It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white
Stephen Krashen popularized the idea that comprehensible input is all you need to "acquire" a language. This idea is central to my channel, Spanish Input. Krashen was never dogmatic on the subject of how much input you need before you start speaking. Krashen does recommend a "silent period" during which students are not required to speak. In his books, Krashen observes that this silent period can be as short as 10 hours if you're following a course that provides concentrated comprehensible input.
Also, there are many ways to interpret the word "speaking". It could be:
1) Practicing pronunciation
2) Repeating memorized phrases
3) Producing original output
Krashen recognizes that you can use memorized phrases and patters to "beat the silent period". Even though theoretically this does not help "acquire" a language, Krashen admits it does help.
But J. Marvin Brown, who worked in Thailand, took Krashen's ideas to an extreme: He suggested that learners should receive around 1,000 hours of comprehensible input before they start speaking. Brown's method is called Automatic Language Growth (ALG), and it deviates from Krashen's ideas, mainly in one point: ALG basically tells you to listen without speaking for hundreds of hours. Krashen never established any rule on this regard.
A popular YouTube channel called Dreaming Spanish is based on Brown's ideas, and it says in its roadmap that you should just listen for 600 hours before you start speaking. However, Brown's rule is not based on any scientific study, merely on his experiences with Americans learning Thai. Therefore, there's no reason to spend 600 hours just listening to Spanish without speaking Spanish IF the input you're using is actually comprehensible and it follows a program instead of being random.
In summary, don't force yourself to speak too early but also don't force yourself to stay silent for too long. Just do what works, without insisting on sticking to a particular philosophy. You're here to learn Spanish, not to join a cult of "Brownites"!
As Deng Xiaoping said, it doesn't matter if the cat is black or white; the one who is able to catch mice is a good cat.
Just do what works for you.
