Consuming and Creating: Part 3: Output Theory

When I first posted about Consuming and Creating I never thought it would grow into multiple posts, but I just keep returning to the idea. Last semester I took a linguistics class and we discussed different theories about learning language. One of the most interesting was developed by Merrill Swain called the Output Theory. Building on other theories before her, she distinguished between input and output in language acquisition. Input is reading and listening activities, where output activities are writing and speaking based. Her theory emphasizes that students that provide output learn much faster then those who only receive input. In other words people who are using their new skills to create and interact are far more productive then those who only consume. This is very apparent in other types of activities too, you can't learn to sing just only by listening, or paint, or play soccer, only by watching others. It just doesn't work like that. We have to participate in life to actually live.