What Are Receptive and Productive Skills in Language Learning?

Receptive skills are listening and reading: the ways we take in language (input). Productive skills are speaking and writing: the ways we create language (output). Both matter. Input builds understanding and leads toward fluency, output reveals your gaps so you can work on them, and interacting in your target language lets you practice both at once.

What is more important: Input or Output?

Input vs. Output / Receptive Skills vs. Productive Skills

In the language learning community online and in academia, there is a bit of a debate about the importance, priority, and timing of when to do “output” and how much “input” one needs. Some learners get caught up in trying to have a perfect system and trying to use their time efficiently while getting anxious and stressed about “doing it right” instead of just going for it.

In reality, both input and output are important and useful in one’s journey. Therefore, this blog will treat them descriptively (not prescriptively) and with a tone of encouragement.

What are Productive Skills?

Producing language means that you create it. In the Speaking and Listening pair, the productive skill is Speaking. In the Reading and Writing pair, the productive skill is writing.

For a majority of people, the goal is to be able to produce language, especially in speaking. In academic settings, one of your sub-goals may be to write strong essays. In daily communication, being able to make friends will require you to produce language, whether in texting and messaging or in face-to-face interactions. Being able to express your ideas and communicate effectively relies on developing your productive skills.

What are Receptive Skills?

If you have read the above section, it should be clear that Reading and Listening are the skills that are on the receiving end of communication. As you are reading this blog, you actually are using your receptive skills right now. The same goes for what you do when you watch a TV show. These skills are how we take in language.

Why is Input Important?

A well-known and popular theory about language is Stephen Krashen’s Comprehension (Input) Hypothesis, which is based on five hypotheses about acquisition, the natural order of learning, the concept of an internal Monitor, the Affective Filter, and the concept of comprehensible (i+1) input, which all work together as we gather more and more information and gain intuitive knowledge of the language. Getting lots and lots of input, especially at a level that is just right for our abilities will ultimately grow our understanding and will lead to fluency. For French learners, the fastest way to put this into practice is to start here: The 100 Most Common French Words with Pronunciation.

Why is Output Important?

Swain (1985) and others over the years have pushed back on those who prioritize mainly immersion and input, by arguing that language learners need to force themselves to speak out comprehensible output to fully progress in a language. By producing language, we can notice and realize our own limitations in the language so we can work on them. Regular speaking practice with native speakers and other learners is one of the best ways to push your output forward.

Practicing output also allows us to strengthen our minds, tongues, fingers, etc. As a case in point, for myself, personally, I have progressed moderately well in Japanese, but I still find that I am learning how to type accurately, and it still takes me some time to warm up my tongue and develop automaticity and any sort of fluency, even with expressions that I can readily hear.

Interaction is Key!

At some point, it is necessary to interact in the language.

• Working on Input is important.
• Working on Output is important.
• When you Interact, you get to do both!

You can take your time to work more on input. There is no need to rush, nor is it necessary to interact all the time in your target language. There are several ways to use your receptive abilities to gain a sturdy foundation, whether you learn English online or learn Japanese online, and getting lots of exposure and input will certainly give you a broad and deep understanding of your second language.

Eventually, however, you do need to provide yourself opportunities to produce output, make mistakes, and learn from your mistakes.

Ultimately, you will need to challenge yourself to be able to do both at the same time – internally understanding the subtle minutiae of what you hear while you prepare to speak, and comprehend what you read in order to comment or answer questions about it.

Feel free to use our resources to practice your receptive skills (flash cards and newsfeed), find teachers and native speakers to practice listening and speaking, and engage in discussion, whether in text chat, video and voice chat, or our (forthcoming) newsfeed!