Dinput is what I’m calling the phenomenon of receiving so much input that a din of target language develops in your head.

Earlier at the coffee shop, I read twice as much Spanish as I typically do in one sitting (i.e. a chapter of Vida y Muerte en La Mara Salvatrucha, and an article from Conexiones), which led to a din of Spanish for absolutely no reason probably two hours afterwards. I first noticed it after realizing that it made no sense why the words “a la derecha,” and “alrededor” had popped into my head after getting out of the car (on the left, not “on the right,” and walking straight ahead, not “around” anything). Perhaps more surprisingly, I skimmed the Spanish I was reading earlier and found that none of those words appeared in the texts! The flood of input from reading must have activated some rogue thoughts I had—only in a target language, not my native one. I’ll take a guess that this is very, very good for acquisition.

This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced the din with languages, although it’s usually triggered by real time interactions, not just reading. It got me thinking about not only how to provide CI—an absolute must for acquisition—but how to provide so many understandable messages that it becomes dinput. Surely, it takes more than providing a text and asking some comprehension questions, right?

What are you doing to provide dinput?