Automatic Language Growth
A Review of the ALG Method
Image by: Andrea Piacquadio
By Hanyu Tales (15th March 2025)
Dr. J. Marvin Brown popularized the ALG (Automatic Language Approach), a language-learning method first used in 1984 by the American University Language Center in Bangkok to teach Thai language. In his paper entitled Effortless English: Learning Languages Like Children, Brown explains the core idea of the method in the following way:
“The method says that any attempt to speak (or even think about language), before automatic speaking comes, will cause damage and limit final results! In other words, the method uses a very long "silent period". During the "silent period", students focus only on listening. After 6 - 12 months of intensive listening, students begin to speak spontaneously and naturally-- without effort and without thinking!”
In the same paper, Brown supports this overview with more specific claims about the efficacy of the ALG method. In this article, we will go over some of these claims individually and offer our stance. Adults Get the Same Results As Children
“The students just listened for as much as a year without speaking at all. We found that adults get almost the same results that children do.”
Adults can absolutely learn languages effectively, but the idea that adults can benefit from a listening-only approach in the same way children can assumes that the adult brain has the same innate linguistic capacity as children. This PHD thesis by Hasanbey Elli̇dokuzoğlu investigated the existence of innate linguistic knowledge in adults, and while it found mixed results, it seemed that age was not the main factor in determining the existence of this innate knowledge. Therefore, Brown’s claim that adults should not be treated differently to children with respect to language learning does seem to make sense. However, research has consistently shown that in practice, differences between adult and child learners do exist, such as the increased difficulty adults have when trying to lose their foreign accent. Therefore, expecting almost the same results as children by following the same input-only method as an adult may lead to disappointment. Listening Without Speaking
“If adults understand natural talk, in real situations, without trying to say anything, for a whole year, then fluent speaking with clear pronunciation will come automatically. […] Forced speaking damages adults.”
While we know that listening aids in pronunciation improvement (in fact, reading does too), the idea that it is optimal to use only listening goes against most research. A review of literature on teaching pronunciation suggests that teacher trainers should: “stress the significance of pronunciation instruction to teachers and supply them with thorough background knowledge of phonetics and phonology”
This is more in line with what most researchers suggest, such as the authors of this paper in the English Language Teaching journal, who suggest that teachers must encourage speaking alongside listening if they wish for students to improve their pronunciation. Once again, listening to natives producing the correct sounds is important, but so is consistently training your mouth muscles to produce the sounds yourself, as popular Chinese language teacher and accent coach Rita often preaches. Thinking is Bad
“The damage doesn’t come from being wrong; it comes from thinking about the language”
Image by: Craig Adderley
Interesting and Comprehensible Input
“Two things are needed for modern students. First, they need experiences in the language that are so interesting (fun, exciting, suspenseful, etc.), that the students forget that a new language is being used. And second, the students understanding must be high enough to learn - and this means 80-100% from the very first day!”
We’ll keep this section short, as this is more or less the same debate that linguists have been having since Stephen Krashen released his hypothesis about comprehensible input being the main driver of language acquisition. The idea of needing interesting content that learners understand 80-100% of is close to what most comprehensible input supporters advocate, and is indeed a great use of your time, particularly when you are too burned out for more active learning. As we have already mentioned, we believe restricting yourself to listening alone is not the best approach, but for the listening you do include, following Brown’s guidelines would be wise. Closing Thoughts
Robert Bley-Vroman suggests that while natural language acquisition has its place for adults, we should incorporate wider cognitive and pedagogical findings into our learning approach too. This is exactly how we feel about the ALG method. Lots of input and less overthinking absolutely has huge benefits for adults, but the idea that more focused study and deliberate practice should not exist alongside it is an extraordinary claim that lacks the extraordinary evidence it needs.