Let us first consider a general approach to foreign language instruction which has been named the Comprehension Approach.' It is called this because of the importance it gives to listening comprehension. Most of the other methods we have looked at have students speaking the target language from the first day. In the 1960s and 1970s research gave rise to the hypothesis that language learning should start first with undcrstand- ing and later proceed to production (Winitz 198 l). After the learner internalizes an extensive map of how the rarger language works, speaking will appear spontaneously. Of course, the student's specch will not be per fect, but gradually speech will become more target-like. Notice that this is exactly how an infant acquires its narive language. A baby spends many months listening to the people around it long before it ever says a word The child has the time to try to make sense out of the sounds it hears. No one tells the baby that it must speak. The child chooses to speak when it is ready to do so