What is the primary characteristic of the Pre-Production stage in language acquisition?

The primary characteristic of the Pre-Production stage in language acquisition is the absorption of the language without speaking. During this initial stage, learners are focused on receiving and processing linguistic input. They often avoid verbal participation and instead engage in listening and understanding the language as it is modeled by others.

This stage involves a significant amount of comprehension before the learner feels ready or able to produce spoken language themselves. They may understand more than they can express and typically communicate through gestures or non-verbal means instead of formal speech. This focus on passive comprehension rather than active speech lays the groundwork for eventual language production in later stages of acquisition.