The Natural Approach to teaching second language communication skills is described. The Natural Approach is based on the proposition that acquirers in natural situations go through three stages: comprehension, early speech, and speech emergence. Provision of comprehensible input allows beginning learners to teach themselves how to speak. Thus, listening comprehension is the most important skill for beginning language learners because it allows speech to develop. Three techniques for teaching listening comprehension skills through the Natural Approach are detailed: total physical response in which learners respond to commands; description of the characteristics of people and objects in the immediate environment; and description of the contents of magazine pictures. The purpose of the techniques is to give comprehensible input in a second language without requiring the learners to speak. (RW)