The recent past in language teaching has been dominated by the Skill-Building Hypothesis, the view that we learn language by first learning about it, and then practicing the rules we learned in output. The present is marked by the emergence of the Comprehension Hypothesis, the view that we acquire language when we understand messages, and is also characterized by the beginning stages of its applications: comprehensible-input based teaching methods, sheltered subject matter teaching, and the use of extensive reading for intermediate language students. My hope is that the future will see a clearer understanding of the Comprehension Hypothesis, and the profession taking more advantage of it.