Writing

Notes on reading your way in.

How reading builds a language, what the reading levels from Simple to Faithful actually mean when you are picking something to read, and why we build Lexxio the way we do.

8 min read

What comprehensible input actually means, and how to get it from books

Everyone says to get more input, but the slogan skips the part that actually matters. Here's what was really claimed, what the research says about it, and why reading is probably the most underrated way to get input you can actually understand.

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6 min read

Best books for learning Spanish that aren't children's books

"Read children's books" is the most common advice given to Spanish learners and one of the worst. Here is what to read instead, and how to tell in five minutes whether a book is going to work for you.

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8 min read

How many words do you actually need to read your first novel?

The honest answer is somewhere around 8,000, which is a miserable thing to hear when you know 500. The more useful answer is that the number only matters if you insist on reading unassisted.

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5 min read

How to finish your first book in a new language

Almost everyone gives up after the first couple of chapters. Here's what actually helps people make it all the way to the last page.

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7 min read

CEFR levels explained, and how Lexxio's reading levels work

A1 to C2 was built to describe learners, not books. Here is what each level feels like when you are reading, how Lexxio's five reading levels map onto it, and why the whole point is getting to Faithful.

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5 min read

Why reading beats flashcards for vocabulary

Flashcards absolutely work. The problem is that people expect them to do something they were never designed to do.

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5 min read

Why we write our own books

Graded readers are usually a classic cut down until nothing is left, or a story built around a grammar point and nothing else. We decided to write ours the other way round.

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