Overview

LingoStories is a free platform that offers interactive stories for language learners. The stories use simple vocabulary and grammar to help you practice your language skills in a fun and engaging way. You can listen to the audio, read the text in your target language, and check the translation when needed. The stories are available in multiple languages, and you can customize the settings to suit your learning style.

To make it more interesting, the stories are interactive with choices to make. Some stories can include an inventory of items. Over time, we plan to add more features similar to what you might expect in an adventure game.

Settings

Customize the settings to suit your learning style. The settings are available using during the story. Here's an overview of the options available:

• Mode:
  • Listening & Reading: Listen to the audio while following along with the text. This mode helps you connect spoken and written forms, enhancing both listening comprehension and reading skills.
  • Listening: Focus solely on listening to the story. The transcription is displayed later. This mode helps improve your listening skills by training your ear to understand spoken language and enhancing pronunciation awareness.
  • Reading: Read the text on your own without audio. This mode allows you to focus on understanding written content.

  No matter what mode you selected, you can listen to the audio whenever you want by clicking on the speaker icon on the left.

• Translation: Select the language of your choice to translate the story text. The translation appears when you click on a sentence.
• Minigames: Decide if you want to include minigames in the story. Minigames are interactive exercises that appear randomly (depending on the reading mode).

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts can help you use the features in the story more efficiently.

• Space: Continue to the next sentence (similar to the main button).
• T: Toggle the translation of the current sentence.
• R: Replay the audio of the current sentence.
• 1, 2, 3...: Select the 1st, 2nd, 3rd... option when there's a choice to make.

Language Learning Tips and Exercises

LingoStories is intended to be flexible. You can use it in any way you want, and practice the skills that are more relevant to you.

Learning a language involves a lot of repetition. Paul Nation, a famous researcher in linguistics and teaching, explains: "The more something is repeated, the more likely it is to be learned. Repetition works best if it is spaced. That is, rather than having all the repetitions occurring together in a short time, there should be a reasonable amount of time between the repetitions. Because repetition is so important for learning, it is good to work out ways of repeating the same activities over and over again."

So don't hesitate to go through the same stories again, maybe a few days or weeks later. In this section, we suggest exercises that you can do to develop your language skills. Many exercises are based on Paul Nation's book "What do you need to know to learn a foreign language?"

Enjoy the Story

• The simplest way to use LingoStories is to follow the story with the Listening & Reading Mode. The combination of listening and reading enhances comprehension. Don't worry if there are unknown words or grammatical constructs; just try to follow the story's general meaning. If the meaning is unclear, you can click on a sentence to see the translation.
• This activity is sometimes referred to as Extensive Reading. According to polyglot Luca Lampariello, "While intensive reading requires a high level of focus and deliberate effort, extensive reading is meant to be a fun and pleasurable experience, requiring a low expenditure of mental effort. The more extensive reading you do, the more language you are exposed to, allowing you to increase your passive knowledge of vocabulary quite quickly."

Consider Intensive Reading

• After reading the story once, consider engaging in Intensive Reading if you found the material challenging. This approach will help you deepen your understanding of the text and build your language skills more thoroughly.
• Read the story again, slowly and carefully. Pay close attention to every word and phrase, aiming to understand all aspects of the text. When you encounter words or grammatical structures you don’t know, take a moment to look them up. This will help you expand your language knowledge.

Practice Listening

• Use the Listening Mode and try to follow the story.
• Beginner: Even if you can't understand the entire sentence, try to recognize some words. Listen to the sentence multiple times. Over time, you'll manage to recognize more words. This practice helps train your ear to identify sounds and common word patterns in the target language.
• Advanced: If the exercise is easy for you, use the Autoplay option. You will be able to go through the story quickly without getting bored, and it will challenge you to keep up with a natural pace of speech.
• Alternative: do a transcription. When you hear the sentence, write it down. This will help you learn the spelling of the words and pay attention to details like word endings. Then reveal the actual sentence and compare it with your transcription.

Practice Pronunciation

• Repeat out loud each sentence. Try to mimic the speaker's pronunciation, intonation, and pace. Over time, this exercise can improve your speaking confidence and improve your accent.
• You can use the Mode of your choice:
  • Listening & Reading Mode is recommended for beginners.
  • Listening Mode will force you to pay attention to what was said in order to repeat it. You may need to listen to the sentence multiple times.
  • Reading Mode is appropriate if you're already familiar with the pronunciation. Read the text out loud when the sentence appears. You can then double-check with the audio.

Revisit Stories for Reading Fluency

• Re-read or re-listen to stories you have already completed. This repetition helps reinforce vocabulary, grammatical structures, and overall comprehension. Try to increase your reading or listening speed each time you revisit the story to develop fluency.
• According to Paul Nation, "Repeated reading involves reading the same material at least three times, each time trying to increase the speed at which it is read. Repeated reading can be done while reading aloud, or while reading silently. It is a good idea to keep a record of the time taken for each reading."

Translate and Compare

• Once you are familiar with the story and its vocabulary, switch the story language to your native language and select Reading Mode.
• Then attempt to translate each sentence into the target language without looking at the original text. You can do this out loud or write it down. Click on the sentence to see the actual translation, and compare it with your own translation.
• This exercise encourages active use of the target language, strengthens your translation skills, and helps you learn new sentence structures. It also builds awareness of subtle differences in language use, enhancing your ability to think in the target language.

Practice Output

• After reading or listening to a story, try to retell it in your own words, either by speaking out loud or writing it down in the target language.
• According to the applied linguist Merrill Swain, speaking or writing forces you to notice what you don’t know—such as missing vocabulary or unclear grammar—allowing you to focus on these areas in future practice. It also helps reinforce the knowledge you've just learned and builds confidence.
• You may share your text with a language partner (or an AI tool) to get feedback and identify mistakes.

Contribute

Creating the website, writing stories, and providing translations requires a lot of effort. We managed to keep the website maintenance costs low, so that we can provide everything for free without ads. None of this would be possible without the help of contributors.

We hope to create a larger community of contributors to write and translate stories in many languages.

Your feedback is valuable. You can share your thoughts and ideas with us on Discord.