Contos is built on a simple idea from language research: you learn most from reading a lot of text you can mostly understand. These pages explain the three ideas behind it, comprehensible input, graded readers and extensive reading, with the studies, the numbers and the criticisms, so you can judge the method for yourself.
- Active and passive vocabularyReceptive and productive vocabulary explained: Nation's framework, how big the gap is in learners, and what turns words you recognise into words you use.
- Is it harder to learn a language as an adult?What critical-period research really shows, where adults have the edge over children, what stays hard, and how adult learners should play to their strengths.
- CEFR levels explained: A1 to C2The six CEFR levels in plain English: what you can do at each, roughly how many study hours they take, the vocabulary research, and how Contos uses A1–B2.
- How to choose the right reading levelPick a reading level you'll actually enjoy: how many unknown words is too many, the same story compared at four levels, and when to move up or drop down.
- What is comprehensible input?Krashen's input hypothesis explained: what comprehensible input is, what the research supports, where critics disagree, and how reading puts it to use.
- How to guess words from contextA four-step method for guessing unknown words while reading, how often guesses are right, why false friends fool you, and when to look the word up.
- The Contos reading reportChapter lengths, sentence lengths, vocabulary growth and genre mix, measured on the free chapters of all 768 Contos series in 16 languages.
- Finished Duolingo? What to do nextFinished a Duolingo course or stuck near the end? How to work out your real level, what research says Duolingo's beginner courses achieve, and what to add next.
- Exam prep by readingWhat the DELE, DELF and Goethe-Zertifikat reading papers look like at A1 to B2, what extensive reading can and can't do for your score, and a study plan.
- Extensive reading: how much should you read in a new language?How easy should a text be, and how many words a week should you read? The research on extensive reading, the 95% and 98% figures, and a weekly target.
- Can you learn a language in 15 minutes a day?What 15 minutes a day adds up to, how many hours each CEFR level takes, why short daily sessions suit memory, and how to spend the quarter-hour.
- Frequency lists: learn the words that matterWhy a few thousand words cover most of any text, which frequency list to trust, how words are counted, and how to learn from a list without wasting time.
- What are graded readers, and do they work?Graded readers are books written for learners at fixed vocabulary levels. How they are levelled, what the evidence shows, and the usual objections.
- Can you learn grammar just by reading?What research says about picking up grammar from reading alone, why explicit teaching wins in most studies, and the best way to combine the two.
- How to build a daily language habitWhat habit research, including Lally's 66-day study, says about making language practice automatic, with routines to attach it to.
- Reading for heritage learnersGrew up hearing a family language but can't read it well? What research says about heritage speakers, and how to choose stories at the right level.
- How many words do you need to be fluent?Vocabulary size in plain numbers: what counts as a word, how many native speakers know, and how many word families reading novels or following speech takes.
- What does i+1 mean in language learning?Krashen's i+1 explained: what i and +1 stand for, why he said input should be roughly tuned rather than aimed at +1, and what +1 looks like in real chapters.
- How to build immersion at homeWhat research on out-of-class exposure, TV and vocabulary says about immersing yourself at home, and a week that mixes reading, video and output.
- How to break the intermediate plateauWhy progress seems to stall around B1, what the vocabulary numbers say about it, and the changes that help most when you're stuck at intermediate level.
- Language learning through reading for familiesWhat shared-reading and family language policy research says about learning a language together at home, and where Contos fits (teens and adults).
- Seven language learning mythsLearning styles, sleep learning, the FSI hours, bilingual confusion and more: seven popular beliefs about learning languages, each checked against a source.
- Can you learn two languages at once?What third-language research says about mixing languages up, how much closely related languages overlap, and how to learn two at once if you want to.
- Why stories help you remember wordsWhat memory research says about stories: why narratives are recalled better, how much vocabulary a story really teaches, and why a series beats a one-off text.
- Mnemonics for vocabularyThe keyword method links a new word to a sound-alike and a vivid image. What the studies show, why the gains can fade, and when a mnemonic is worth it.
- How to stay motivated learning a languageWhat Dörnyei's L2 motivational self system and self-determination theory say about lasting motivation, how strong the evidence is, and what helps.
- Narrow reading: one topic, many textsKrashen's case for narrow reading, what studies of related texts and series books show, where the evidence is weak, and how to read narrowly in practice.
- Input vs output: when should you start speaking?Swain's output hypothesis against Krashen's input view: what each side's evidence shows, and when speaking and writing start to pay off.
- Parallel texts: help or crutch?Do side-by-side translations help you learn a language? What the few direct studies, and the larger research on glosses, say about bilingual reading.
- What polyglots actually do every dayDaily routines of Kató Lomb, Lýdia Machová, Steve Kaufmann and Benny Lewis in their own words, plus what brain research says about polyglots.
- Should you read out loud in a new language?Does reading aloud help you learn a language? The production effect, what studies show for comprehension and pronunciation, and how to read aloud usefully.
- How fast should you read in a new language?Reading speeds in words per minute for native and second-language readers, sensible targets, and how long a Contos chapter takes at each level.
- Reading or listening first?Should you start a new language by reading or listening? What research on vocabulary coverage and incidental learning shows, and why you need both in the end.
- Is rereading the same story useful?What repeated-reading research shows about rereading in a new language: big gains in speed and comprehension, small ones for memory, and how to reread well.
- Sentence mining, explainedWhat sentence mining is, where it came from, what research says about context sentences on flashcards, and how to choose sentences worth keeping.
- Why cliffhangers keep you readingThe Zeigarnik effect, what a 2025 meta-analysis found, curiosity and memory, a short history of serialized fiction, and what cliffhangers do for learners.
- Shadowing: what it is and when it helpsShadowing explained: where it came from, what studies show for listening and pronunciation, how to practise it, and what to pair a reading app with.
- Spaced repetition: why flashcards workThe spacing effect explained: the forgetting curve, how long to leave between reviews, why testing beats rereading, and how Contos schedules your flashcards.
- Tap-to-translate or a dictionary?Should you tap words for instant translations or look them up in a dictionary? What gloss and dictionary studies show, and when you need each.
- Vocabulary coverage: why 98% mattersWhat vocabulary coverage means, how it is counted, why the last few percent make the biggest difference, and how much of the next level you already know.