The method
We speak when we're ready.
Most language teaching is built on grammar rules and vocabulary lists, giving learners an artificial sense of progress. If you've ever struggled to use the language in conversation, that's because you haven't acquired it.
Comprehensible Input explains why. Before you can produce a language, you have to receive an enormous amount of input. And you need to find that input comprehensible and compelling.
Free voluntary reading may be the most powerful tool we have in language education.★ Stephen Krashen, PhD
Why it works
✦ Comprehensible and compelling
Engaging conversations and stories motivate learners to want to know what happens next. When you are compelled and can understand, acquisition becomes an effortless and satisfying process.
✦ Reading = main source of input
Recreational reading improves all aspects of language ability: grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and writing. Keep the input party going with music, podcasts, TV shows, movies, and YouTube channels like Dreaming Spanish.
✦ The Affective Filter
When we're anxious, we unconsciously engage a mental filter that can prevent language from ever becoming acquired. These lessons are as slow and as easy as you'd like. Spanish is like a Reese's cup. There's no wrong way to take it in.
How it works
Proficiency assessment
Tell me about your background with the language and I'll help you find out where to start.
Start reading
Depending on how serious you are, purchase up to 10 books and start reading for at least 30 minutes every day.
Las clases
We'll meet online or in person and I'll guide you through a conversation that we both create in the moment.
Rinse & repeat
Read and take in as much language as you possibly can. This is the most crucial aspect of your acquisition process.
Reading list
Where to start.
Graded readers written for Spanish learners.
The pink number is the book's unique word count (how many different words it uses). That is typically what makes a book easy or hard. The appropriate level means that you're understanding around 95% of what you're reading.
Level 1 has 61, Level 2 has 23, Level 3–4 has 10 — easiest first:
- 23uw143 words
- 113uw3,267 words
- 180uw2,400 words
- 300uw7,300 words
- 950uw7,450 words
Level 1 61 books
- 23uw143 words
- 44uw155 words
- 52uw360 words
- 59uw193 words
- 60uw1,735 words
- 60uw2,600 words
- ~62uwestimated
- ~62uwestimated
- ~62uwestimated
- ~62uwestimated
- ~62uwestimated
- ~62uwestimated
- ~62uwestimated
- ~62uwestimated
- 66uw413 words
- 73uw2,020 words
- 74uw515 words
- 80uw2,500 words
- 89uw149 words
- 92uw3,548 words
- 100uw3,100 words
- 100uw3,050 words
- 102uw1,760 words
- 113uw3,267 words
- 121uw
- 130uw1,800 words
- 130uw
- 130uw2,360 words
- 132uw4,500 words
- 138uw3,100 words
- ~149uwestimated
- ~149uwestimated
- ~149uwestimated
- 149uw911 words
- ~149uwestimated
- 150uw
- ~150uwestimated
- 150uw4,800 words
- 150uw3,000 words
- 150uw5,633 words
- ~150uwestimated
- ~150uwestimated
- 170uw
- 170uw3,200 words
- 170uw2,300 words
- 170uw2,680 words
- 180uw2,400 words
- 195uw7,901 words
- 195uw4,780 words
- 200uw9,900 words
- 200uw903 words
- 200uw1,600 words
- 200uw5,200 words
- 210uw3,676 words
- 218uw1,200 words
- 250uw4,100 words
- 260uw3,400 words
- 285uw2,700 words
- 320uw5,614 words
- 320uw5,100 words
- 320uw5,614 words
Level 2 23 books
- 120uw5,356 words
- 200uw5,136 words
- 200uw5,600 words
- ~217uwestimated
- 223uw5,144 words
- 270uw3,400 words
- 273uw4,917 words
- 280uw4,780 words
- 290uw2,980 words
- 298uw5,798 words
- 300uw7,300 words
- 300uw4,229 words
- 300uw12,300 words
- 300uw1,215 words
- ~300uwestimated
- 305uw4,190 words
- 335uw5,639 words
- ~340uwestimated
- 380uw8,200 words
- 400uw4,120 words
- 400uw7,600 words
- 450uw8,000 words
- 550uw1,567 words
Level 3–4 10 books
- 290uw6,740 words
- 331uw13,675 words
- 350uw9,600 words
- 350uw10,700 words
- ~400uwestimated
- 400uw7,600 words
- 450uw11,236 words
- 500uw18,000 words
- 680uw8,300 words
- 950uw7,450 words
No books match that search.
About the links and the numbers
Each title links to the publisher or the author's own shop. If you can, please support them. However, as they are small operations, there are shipping costs and they may take longer to arrive. The Amazon link beside each title is usually faster if you're in a hurry. I earn nothing either way.
A number in a dashed box with a ~ is my estimate, for the books whose publisher never released a unique word count.
Lessons
One on one, every level.
Built around your goals. So you can talk to your abuela, joke around with your coworkers, or just have more fun on vacation. Three places people usually start:
✦ Beginner
Limited to no background with the language. You probably know more than you think you do. Some loose words, phrases, but don't have any idea how they might fit together.
✦ Intermediate
You have a solid foundation but not a lot of confidence. Under the right circumstances, you can keep a conversation going. This is what I like to call the linguistic limbo.
✦ Advanced & heritage speakers
You are fluent, but you lack specific vocabulary and/or structures that will allow you to flourish in your studies, field of work, or in a specific area of interest.
What to expect
60 minute private lessons, online everywhere or in person in Austin. I can help you choose your books, and, once you buy them, they're yours to keep. You can even re-read them to get more input and deepen your understanding. We'll find a time to meet each week. I'll send over hourly rates/package options, onboarding material, and we can start today!
Students
What people say after a year.
“He is the best language teacher I have ever had and I have had quite a few over the years. He taught us grammar without making it a conjugation drudgery. He is supportive and you never feel shy about just jumping in and practicing even knowing you are making a lot of mistakes… With his expert guidance my Spanish comprehension and speaking confidence has improved more in just one year than in all my years of college classes and other previous private language classes. Highly recommended!
“I loved taking classes with Profe Lee. He is funny and engaging, and really made learning Spanish fun. I have been through three classes with him, and it's the best language learning experience I've ever had. Highly recommend!
“Don't look any further for Spanish lessons! This is it! I have taken many courses with different professors, and Lee is by far the best. He is so patient and kind. He meets you where you're at and is great at challenging you to go a bit further. Also, he's pretty funny, though I'd never tell him that lol… Even when I've had a long day or a tough week, I still want to learn from Lee.
About
¡Hola—Soy Lee!
¡Mucho gusto!
I've taught Spanish for 10 years now. And, unfortunately, most of the students I've come across have been convinced that they were the reason they couldn't speak fluently. I can't blame them. They'd just been taught in a way that doesn't make sense.
másmenos
In 2005, I spent a year in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where I became fluent in Spanish. I then came home to Arkansas and took Spanish classes for the next 10 years. It was during that time that I learned why my future students believed that they were bad at languages. I could tell that memorizing vocabulary lists and grammar rules wasn't helpful. But, as someone who learned by immersion, I wasn't sure how to teach a language. In 2021, a student's father (also a language teacher) emailed me a link to Liam Printer's podcast, The Motivated Classroom. It showed me a more logical method called Comprehensible Input, and I've taught that way ever since.
I knew that language was a spontaneous creation of meaning in the present moment, but, until then, I wasn't sure how to embed the forms of the language in the subconscious mind of the learner.
That podcast led me to so many other truly inspired language teachers—one of whom, Bryce Hedstrom, has served as a template for much of what I am now doing. I am so excited to learn and teach and feel that I am just now beginning to do both.
- ★M.A. Hispanic Literature, emphasis in Pedagogy, and B.A. Spanish — University of Arkansas
- ★University of Arkansas — Spanish instructor, three courses a semester
- ★Northwest Arkansas Community College — Spanish & Art History instructor
- ★World Language Center — private Spanish tutoring
- ★Crockett Early College High School, Austin — Spanish teacher, 500+ students, $2,000+ raised for classes
- ★The Language House, Austin — adult lessons & conversation workshops
- ★Ozark Literacy Council — AmeriCorps ELA instructor
- ★Medical interpreter — health brigades in Trujillo, Honduras
Get started
Tell me where you are, and where you'd like to be.
Email me to start developing fluency the natural way.