Listen Read Interact Podcast
Welcome to the Listen Read Interact podcast—an interactive show for Spanish learners who want more than flashcards. Whether you're studying Spanish or exploring how we acquire language, you’ll find something here for you. It's the perfect supplement to courses and lessons at Tacoma Language Academy.
Hosted by the team behind Tacoma Language Academy and Read to Speak Spanish, this podcast blends storytelling, expert insights, and active engagement strategies to help you make real progress.
Rich show notes are available here on this page to help you go deeper into each episode They are like self-contained lessons, ideal for learners who want to follow along, revisit content, or actively interact with the language.
Why Listen Read Interact?
We know that comprehensible input is the driving force behind language acquisition. The more you hear and read language that makes sense to you, the more chances your brain has to process that input. This processed input is called "intake", language that’s ready to be acquired.
Once your brain reaches the intake stage, it may or may not acquire the language—based on criteria we don’t fully understand. It’s a bit of a black box. But the takeaway is simple: The more often you reach intake, the more language you acquire.
Interaction, while not essential to picking up Spanish, reinforces that the internal processing has occurred. That’s why this podcast invites you to Listen, Read, and Interact On repeat. Again and again and again.
Ways to Listen
- Spotify: Open in Spotify
- Apple Podcasts: Listen on Apple
- RSS Feed: Subscribe manually
Support the Podcast
This show follows the Value-for-Value model. If it’s helped you, consider giving back: share it, send a message, or donate to keep the content flowing.
CI Immersion Podcast
For Language Instructors
The CI Immersion Podcast is the teacher-facing home of the CI Immersion system. It is designed for language teachers who want to move beyond grammar-first instruction and build classrooms where acquisition actually happens.
Each episode focuses on practical classroom decisions, instructional design, and proficiency-driven sequencing. The goal is not theory for its own sake, but a clear, usable system you can apply immediately.
Listen to the podcast
Subscribe in your preferred podcast app or browse episodes with full show notes and classroom-ready examples.
What this podcast is about
- Designing lessons around comprehension instead of coverage
- Building input-rich sequences that naturally lead to confident output
- Using story as the backbone of instruction rather than an add-on
- Making reading a natural extension of listening
- Creating interaction that deepens understanding instead of testing recall
- Aligning assessment with proficiency and real communication
- Reducing teacher burnout through clear systems and routines
Who this podcast is for
- Language teachers who feel stuck in grammar-first instruction
- Teachers using or exploring comprehensible input approaches
- Instructors who want clearer structure without rigid scripts
- Departments and programs shifting toward proficiency-based outcomes
- Teachers who want students to understand and communicate with confidence
How this connects to Tacoma Language Academy
CI Immersion is the instructional system behind the learner experience at Tacoma Language Academy. This podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look at how that system is designed, refined, and applied in real classrooms.
If you are a teacher, you can treat this podcast as an ongoing professional development resource. If you are a school or district leader, it provides a clear picture of how comprehension-based instruction works at scale.
New to CI Immersion?
If you want a clear overview of the CI Immersion framework before diving into the podcast, start with the system overview page.