Italian Guided Learning - Level A1

Our recommended content progression

In the learning plan below, we have placed all stories in the order we recommend to grow from complete beginner to advanced A1 Italian speaker. The first stories are short and use high-frequency, accessible words that are essential for building a solid foundation in Italian. After that, length, vocabulary and grammatical variety increase step by step. This way you keep learning new Italian structures while still relying on what you have already learned.

This progression — a combination of story length, word frequency and grammatical difficulty — ensures that you always get exactly the right amount of challenge. Each story introduces new elements of Italian, while at the same time reinforcing knowledge from earlier stories. This didactic principle is called “scaffolding” and is one of the most proven methods for learning a language sustainably.

Because the progression is gradual and logical, you will notice that over time you can read longer Italian passages without stopping, recognise words more quickly in different contexts and feel more confident when understanding complete texts. The order is therefore not random, but carefully designed to make your learning process in Italian smooth, effective and natural.

How long will I spend on each story?

Everyone learns at their own pace, but it helps to have a realistic guideline. We assume about 30–60 minutes per day, in which you read, listen, look up Italian words, do drills and review parts of the story. In this way, you work purposefully each day on your Italian vocabulary, grammar, and reading and listening skills.

We asume that in studying a text for the first time, depening on your level, about 200 words of studying in the above mentioned manner in a foreign language is a managable range.

Based on this daily workload, you can follow these time recommendations:

• Stories up to 200 words: 2 days
• Stories up to 400 words: 2 days
• Stories up to 600 words: 2 days
• Stories up to 800 words: 4 days
• Stories longer than 1000 words: 10+ days

In a 30-minute session you will typically work through one or two text-heavy paragraphs, including audio, word lookups and drills. Because each story requires several rounds of attention — first overall understanding, then detail, then active processing — this schedule leaves enough room to truly master Italian without rushing.

You might be able to progress faster than this, or you may prefer to take a little more time. But if you follow this guide, you will complete all the A1 materials in 238 days.

Why focused attention matters more than speed

You don’t learn a new language — such as Italian — by quickly “skimming” as many stories as possible, but by processing each story with focused attention. Reading for meaning, listening, recognising Italian words in context and then doing drills: these are the phases in which your brain forms and consolidates new language patterns.

Only after you have worked through a story consciously in this way does repetition have real impact. By briefly revisiting the story the next day, you strengthen the connections you created the first time and Italian starts to feel more natural. Repetition is only effective when there has been focused attention beforehand.

So don’t see stories as steps to tick off as quickly as possible, but as practice spaces you return to more than once. A smaller number of stories, studied carefully and then repeated, will give you far more progress in Italian than many stories read superficially. Focus first, repeat later — that is the foundation of effective and sustainable Italian learning.

We wish you lots of success and enjoyment with this course. If you have any questions or feedback, we would be happy to hear from you.

Happy Learning!