About

✅ We publish learner-tested materials that 🌟Educators, 🌟Learners, and 🌟Parents can use to facilitate or acquire Spanish or French.

✅Quijote y Yo is a historical (fan) fiction language acquisition series. Learners grow in age with the characters as they grow in linguistic ability. After the Novice Low Septology, there are subsequent trilogies at more complex linguistic levels. Nevertheless—learners can and should start their journey at the level appropriate for them. For example, it is NOT necessary to read the Novice Mid Trilogy to understand the Novice High Trilogy—they are separate stories written with the same core characters. The premise is both research-based and simple—once learners can get through one of my trilogies without looking at the Glossary, they should move on to the next level. This will do more for their acquisition of the Target Language than anything else they've tried, hands down, guaranteed.

✅ We are research-based (Theory of Comprehensible Input by Stephen Krashen). It’s simple—learners need megaloads of comprehensible linguistic input right above their current level in order to acquire a language. Period.

✅ Constanza Ontaneda's 30+ years as a language learner and 10+ years as an educator have proven to her this theory is true.

✅ Therefore, learners will NOT MEMORIZE anything with these materials. Neither memorization nor learning grammar rules lead to language acquisition.

✅ What learners MUST do is comprehend. That’s partly on the materials, and partly on the learners. Read on and you’ll find out how.

✅ There is one core product: the BOOKS.

✅ To ensure learners comprehend these, they must use the Glossary.

✅ Just reading the BOOKS will build a mental representation of the language the brain. However, listening to the corresponding AUDIOBOOKS, available for free on YouTube, is what will get the native-like pronunciation wired into their brain, and also provide more input through a different medium.

❓ So, where do the Communication Guides and Audio Communication Guides come in? Before the BOOKS, actually. They are a set of:

• Pre-reading
• Reading
• Post-reading Tasks.

To ensure learner comprehension, there is an English Translation below EVERYTHING.

🔮The Pre-reading Tasks prepare learners for reading each BOOK. There are no “right” answers. Just have fun!

🔮The Reading Tasks get learners reading the BOOK and listening to the AUDIOBOOK. They will feel ready and find the BOOK familiar, because they completed the Pre-Reading Tasks!

🔮The Post-Reading Tasks help learners process what they just read through different modalities.  

The Audio Communication Guides will (just like the AUDIOBOOKS), give learners the key native-like pronunciation factor, and should be used IN TANDEM with the Communication Guides. 

...

Constanza Ontaneda founded Input Wand out of a deep desire to transform the sorry state of second (third, fourth, etc) language teaching and learning around the globe. 

It is common to hear or say something like "I took it all through high school and college. Aced the tests. Don't speak a word." 

Constanza Ontaneda believes this is nothing short of a tragedy. She's been both in the shoes of a disappointed language learner and a disappointing language educator. That is, until she delved deep into the research on how humans acquire languages. She brings you Input Wand from this stance. 

Her dream of creating materials worthy of...YOU...led her on an adventure that involved obtaining a Masters in Creative Writing and Publishing at Western Colorado University with Kevin J. Anderson. Yes, that's the Dune, Star Wars and X-files dude. He's also a superfan, and he's awesome. 😉

Constanza Ontaneda also holds an MA in Latin American Studies from New York University, and a BS in Fiber Science and Apparel Design from Cornell University.  

Why should you trust Input Wand? You shouldn't. Trust your experience. When you join the Magic Memo, you will receive a Starter Kit for free, so you can gauge the materials yourself and then decide whether you wish to purchase more. 

Language Acquisition is slow and piecemeal. This is a fact about language acquisition no human being can skip over, regardless of how many intentional or unintentional language scams assure you you can learn a language in 30 days. 

The one guarantee about Input Wand is that it is the right drop (Compelling, Comprehensible and Communication-Enhancing linguistic input) in the right bucket (your brain), to build the mental representation (think neural pathways) of the language in your brain. 

Enthralled by language acquisition from a young age, Constanza Ontaneda studied eight languages formally—Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Mandarin, Russian, German, and Quechua.

She has taught Spanish, French and/or English to adults, as well as high school, middle school, and elementary school students for over a decade, and chaired the World Language Department at a middle school in Times Square.

She believes that Compelling, Comprehensible, and Communication-Enhancing materials are the cornerstones of a research-based, proficiency-oriented, and input-focused world language education.

If you teach through story and the theory of Comprehensible Input guides your work, Input Wand materials are meant for you.

If you wish to learn a language with research-proven methods, Input Wand materials are meant for you.

If you are the parent of a human whom you wish will one day be multilingual, Input Wand materials are meant for you.

All materials are suitable and designed for humans aged 9—OLD.