What Is Guided Input?
Guided input is comprehensible input that has been deliberately engineered: the material is written and narrated at a chosen learner level, and the help a learner needs — synced text, word meanings, grammar notes, review — is built into the material itself rather than left for the learner to assemble. The term is ours; the idea it names is a specific, describable way of producing listening material, defined on this page.
The definition, precisely
Input is guided when two conditions hold. The level is controlled: the story is written for a defined stage (vocabulary range, sentence shapes, speech rate), so a learner at that stage understands most of it on first listen. And the support is embedded: the same material carries its own living transcript, per-word meanings, grammar marks where the grammar happens, and review items derived from the story — no parallel textbook required.
Raw native content fails the first condition for beginners; most textbook audio fails the second in reverse (support everywhere, but the input is thin and unnatural). Guided input is the deliberate middle: real stories, controlled level, help in the material.
Guided input vs raw immersion
Immersion works when you understand enough of what you hear; below that threshold it is exposure, not acquisition. Guided input exists to get you TO that threshold: because the level is engineered, the percentage you understand stays high enough for the unknown parts to be learnable from context — the condition acquisition actually needs. Raw immersion then becomes the graduation, not the starting method.
Guided input vs graded readers
Graded readers control the level too — for text. Guided input applies the same discipline to AUDIO, and attaches the help to the sound: a narrated story with a living transcript, where listening is the primary act and reading supports it. For languages where the writing system is itself a wall, that order matters: your ear can start acquiring before your reading catches up.