Interactive Stories to Learn English: Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Options

Short answer: for short, free interactive stories written for learners, try LingoStories. For classic novels turned into adventures in 13 languages, with tap-to-translate into more than 60 languages, try PageWalker. For longer all-text story games, look at Choice of Games and the Interactive Fiction Database. Printed gamebooks work too, if you prefer paper.

Why learn English with interactive stories?

Every scene ends with a decision, and you can only decide well if you understood the scene. That makes you read more carefully than in a normal book, and a wrong turn caused by a misread word is something you remember. Our guide to why interactive fiction works for language learning explains the idea in detail.

Where can I find interactive stories in English?

• LingoStories (lingostories.org): free, short choose-your-own-adventure stories written for language learners, with a translation when you click a word. The library is small and community written.
• PageWalker: 28 classic novels, such as Treasure Island and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, as adventures where every scene ends with a choice. Tap any word to translate it into more than 60 languages, and listen with narration. The first page of each adventure is playable in your browser.
• Choice of Games (choiceofgames.com): long, all-text multiple-choice games written for native speakers. Better for upper-intermediate and advanced learners.
• The Interactive Fiction Database (ifdb.org): a catalogue of thousands of text games, from short choice-based stories to classic typed-command adventures, many of them free.
• Printed gamebooks: choose-your-own-adventure books for young readers are short and simple, which suits beginners who like paper.

Which one fits my level?

• A2–B1: learner-written short stories (LingoStories) and the easiest PageWalker adventures, such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Doctor Dolittle.
• B1–B2: PageWalker adventures such as Treasure Island, Alice in Wonderland and Sherlock Holmes, using tap-to-translate for the hard words.
• B2–C1: Choice of Games titles and longer interactive fiction from IFDB.

Not sure of your level? The book picker suggests a classic for your level in a few clicks.

How do I get the most out of a story game?

1. Read each choice twice before you pick one.
2. Translate only the words you need to make the decision.
3. After a bad ending, go back and find the sentence that warned you.
4. Replay the story and take the other path: it is revision that does not feel like revision.