Imagine trying to learn to play golf, swim, cook, computer skills -- almost anything -- through explanation "about" rather than immersion in the actual experience. When we learn any new skill, we need lots of structured input at the beginning as we begin to try out our fledgling abilities. As we become better at it, we produce more (output) and benefit from continued input (but less of it) as we refine our ability to do the task at hand. With Gente, students achieve a high level of oral proficiency as they learn by doing through a task-based approach. With Gente, students can point to and identify concrete things they can now do and talk about -- in Spanish!