EnglishBrno

by Nina

9.1.11

10 Best Websites for Learning English

Posted by Nina Hanakova |




How do you learn English in your free time? Do you attend a language course, do you meet internationals in cafés, do you use books, the Internet? 

Whatever your method may be, when it comes to learning English, many people have realized they are not going to acquire the language just by sitting in classrooms. 



We are in English learning heaven these days as thousands of interactive, entertaining resources are available online. Thanks to social media platforms and tools we can improve our skills fast and in a fun way. Think Skype, Facebook, Youtube and you know where I´m heading. Especially watching videos can help you learn vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation all at the same time.


So here is my pick of the TOP 10, in no particular order. Click on the website titles to go directly to the page.


Mr Duncan
How are you today? Are you ok? I hope so! Are you happy? I hope so! Mr Duncan cracks me up every time with these welcoming words and his specific British humour. His teaching videos are simply superb and I dare say he has no competition. Subscribe to his Youtube channel and let him teach you for 7-10min a day, for example here. This is teaching combined with delicate acting, plus all of his videos are subtitled! I wish there was someone like Mr Duncan when I was learning English. Great show!

The English Guru
This is a lovely blog which is so well-structured that I want one like that myself! Yvonne is an American English teacher who writes about American culture, explains English grammar and vocabulary and even records videos. You´ll soon feel at home on this page. Click to see a post about different ways to say "I´m tired".

I Swear English
I couldn´t believe my eyes when I first saw this older British professor from Oxford, with clear RP English, full grey beard and a short tie and his perfect Youtube channel. Just click to see for yourself! He also has a nicely laid-out website where all of his posts are accompanied by video lessons - grammar, vocabulary, exams, tests, fun. 






Top English Tarragona
Possibly the best fanpage for learning English on Facebook. Doris Seibert does a hell of a job. She not only posts top quality updates (teaching anything from phrasals to tenses or listening skills), but also goes the extra mile to answer every single question or comment. And I love her humour. Doris  also started making her own, very cute grammar videos recently, you can watch them all on her official website.

British Council Podcasts
British Council represents the highest quality when it comes to language teaching and here they certainly hit the right spot. If you find a better resource for podcasts, please, let me know. This website offers many, to pick a few: “Elementary podcasts”, “UK Culture” or “How to videos”. It has it all:  before/while reading activities, transcript and a lot of vocabulary and listening exercises that you can do on your computer while you listen or watch, or print out and do when you want. There is much more on the British Council site to discover, including Business English, Grammar, IELTS exams, Games, so enjoy! It´s top notch, as the Brits would say.


English-Central
Watch short clips from movies, talk shows, news, commercials etc. with subtitles and then record yourself pronouncing sentence by sentence via a very simple web-based service. It´s like Youtube, only much better! You score points for each word pronounced correctly so you can compete with others. I cannot recommend this website enough, also to teachers who can form student groups and watch their students´ progress.Try this demo lesson!


English Attack
Register for free and watch tons of short videos with well-prepared comprehension, listening, vocabulary and fun exercises. Nominated for the Best Learning Start-up project in Europe. It has so far received great reviews as the first entertainment-based method of learning English.


Multimedia English
This site has been a favourite resource  for teachers who want to incorporate video into their lessons. It is full of videos with transcripts and vocabulary explained - from tv series, movies, documentaries, music clips, just dive in there and enjoy! 


Wiziq
Wiziq is a webinar platform (a webinar = a web seminar/class). The webinars are conducted by experts and teachers, and many of them are for free or cost very little to attend. So pick a class, register for free and off you go. You can start with this one. Let me know if you found what you were looking for, so many different subjects are covered apart from English!
Live Mocha
Maybe the most popular language exchange site on the net. Very easy and free to register in order to find conversation partners and/or follow online classes. I am preparing another article about these sites and finding conversation partners, so stay tuned.


 
There are many more websites that I like and would happily recommend. The ones that didn´t make it into the Top 10 will be highlighted on my Facebook fanpage in the coming weeks.




10 Best Websites for Teaching English coming soon!


Enjoy the learning process,


Nina

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Try another site -

http://www.italki.com

Anonymous said...

Thank you Nina for this effort, believe me you are active and powerful, i like it specially the You-tube videos... also i'm browsing other websites may be you know it but i'll tell you on the Facebook... :))

Anonymous said...

Thank you Nina for this effort, believe me you are active and powerful, i like it specially the You-tube videos... also i'm browsing other websites may be you know it but i'll tell you on the Facebook... :)) Noha Ahmed on Facebook

Nina Hanakova said...

Thank you for your words, Noha. You can also write the comment about other websites here.
Nina

Nina Hanakova said...

Thanks for the tip about italki.com, it is on my list of languaga-exchange websites so I am going to examine it for sure. I haven´t had a personal experience with the site.

Anonymous said...

Wow!!!Great job Nina!Now I have a lot of hours of English lessons to do =:O
I started using "EnglishCentral.com": it's very cool. Anyway, I would like to prove all of them.
Diego Cerca (FB)

Nina Hanakova said...

Diego, thank you so much, I really appreciate your time to comment. Glad you liked the post and the links! Have fun!!!

iswearenglish said...

Dear Nina, thank you so much for including me in your top 10. I am very flattered. I love your description of me.
Alex
iswearenglish

Nina Hanakova said...

Oh, hello Alex!!
I am glad you found my blog post! How??? I am not very good at these keyword things...
Thank you so much for your feedback, I hope you don´t mind I called you "older" - but I was hoping this would somehow give you more credibility. After watching your jokes vids I believe you are young at heart!
Thanks for stopping by and please, do come say hello on my Facebook page!
I noticed you´re in Spain now, how is it going for you?
Nina

iswearenglish said...

I found your blog from the traffic analysis from my website (a spike of hits from a URL I didn't know). I think it takes years to get good at keywords. If you've heard my jokes you should know I don't mind being called older and yes it does give me credibility. How's Spain... good to live in, the economy is terrible, the politics lamentable, the food great and the people really funny.
Best regards, Alex

reddogrog said...

I hope we can network together sometime. Drop me a email if you ever need a native English speaker ( I am only a level 5 student since I spell so bad and verbs and adverbs make me dizzy) THE offer still stands I'm currently teaching in the Philippines but hope to go online soon

Nina Hanakova said...

Hi Reddogrog,
thanks for the offer. Nina

Anonymous said...

http://www.bellsenglishonline.com/. seems to be one of the best online English courses around! The lessons are well build, interesting and interactive.The whole atmosphere gives a positive and motivating feeling, which is very important,but if You want to see real progress than probably you will need to spend good 2-3 months few hours a day.As they say "Everything takes time:)

Unknown said...

Very nice post, I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. After all I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon! Learn English In USA | TOEFL Prep Course

eduardo said...

I recommend https://www.penpaland.com its a language exchange-based website.
Android app:http://app.appsgeyser.com/Penpaland
Blog:http://penpaland.blogspot.com.br/

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