The following are the best resources for this dive, broken down by beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
We have tested each one and recommend them.
This English Resource Handbook Below
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English - Resources
The following are the best resources for this dive, broken down by beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
We have tested each one and recommend them.
Resources
5 Steps to Improving Your English Listening
3 Break Diver Votes
5 Steps to Improving Your English Listening - From the folks at Oxford Online English.
Category: Video
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
600 Words
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600 Words Every English Beginner Must Know - A video that will help you to learn 600 key words in the English language.
Category: Video
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
Anglomaniacy
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A fun site for children to learn the basics of English
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
Assimil English
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The Assimil series is fantastic. The website is in French, but you can find English versions of their products on Amazon. If you speak some French, it's a lot more fun to order the French version of the courses, but English (and other language versions) are available as well. Go check them out!
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
BBC Learning English
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A comprehensive set of courses and tools you can use to learn English, starting from the beginning. Click on 'Courses', then 'English My Way'.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
BBC News
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The British Broadcasting Corporation: It's the national news coming from the UK. They have an excellent phone app too.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
BD's English Fluency Project
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The English Fluency Project is a program of Break Diving (this website). We all work together to improve our foreign language skills in hundreds of languages. Visit www.breakdiving.org for more information about our not-for-profit corporate mission, and then visit breakdiving.io to join our inspiring worldwide community! We look forward to meeting you.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Brain Pop
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A resource for reading and writing at a Basic Level in English, with games, videos, quizzes, and more.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
British Council Writing Course
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A bunch of exercises and texts to help you improve your writing.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
Busuu
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Busuu is probably the most comprehensive language learning app on the market. This app teaches English down to the nitty gritty grammatical nuances, and really helps you to gain comfort using the language. One of its best features is that you can get feedback from native speakers on written and spoken exercises. Download from your phone's app store.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Clozemaster
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Clozemaster helps you to learn language in context. According to Clozemaster, learning a language through mass exposure to vocabulary in context is one of the best ways to build proficiency. The site/app uses well-structured fill-in-the-blanks and spaced repetition to ensure you retain new words.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
CNN
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A popular American news site covering events in the US and around the world.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Differences Between British and American Vocabulary
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If you want to truly master English, you need to know these differences. Truthfully, most Americans don't know all of the British equivalents, but most Brits probably know many of the American ones (due to movies and popular culture). Either way, it's worth your while to become familiar.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
60 Differences Between Words
Duolingo
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Duolingo is a popular language-learning platform that includes both a website and a mobile app. It offers over 94 different language courses, including English. Duolingo teaches the basics of English, including some basic vocabulary and grammar. However, there is no way you will truly learn a language through Duolingo. It is best used as an introduction to a language and as a refresher to keep your skills up and to potentially build some new vocabulary. Note: their podcast on Apple Podcasts is excellent!
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
English Central
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They guarantee that if you don't level up your English in 3 months, you get a full refund.
Category: Video
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
EnglishClass101
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This is a popular English course that includes downloadable podcast-styled lessons, videos, grammar explanations, and a vocabulary database and dictionary. Premium members gain access to PDF lessons, grammar reviews, dialogue audio, and interactive learning.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
English Conversation
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English Conversation - Two hours of English conversation practice from the folks at EnglishClass101.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
English Grammar: 100 Tragically Common Mistakes (and How to Correct Them)
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A book by Sean Williams - Often, it's the small errors that cause the most confusion, so get rid of these mistakes now before they become nasty habits.
Category: Other Books & Resources
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
English Grammar Course for Beginners
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This is... an English grammar course for beginners!
Category: Video
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
English Grammar Guide
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From the folks at Education First, here is a handy guide to English Grammar.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
English Grammar in Use
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English Grammar in Use - An awesome workbook to help you improve your grammar.
Category: Textbooks
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
English Grammar Workbook for Dummies
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A book in the Dummies series - This workbook has countless exercises to help you improve.
Category: Other Books & Resources
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
English Live
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English Live is the entirely online English program brought to you by Education First (formerly English First), one of Wall Street English's primary competitors worldwide.
Category: Schools
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
English Made Easy Volume One
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The subtitle is 'Learning English Through Pictures'. If you don't know a lot of English, this may be able to help you feel more comfortable, by using pictures to help you decipher the words.
Category: Textbooks
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
ESL Intermediate/Advanced Grammar
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ESL Intermediate/Advanced Grammar - A required book for anyone studying for the TOEFL (or who just wants to write and speak better).
Category: Textbooks
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
ESL Intermediate/Advanced Writing
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ESL Intermediate/Advanced Writing - A required book for anyone studying for the TOEFL (or who just wants to write and speak better).
Category: Textbooks
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Essential Writing & Language Skills
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Essential Writing and Language Skills, Preparation for High School Equivalency Tests (Book) by Teresa Perrin - A helpful resource to help you improve your writing.
Category: Other Books & Resources
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
FluentU
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FluentU is a video learning site that helps you learn through real video conversations, similar to Yabla. Try it for 14 days free (as of this review).
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Forvo
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Forvo is a fascinating tool that shows how words are pronounced in various foreign languages. Just type the word you’re looking for into the Forvo search bar, and voilà, you’ll hear it spoken by multiple native speakers. This is excellent for pronunciation. Note: it will take you a few minutes to figure out how the tool works, but it's worth spending a few minutes to master how it works.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Fox News
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A popular American news site with both text and videos. They have an app you can download too.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Glossika
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Glossika improves your fluency through a highly repetitive ‘listen and repeat’ approach. It uses an adaptive learning algorithm and structured content to help you improve. Definitely not a conventional course but you’ll be amazed at how effective it is at improving your fluency if you use it daily.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Grammar Bytes
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Grammar Exercises! This site explains grammar rules and has exercises to practice each rule (e.g. fragments, comma splices, etc.)
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
Grammarly
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A very popular tool that can proofread your writing and provide suggestions. Note that their grammar suggestions are not always correct or accurate, so be very careful.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
Hallo
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Practice speaking English! The app connects you with others who are learning English through voice calls. They also offer video live streams, and you can attend lectures from English teachers.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Harry Potter Books
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Harry Potter books (Novel) - Get them at any bookstore. The first book is easy to read, and they get harder and grow in size with each book in the series.
Category: Other Books & Resources
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Heads, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes
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A short silly video to help you learn these four basic body parts.
Category: Video
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
Hello Talk
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Hello Talk links you together with language partners to help you practice your English skills. Worth taking a look at.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Idioms!
0 Break Diver Votes
Ready for 1500 English idioms? You're probably not, haha, but here they are! Have fun!
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
iLanguages
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A website that will teach you the basics of English vocabulary, phrases, grammar with audio, flashcards, and quizzes. The site provides English writing along with the English pronunciation that can help you learn the foundation of English.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
Incredible English
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A collection of stories, characters, songs, activities, and more from Oxford University Press.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
Intermediate English Comprehension
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15 texts to read and analyze, along with video links.
Category: Textbooks
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Intermediate English Grammar for ESL Learners
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An excellent book to help you improve your English grammar.
Category: Textbooks
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Intermediate English Reading & Comprehension
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Intermediate English Reading & Comprehension - Another great book to help you practice reading and comprehension.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Internet Polyglot
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Internet Polyglot is an awesome site that offers a huge variety of free games to help you improve your English vocabulary.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
Language Drops
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Language Drops is a language-learning website/app with a colorful layout that's a lot of fun. Teaching solely vocabulary (which is unique in itself), Drops starts with basic vocab and expands to offer highly advanced vocab beyond the scope of most other courses and books. For example: spaceship, garlic, riot police, and political coup. Note: unless you pay, you are limited to 5 minutes per day. If you can afford it, upgrade to the lifetime plan. Or, just be sure to do your 5 minutes every single day.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Language Learning with Netflix
0 Break Diver Votes
This is a Chrome extension that allows you to learn English by watching movies or shows on Netflix. It displays two sets of subtitles: one in your native language and the other in a language of your choice. Keep in mind that you do need a Netflix subscription in order to use this resource.
Category: Video
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Learn English
0 Break Diver Votes
A German site, but one that goes over many of the basics, including beginner lessons, and vocabulary building.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
Learn English with Razanne
0 Break Diver Votes
Razanne is an Arabic language Youtuber that teaches the American English accent. She covers vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.
Category: Video
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
LingoDeer
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LingoDeer is similar to Duolingo. Some say that they prefer LingoDeer to Duolingo, so if you don't like Duolingo, give this a try.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
LingQ
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LingQ is similar to Yabla. They describe the service as surrounding yourself with meaningful input that matters to you. You can start at an easy level and work your way up. It features a range of entertaining materials, such as YouTube videos, news broadcasts, blog posts, and Netflix shows. You can choose the topics that interest you and build your language lessons around subjects that will keep you motivated.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
Linguee
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Linguee is a dictionary used to translate between English and English words. Aside from giving helpful information about verb conjugation and parts of speech, the site also allows you to search for the vocabulary word in real English articles, so you can translate phrases more accurately.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Linguno
0 Break Diver Votes
With over 100,000 exercises in English, Linguno helps English learners get better at listening. The site offers flash-card style practice with vocabulary as well as conjugation and listening exercises. You can also play daily crossword puzzles to improve your English in a fun and engaging way.
Category: Audio
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Lirica
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Lirica is a language-learning app that helps you learn English through music, with exercises based on Latin pop songs.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
ListeningPractice.org
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ListeningPractice.org is the older version of Linguno. It has 47,000 exercises total that cover sentences, texts, and conjugations. You can even take a practice test to see what level your English is at. Their English community has over 810,000 listeners.
Category: Audio
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Living Language
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Living Language offers a very comprehensive course of self study, through both online courses and self-study textbooks. You can sign up online, or buy the self-study textbooks and audio on Amazon or at Barnes & Noble bookstores. Each set comes with three textbooks: beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
London School
0 Break Diver Votes
Billed as one of the best English language schools in the UK. They offer online classes if you don't live in the UK.
Category: Schools
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Lyrics Gaps
0 Break Diver Votes
Lyrics Gaps lets you learn languages through music by filling in the gaps of your favorite songs. Similar to Lyrics Training, but not as cleanly presented.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Lyrics Training
0 Break Diver Votes
Lyrics Training lets you learn languages through music by filling in the gaps of your favorite songs. Truly awesome.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
MacMillan Pronunciation
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An award winning app that helps you to improve your English pronunciation.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
Mango Languages
0 Break Diver Votes
Mango Languages helps you to study foreign language by adapting to how you learn using smart technology. Compare your own recordings with those of native speakers. Mango also gives tips on English culture.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Memrise
0 Break Diver Votes
A language-learning website/app that uses repetition and proven memory techniques to help you learn faster. Good for getting started and learning vocabulary. They also offer native speaker videos which are often pretty cool.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
Mondly
0 Break Diver Votes
Mondly lets you learn English through matching games and fill in the blank activities. The first few lessons are free.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
National Geographic Learning
0 Break Diver Votes
National Geographic Learning - Improve your English through National Geographic. Videos, tutorials, and more.
Category: Video
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
National Public Radio
0 Break Diver Votes
This is the American version of BBC News. We call it: NPR. It is not as widespread in the US as the BBC is in the UK (and the world).
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
One Stop English
0 Break Diver Votes
This is for teachers, but can help you improve your English by looking at English from a teacher's perspective, lesson by lesson.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
Peppa Pig
0 Break Diver Votes
Peppa Pig is a British cartoon pig who wants to help you out! Come and meet her family.
Category: Video
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
Perfect English Grammar
0 Break Diver Votes
A book by Grant Barrett - A great resource to help you truly perfect your English grammar.
Category: Other Books & Resources
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Pimsleur
0 Break Diver Votes
Pimsleur is a good option if you want to listen to complete audio or focus on learning conversational English. You’ll hear a series of phrases that get broken down and repeated to you slowly. You then repeat and participate in conversations. It's perfect for learning on the go, and the app even has a driving mode so you can learn while commuting without looking at the screen. The downsides are that the lessons can feel slow sometimes, and there are no books or grammar.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Practice Makes Perfect: English Conversation
0 Break Diver Votes
Practice Makes Perfect: English Conversation Study Program, by Jean Yates
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Project Gutenberg
0 Break Diver Votes
Project Gutenberg is an online library of over 60,000 free electronic books. This link will take you to a list of openly accessible English books.
Category: Other Books & Resources
Skill Levels:
- Advanced
Reading Bear
0 Break Diver Votes
A fun site that teaches you the basics of pronunciation and how to read in English.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
Rocket Languages
0 Break Diver Votes
Rocket English doesn’t follow a "cookie-cutter" approach. It's designed to get you using your new language quickly, correctly, and confidently with audio and written content for all levels.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Rosetta Stone
0 Break Diver Votes
Rosetta Stone is a language-learning website/app that’s widely known and respected, but sometimes criticized because it only teaches you with pictures, when you could more quickly learn by having them just tell you that it's an apple using your native language. It features a TruAccent speech recognition program that helps you work on pronunciation. Keep in mind that the program does require payment.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
Sesame Street
0 Break Diver Votes
The famous American puppet tv show that has helped millions of people improve their English.
Category: Video
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
Short Stories in English for Intermediate Learners
0 Break Diver Votes
Short Stories in English for Intermediate Learners - Grow your vocabulary through reading this highly acclaimed book.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
Simple English Wikipedia
0 Break Diver Votes
It's just like wikipedia, but all the articles have been written in simple English. Give it a try. It's an amazing way to improve your English.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
The O.W.L.
0 Break Diver Votes
Purdue Online Writing Lab - Offers free tutorials on how to make grammatically perfect sentences.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
The Perfect English Grammar Workbook
0 Break Diver Votes
A hands-on workbook to help you master the English language.
Category: Other Books & Resources
Skill Levels:
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Thomas & Friends
0 Break Diver Votes
Thomas is also known as 'The Little Engine That Could'. In this cartoon, follow the adventures of Thomas and his train engine friends.
Category: Video
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
ThoughtCo
0 Break Diver Votes
ThoughtCo is a site dedicated to learning English through instructive articles at all levels of experience. Articles range from discussing basic grammatical rules to improving analytical skills.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Tim's Pronunciation Workshop
0 Break Diver Votes
Tim's Pronunciation Workshop - Part of the BBC Learn English program. Over 60 videos helping you with pronunciation.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Udemy
0 Break Diver Votes
Udemy is an online learning platform with video courses on a variety of subjects, including English. This link will take you to the top English courses on Udemy, although some of the results require payment.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Vocabahead
0 Break Diver Votes
Hundreds of vocab words presented in video format, one word for each video.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
Wall Street English
0 Break Diver Votes
This language school has one of the best curriculums for learning English, and they have centers all around the world. There is probably one in your country (or arriving soon). They also offer online classes.
Category: Schools
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
WordReference
0 Break Diver Votes
WordReference is a dictionary used to translate between different languages (including English) accurately. Each word has a variety of translations based on the context.
Category: Other Apps & Websites
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
World English Institute
0 Break Diver Votes
If you are a person of God, want to become one, or don't mind assignments coming from the Bible, you can learn English for free from beginner to advanced at this excellent site.
Category: Self-Study
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Yabla
0 Break Diver Votes
Yabla is an excellent site that teaches English through videos with adjustable speed of playback and definitions of words in the subtitles. It also has games and quizzes, but no grammar.
Category: Video
Skill Levels:
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
English - Resources
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