by Lea Hauke
Updated on October 15, 2024
6 best websites to learn English
The sheer amount of English learning materials on the internet is vast, and growing steadily. As an English student, this can be a great advantage. But it can also make it harder to find the classes and materials that best fit your learning style. That’s why we’re here to help you find the best websites to learn English online.
We’ll present six top English learning sites and explain what makes them great. You’ll also get an insight into each site’s subscriptions’ opportunities, interactivity and appropriateness for different English skill levels.
Our comprehensive guide features top-rated websites carefully selected to cater to diverse learning styles and goals. From beginner to advanced levels, you’ll find a platform that suits your pace, budget, and preferred learning approach. Explore our table below and discover the ideal website for your needs:
| Platform | Why we like it |
| Lingoda | Best for flexibility and speaking with confidence |
| Duolingo | Ideal for beginners |
| BBC Learning English | Free and high-quality materials |
| Busuu | Great for pronunciation practice |
| TED Talks | Free resources about interesting topics |
| British Council Learn English | Online live classes |
Lingoda is an online language school offering courses taught by native-level English speakers. These teachers provide useful tips on how to learn English grammar and vocabulary efficiently. They also give immediate feedback on pronunciation and offer additional insights into regional accents and turns of phrase.
Lingoda’s online classes flexibly fit your schedule and language-learning goals. Lessons are available for students up to the Advanced (C1) level of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and come with additional learning materials that can be downloaded after each class.
Online group and private classes are available 24/7, so it doesn’t matter when or where you practice. Due to the small group sizes (maximum five students per class), you’ll have plenty of time to ask questions and practice your pronunciation.
Lingoda offers a few different subscription levels to take your English journey to the next stage:
Duolingo offers a fun approach to learning English that’s built around short quizzes and games. Duo, the company’s cute owl mascot, guides you through the various aspects of the English language and helps you improve your listening, speaking and writing skills.
When you get started, you’ll be asked to choose your motivation for learning English (i.e. for a new job, for conversations with friends or for travel). The focus of your lessons will adjust accordingly. You can also take a short assessment test to help you find your level, but beware that the highest proficiency level you can reach with Duolingo is Upper-intermediate (B2).
With that in mind, Duolingo is most appropriate for beginners. You can adjust the length of the sessions to your preferences, and reminders help you keep track of your practice. Duolingo advises you to invest a few minutes daily for the best results, and they offer extra motivation in the form of small rewards for daily users.
Although speaking exercises are included among the daily lessons, Duolingo does not replicate real conversations. If you rely solely on the app’s repetition of single words and simple sentences, you may feel unprepared to speak to locals in real-life situations. Further, grammatical concepts are touched upon but not fully explained in depth.
The Duolingo app can be downloaded on your phone or tablet; a web version is also available online. The limited version is free. If you’d like to expand your training sessions and get access to more material, subscription plans are available.
The BBC Learning English website is one of the top English learning websites, offering a broad range of videos and podcasts for avid English learners. Choose between categories including language courses, exercises in grammar and pronunciation, and news reports.
To help you find the best materials for your learning level, you can take a placement test to determine your English proficiency. Even if you’ve reached C1, you’ll find plenty of practice materials to help you progress further. What’s more, these materials tend to be rooted in British culture, history or comedy—which lends an extra degree of immersion to each lesson.
It can be difficult to navigate the website if you don’t know where to start. We recommend taking the language placement test and proceeding from there.
Busuu is a language website and app that aims to help English learners speak confidently from the beginning. The lessons include videos and audio snippets, as well as writing and reading exercises. Students can reach Upper-intermediate (B2) proficiency with Busuu.
One of Busuu’s best aspects is its focus on building community. For example, the app includes a feature that puts you in touch with native speakers who are also practicing another language with Busuu.
With Busuu, you can immerse yourself fully in the English language. The conversations in the app’s videos and audio clips feel authentic and serve as good preparation for real-life conversations.
If you decide to pay for Busuu, you can choose between three different courses. One covers general English learning, another focuses on business English and the last is designed to prepare you for traveling to an English-speaking country. The community aspect of the app can be a big help, but beware that the native speakers you communicate with may not be certified teachers, so mistakes can happen.
The limited version is available for free. For the full experience, you’ll need to pay a monthly or annual fee. Premium plans range from a one-month subscription to a twelve-month plan.
You might already be familiar with TED Talks. In this popular video series, charismatic speakers briefly present fascinating ideas to an audience. The topics range from self-help to philosophy to science, so there’s something for everyone.
Watching TED Talks is a great way to learn more vocabulary and practice your listening skills, especially because many come with a transcript to help you follow along. Most of these videos are available for free, and since they’re relatively short, you can fit them in whenever you have a few minutes to spare.
As a general rule, listening to something that actually interests you can help you stay focused and motivated while learning a new language. With over 4,000 Ted Talks to choose from, you should be able to find something that’s right up your alley.
The British Council’s in-person classes are among the best English courses out there. Only recently did the organization begin to expand their offerings to online classes.
These classes are supplemented by a wide range of interactive video lessons, podcasts and games for every English level. The British Council’s website also offers tips on how to learn English writing, master pronunciation and grasp grammatical concepts. All of this web content can be accessed for free, and a lot of the downloadable learning resources are similarly available at no cost.
One of the website’s strengths is the variety of audiences it caters to. You can take exercises to improve your business English, practice how to write emails in English and even learn about British literature by engaging with plays and short stories by famous writers.
The lessons revolve around writing, vocabulary and listening. If you want to train your conversation skills or improve pronunciation, opting for an English course with an active language approach is better.
If you decide to take the live classes, BritishCouncil offers Silver, Gold and Platinum subscriptions that include a certain amount of credits for group or private classes.
There are endless English learning websites available on the internet, and some of them even offer high-quality learning materials for free. Resources such as the British Council’s website and BBC Learning English have a lot of videos and exercises to help you improve your English skills or sneak in some extra practice between language classes.
Still, the most effective way to learn English is a class taught by a professional teacher. Speaking is a key focal point when learning a new language, and it’s often harder to practice when you’re self-studying.
That’s why English courses at Lingoda aim to get you speaking from Day One. You’ll gain the experience of speaking in front of people in a small group setting to help you practice your skills out in the real world with confidence.
