🪅 British Council Learn English: Learn English on Your Own from Zero to Master!

Last week in my ICT class I explored a very resourceful website that can help learners learn English on their own and perhaps increase their autonomy in their learning. It's called British Council Learn English and you can access it by clicking here. Before that, please follow my lead and explore it briefly!

No reader will be unfamiliar with the British Council, one of the organisers of the IELTS test, which works in the field of English language education in over 100 countries worldwide. British Council Learn English is an English learning website it has developed to provide online learning resources for all levels of English learners in the areas of listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary. As teachers, we can also make full use of these resources to supplement our instructional training. In short, it's official, authoritative and informative!

The main functions of British Council Learn English are ......

• English level test

Firstly, all the resources on the website have been graded according to the CEFR, e.g. A1-A2, B1-B2, so that each learner can choose the right section according to his or her English level.  

You don't know your English level? 

No problem! Then take the online English test on the website first! The test results will tell you your estimated current level of English.

 （the online English test）

• English Grammar

There are two levels of grammar, i)Basic Grammar, which covers the use of different forms of words and basic tenses, and ii)Intermediate Grammar, which covers a variety of English subordinate and conditional sentences. All the explanations are presented in text form and are accompanied by a wealth of examples.

 （Explanations of word usage）

At the end of the explanation, there is a set of grammar test questions corresponding to the content studied, which helps students to consolidate their knowledge and check for gaps.

 （grammar test questions）

• English Vocabulary

Vocabulary lessons are grouped according to different themes such as Actions, Body parts, drinks, etc. The vocabulary is taught in a rich presentation, combining pictures and electronic pronunciation. Learners are required to drag and drop word cards onto the corresponding pictures to complete the learning process.

 (vocabulary learning) 

Likewise, there are a variety of post-lesson exercises that can be used to train students to master the vocabulary from different perspectives: listening, speaking, reading and writing. For example:

 (Listening and spelling exercises for vocabulary）

• The 4 Skills of English

The 4 basic skills of English, listening, reading and writing, can all be practised here. The website provides a wealth of resources and supports learners to develop their own learning and training methods. For example, in the listening section, the website contains videos on different topics and levels of difficulty, their corresponding dialogue transcriptions, and related practice questions. 

If you want to improve your adaptation to English audio, then you can play it directly; if you want to improve your listening comprehension, then you can try to record the dialogue as you listen and compare it to the standard transcript; if you are a teacher and want to assign quizzes to your students, then practice questions that can be printed out and audio will be a fantastic combination.

 （English audio and transcript) 

Another comprehensive part of the content is the reading training. You will read texts on a variety of topics, perhaps close to life (e.g. restaurant menus) or on the academic side (e.g. news reports). Similarly, there are practice questions at the end of the text based on the vocabulary and the content of the text.

  (practice tasks）

If you were an English learner or a teacher, how would you use this section? Feel free to put your ideas in the comments section and discuss them with me!

However, British Council Learn English still suffers from Limitation ......

The website lacks a feedback system, which makes it impossible for users to receive any evaluation when they are working on their English output skills. For example, in the writing section, the site provides learners with a wide range of writing topics and writing tips, which is good, but there is no way for users to know if there are any grammatical or spelling errors in their work once they have completed it, so there is no way to make corrections accordingly, which makes it difficult to progress. 

Similarly, there is a similar problem with oral training. In the future, British Council Learn English might consider introducing checking robots to correct students' mistakes, or working with established teachers to allow them to give feedback manually.

This is an overview of what British Council Learn English offers! In general, this website focuses on learning English in a FUN way, using varied and innovative multimedia technology to help users learn. It is suitable for self-study learners who want to improve their English, as well as for English teachers of all grades. 

Let's make the most of it and learn English from zero to proficiency!