How to learn English online?
March 30, 2009 7:37 AM   Subscribe

Do you know of any good online resources to learn English on your own?

I´m try to encourage my Spanish boyfriend to perfect his English language skills. His level is low-intermediate. Obviously, speaking and pronunciation he´ll practice with me, but do you know of any good (free?) online grammar crash courses?
posted by maca to Education (4 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Try out livemocha. They have a lot of grammar / vocab exercises.

Otherwise, see if the local library offers Rosetta Stone; my local library (until recently) allowed access to Rosetta Stone for many different languages through its website.

Hopefully others will chime in with some good suggestions for online resources... If he's not using ESL book(s), really, that's probably the best way to go. I can come up with some suggestions for that if you'd like (memail me if that's the case).
posted by mammary16 at 8:59 AM on March 30, 2009


Taking your question at face value, two good online grammar resources aimed at learners rather than teachers are:

NetLanguages: You can try a sample lesson for free, but the full course must be paid for. Was designed in Spain, so will be appropriate for his needs. Essentially an online coursebook, but with a structural syllabus, so it's chock-full of grammar.

The grammar section of LearnEnglish. Less of a course than NetLanguages, but equally high-quality and free throughout.

However, it would be useful to know a bit more about your boyfriend. Is there a particular reason for him learning English or just a desire to to increase general proficiency? You mention that you'll help him with speaking/pron (and presumably listening), but is he likely to need to converse with native speakers from other countries or non-native speakers? You don't mention reading or writing, are they non-priorities? You only mention grammar, not vocabulary, how does he plan to build that? Hope this doesn't sound rude, it's just that a focussed learning plan will help him make the best use of his time.

Disclaimer: I know people behind both of the above websites, but happen to believe they're as good as anything else out there.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 9:33 AM on March 30, 2009


Antimoon has a lot of good information on learning English. It can actually be applied to other languages, too. I'm glad that you're encouraging him, because it can be easy to not attempt to learn English.
posted by majikstreet at 10:51 AM on March 30, 2009


BBC's Learning English
posted by Paragon at 12:00 PM on March 30, 2009


« Older Resources about Oil for High School Students?   |   Kitty teeth Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.