American English is managed by the Bureau Of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States, and it was created for teachers and students of American English as a second language around the world.
They only offer a few MOOCs at the moment, but they’re very well done and include a lot of materials, modules and even quizzes.
If you’re an intermediate or advanced English learner and you want to learn a lot of vocabulary and facts about the United States, join American English now.
Courses you should be taking:
English for journalism: This course includes everything you need to know about journalism in English, from its history to its vocabulary in newspapers or the news on TV.
English for career development: Learn how to write amazing resumes, impressive cover letters and professional emails. The boost your career needs is in this course.
English for STEM fields: If you need to improve your English in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, this is the perfect course for you.
ESOL means English for Speakers of Other Languages, so this site is perfect for you.
ESOL Courses offer a lot of free online English courses for learners at any level (beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate and advanced).
You can choose from a lot of resources to practice the skill you want, from listening to English for work to reading and writing.
I love the sections called “Life in the UK” and “Life in the USA.” They offer information about culture, travel, living, history and food in the UK and the USA, among other cool stuff. As a bonus, all this information is presented through hundreds of exercises where you can practice your English.
Courses you should be taking:
Beginners course: If you’re just starting your adventure with the English language, this course will teach you all the basics in just 16 lessons.
Elementary course: When you finish the course for beginners, continue with this course for elementary students and keep on learning in a fun way.
Easy readers: Read these easy and short texts and improve your vocabulary. They include pictures and videos, and they tell you which words you need to remember.
The Canvas Network is a website for “lifelong learners,” or people who want to continue learning even when they’re finished with school. They have courses from a lot of universities, and many of the classes are very professional.
This website encourages students to learn along with the class and have conversations about the lessons. If you prefer to learn on your own, you can do that, too. All the material is available for you to see once a course is over.
Courses you should be taking:
College Readiness: Reading, Writing, and Math: This class lets you choose what you want to study, and has some good information on grammar and understanding what you read.
Learn English Online is the perfect place to find everything about the English language, including grammar, vocabulary, forums, learning tips and even a wheel that will tell you what you can practice if you don’t have any idea!
The site offers 11 units divided into 54 lessons, and each lesson covers one grammar topic. The lessons include explanations, examples, tests and songs or videos related to the topic of the lesson.
If you don’t want to follow the order of the lessons, or you want to practice a specific skill, you can click on the “Improve” tab and choose the skill you want to practice. You also have a lot of great information related to learning English in the “Learning Skills” tab, but you need to be at least an intermediate learner to understand everything there.
Courses you should be taking:
Improve your spoken English: This isn’t really a course, but it includes a lot of information and tips on how to improve your speaking skills.
Improve your writing: Learn how to improve your English writing skills with all the tips included in this section. Read the guides to spelling (the correct way to write a word), capitalization (when to write in uppercase letters) and punctuation (the use of symbols to separate words and sentences) to become a master of English writing.
Recommended for advanced learners, Coursera is another MOOC that lets you learn at your own pace (as fast or slow as you want). You can complete courses as they take place, or just look over the material when they’re over.
Each course has instructional videos, followed by quizzes and exercises you can take to make sure you understood the materials. There are a few peer-rated (graded by your fellow students) assignments, so it’s a good place to exchange information with other students who are learning just like you.
Coursera has a huge number of partners, institutions and universities offering courses. More are constantly being added, so it’s worth checking back regularly to see if anything interesting has popped up.
Courses you should be taking:
Essentials for English Speeches and Presentations: A course specifically aimed at Chinese learners of English, this class will teach you English public speaking.
English Composition I: Taught by Duke University, this class teaches college-level writing.
If you’re an upper-intermediate or advanced learner of English and want to practice the language while learning something else in English, you’re going to love Udacity.
Feel like a real native speaker of English while you take courses on business, computer science or personal development completely in English and for free!
Udacity offers 286 courses in English. I’m sure there’s at least one you’ll be interested in.
Courses you should be taking:
Refresh Your Resume: Now you can have the best English resume in town thanks to this Grow with Google course.
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence is around us everywhere we go. From machine learning to robotics, after you finish this course you’ll be one step closer to calling yourself The King/Queen of AI.
College Algebra: Are you a math person? If you love numbers, equations and logarithms, this course will boost your Math English vocabulary to the ultimate level.
Our final advanced-level option, Saylor offers many courses for free. This website is a non-profit, meaning it doesn’t make any money from teaching online courses.
There are no start dates here—all courses can be taken at any time. Some courses even offer college credit if you can pass a final exam for a small fee!
Courses you should be taking:
Pre-college English: This course prepares you for college-level writing.
USA Learns is a website that hosts free English lessons, all of which you can access after you register an account.
There are three main courses and their difficulties range from beginner to intermediate levels. Lessons are taught with videos and activities that improve different English skills, from vocabulary to speaking.
USA Learns also has content that teaches you what daily life is like in the United States! This adds a nice flavor to the English you learn.
Courses you should be taking:
1st English Course: A 20-unit course that teaches you the basics of the language, using a variety of lesson topics and all kinds of fun activities.
Practice English and Reading: An intermediate-level course that focuses on improving written English skills with stories
Perfectly Spoken features over 500 video lessons, all taught by experienced English teachers. Each course is separated by learner level, and you can find out which course is best for you with a free English test. But even if you start one course, you can switch to another one whenever you’d like!
There are three learner plans: Free, Student and Pro. You need to pay for the Student and Pro plans, but even the Free Plan gives you access to 300 video lessons and lets you watch 10 hours of content every month.
As a bonus for learners, Perfectly Spoken also provides extra learning materials and practice tests. Once you complete a course, you can even get a fancy certificate of completion!
Oxford Online English has many free lessons that teach different English skills. They cover many different topics and are surprisingly quite detailed. There are even lessons that focus on Business English and IELTS preparation.
Free lessons are uploaded weekly, so you can keep looking forward to new content!
Besides free lessons, Oxford Online English also lets you get personal paid lessons with teachers over programs like Skype, Google Hangouts or others. Besides teaching you, your teacher can also give you feedback and tell you what you can improve on.
Courses you should be taking:
Spoken English: It’s very important to practice your English speaking skills whenever you can. Oxford Online English’s many video lessons on spoken English will help you build your confidence
ABA English has its own special method of teaching the language. The method is based on the belief that a learner learns best when he or she is interested and motivated by the content.
The online course is made up of 144 units organized into six levels (from beginner to advanced). Each unit starts with a short film that shows native speakers using the language in different everyday situations.
You then move on to the unit material, which you learn with videos featuring ABA’s teachers. Subtitles can be provided in your native language to make sure you understand the content. For practice, ABA offers tons of little exercises and review quizzes to test your skills.
ABA does have paid versions for its course, but its free version gives you access to the whole six-level course!
The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) has its own online resources for English learners. They include detailed courses that teach different levels of English, plus specific topics about the language.
The lessons teach English concepts while discussing certain topics (such as money or the news). Lessons can include videos, audio clips and text descriptions. This makes your studies all the more fun and interesting, since you’ll have different contexts to learn from.
There are plenty of activities and quizzes to test your understanding. Each lesson also has its own vocabulary and grammar reference sheets that you can view anytime.
Courses you should be taking:
English My Way: This is a basic course that shows the kind of English used in different everyday situations. This will be a good starting point if you’re learning with BBC’s Learning English.
English You Need: This goes over more specific cases when using the English language. It even includes a “Learners’ Questions” unit that answers questions asked by English learners from around the world!
Every year, Learnship offers free English classes for 1000 students on the USAHello platform.
You can focus on either business English or general English. Learnship has classes for every level, and you can find out your own with a graded test. Each lesson, taught by real teachers, includes videos, tests and practice activities.
To get signed up, all you have to do is send an email and you’ll get a one-year membership for your course. There’s no time limit to when you can apply, but it’s better to do it sooner than later.