With no rules or regulations governing these sorts of websites, it really is a wild world out there with no guarantees whatsoever for the consumer. It can be difficult for people to find trustworth websites, but I have been able to dig up some websites that teach English for adults.
I naively thought that, given the multitude of websites offering on-line English classes for free, this would be an easy article to write. However it hasn’t taken me long to realize that the promise of free English classes on a website attracts a lot of web traffic, regardless of the quality of the final product. Over the past few weeks I have found sites offering online English classes that are full of spelling and grammatical errors. Other sites seem harmless enough, but the quality of the classes is less than average to the extent that I would say they are a complete waste of time. With no rules or regulations governing these sorts of websites, it really is a wild world out there with no guarantees whatsoever for the consumer.
However many parents are going to start the New Year with one question in their minds: will I be able to learn English this year? Unfortunately I now realize that I am not going to be able to offer a selection of websites offering on-line English classes for free and instead I am opting for suggesting the best low-cost options that I have come across.
The site that I like the most is the blog written by Monica Tapia Stocker called El Blog del Inglés: www.elblogdelingles.blogspot.com.es. Her advice and understanding about language learning is spot-on. She mentions the main stumbling blocks for language acquisition which rang true as much to me as an on-going Spanish language student as to all of you who are hoping to learn or improve your English this year: lack of motivation, lack of time, lack of perceived progress. She includes inspirational life stories to help motivate her readers and I must admit they did the trick for me too. Her on-line English language course is called Método Lingualia and users can try it for free before signing up to a paid subscription.
Another site that offers low-cost English classes on-line is WLingua. I was impressed by this site despite the fact that their blog appears to be inactive for over a year. The “Básica” account is free of charge and gives students a chance to try out sample exercises from all levels. As the student works through the exercises he/she gains stars which provide limited free access to the Premium service. However the Premium service is also available for a subscription fee which is less than 10 EUR a month. WLingua have a promotional video on You Tube which showcases their services: You Tube video
Madrid-based Hot English Magazine offer a whole range of language services including a free weekly class for subscribers to their magazine (which includes a pdf + audio), to English classes at home or in the office. They recently launched an app to learn English with a free demonstration which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play hot English Magazine. The product can then be subscribed to on a monthly or yearly basis. However many language learners may prefer Hot English’s Web school which, at 24.99 EUR for 65 hours of classes, is certainly the best quality offer I have found and would make an excellent gift for the forthcoming Spanish present-giving Reyes festival. Try it out by logging onto the site as with the user name “webschool” and the password “webschool1”.
Finally, for those of you who are not aware of the Rosetta Stone method, which is the most expensive but also the most complete on-line course I have looked into for this article, please click here for information and prices. If you have a Twitter account I suggest you follow them @rosettastone as they use social media to make interesting offers that could lessen the burden. It is noteworthy that Rosetta Stone are market leaders in a very saturated arena, perhaps with good reason.
