Monday 18 February 2013

English Central




English Central is one of the best resources available for students on the Internet. It is a website that has created a special online learning environment with lots of videos and study features for learners. For example, as well as a wide choice of videos to watch, learners can see the transcript, do vocabulary exercises and even interact with the website through a voice recognition feature.






In many ways English Central is a bit like a special Youtube channel for learners of English. Click on the link to see a video introducing English Central: http://www.youtube.com/user/EnglishCentral

The idea of English Central is that you immerse yourself in English content by watching short videos of speeches, film trailers, TV programmes, interviews, documentaries and so forth. The aim is that, by immersing yourself in videos while studying the associated vocabulary, you will improve and empower your knowledge of English by increasing the size of your vocabulary. At English Central, learning English means learning new vocabulary.




Because English Central has hundreds of free videos for you to watch, you can choose videos that interest you. You can watch and listen to a video as many times as you want and learn by studying the vocabulary. You can also speak English and practice your pronunciation with English Central's speech recognition technology.





To get an idea of the video watching experience that English Central can give you, click on the link to see a video about a Chinese-British woman's view on Britain and food: http://www.englishcentral.com/video/12571/british-people-and-food

You do not need to register to use English Central but registering does give you access to a few more feature, so it is probably a good idea. For example, once you have registered, you can select the videos you watch according to the English level you choose, such as TOEIC 500.





To go to the English Central website, click on the link: http://www.englishcentral.com


Finally, a few more things you need to know about English Central. Some of the videos and some of the features are not available unless you pay a fee. For example, you can only speak 2 videos a month if you use the site for free and several video courses are not open unless you pay a monthly or annual fee. However, many videos are free to use and this should not stop from using English Central. My suggestion is that you try and watch at least three videos a week.

I have tried English Central with some of my English speaking and listening classes and they seemed to really like it. Let me know how you get on!

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