With over 1.5 billion native and non-native speakers, English is the most widely spoken language in the world today.
EnglishClass101 Review: Summary
After signing up for EnglishClass101, you’ll gain full access to the entire library of lessons, including videos and podcasts, all free for seven days when you register. You can choose to learn American English, British English, or both simultaneously. Every class and lesson is taught by native English speakers.
There are five levels to choose from: Absolute Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, and Advanced. If you’re unsure where to start, take the quiz to determine the best level for you and work your way towards fluency.
Other features included with EnglishClass101 are:
- PDF cheat sheets
- Apps for mobile phones and tablets
- Word and Phrase lists
- Three-minute lessons
- Four subscription levels
- Interactive learning tools
- Modern and interesting classes
- A structured pathway of lessons for each level
Some other key features that really stood out to us:
- Full line-by-line transcripts and lesson notes
- Flashcards, word bank & ‘word of the day’ emails
- Vocabulary lists, dictionary & most common words list
Pros of EnglishClass101
Pro #1: Learn to Speak British and American English
Although American and British English are mutually intelligible, there are some small yet important spelling and cultural differences. EnglishClass101 ensures you’re aware of these distinctions by offering lessons taught by both native British and American English speakers, highlighting the differences along the way.
Pro #2: Modern Content
The lessons avoid outdated or irrelevant material. Instead, you’ll find modern, real-life information and conversations. You’ll learn how native English speakers actually talk, helping you fit in seamlessly when you start speaking English.
Pro #3: On-The-Go Learning
EnglishClass101 makes it easy to learn to speak English wherever you are. Simply download the mobile app and you can listen to a podcast while riding the train home from work or watch a video lesson on your lunch break.
Pro #4: Large Lesson Library
EnglishClass101 features hundreds of audio and video lessons covering a diverse range of topics that are both interesting and relevant to daily life, such as ‘Ordering a Pizza in British English’ and ‘Getting to the Airport in the USA.’
Pro #5: Lots of Very Engaging Content
One of the best things about EnglishClass101 is the wide range of diverse and engaging topics, with every lesson featuring either video or audio content, or both. This core approach is highly effective for improving language skills. Ask anyone who’s mastered English, and they’ll often say that TV and music played a major role in their success. EnglishClass101 is the next best thing.
The native speaker instructors use role play, conversations, interviews, and several other engaging techniques to make the lessons light-hearted, interesting and fun. Gone are the days of falling to sleep during English class! EnglishClass101 features a wide variety of English speakers, exposing students to lots of different speaking styles and accents. It also keeps the lessons fresh and interesting while covering plenty of useful and fun topics.
You can browse the lesson library and learn how to ask someone out on a date or even take a virtual tour of Washington DC. The ‘pathway’ (set of lessons) will be automatically added to your dashboard for you to start tracking your progress and working through each lesson.
Cons of EnglishClass101
Con #1: Some English Required
Creating a program for all the different native languages of each student from around the world can be quite the challenge, so English is the only language used for pronunciations and explanations. As a result, having at least a basic understanding of English is almost essential to follow even the most basic lessons.
Con #2: Not a Huge Amount of Feedback
You won’t receive much feedback unless you opt for the PremiumPLUS subscription plan which grants you access to your own teacher and personalized learning plan. Without it, it can be hard to know whether you are making steady progress in your language learning journey.
Features of EnglishClass101
Multiple Learning Pathways
EnglishClass101 offers hundreds of ways to begin your learning with different pathways. You could choose the already curated learning path, which is the most structured way to study English. Likewise, you can choose pathways like ‘All About American Culture and Society’, ‘British English Reading Comprehension’, and ‘Speaking Perfect English at a Restaurant’. This allows you to customize exactly how you want to learn English. The lesson library allows you to filter pathways by format—video or audio—and by skill type, such as English conversation, reading and writing, vocabulary, grammar, or culture. Additionally, you can sort all pathways by popularity, newest lessons, or alphabetical order.
Dashboard
Upon signing into EnglishClass101, you will be taken to your dashboard. This is where you can check your progress, change your expertise level, and store your learning pathways. You’ll also be able to find the latest lessons, any up-to-date news, and newly added vocabulary and phrase lists.
Videos and Podcasts
Video and podcast lessons operate in a similar manner. The enthusiastic instructors slowly go over the lesson which often begins with the most common questions. For example, you will practice asking the question “How are you?” Then, you will answer that question with an appropriate response. The instructors give multiple responses to these questions because this is what you would see in a realistic conversation.
All lessons are followed with detailed cheat sheets that go over what you just learned and add any relevant cultural or societal information that might apply to the situation. These can be printed and reviewed later. In case you didn’t fully catch something, the full transcripts are provided for you to read along to, if you wish. Scroll down to the bottom and you’ll find the comments section. Here you can ask any question related to the lesson if you have any problems, and the team is very quick to respond.
Flashcards
Flashcards are an interactive way to practice vocabulary and use spaced-repetition to help you memorize the words. Words are slowly spoken and you can also hear them used in sentences. You can also keep track of how many words you got right.
Pronunciation Review
You will find many opportunities to review your pronunciation after each lesson. You can even record your voice to playback and compare with an instructor’s to make sure you have your English down. Many times you will hear words used in different sentences so that you get an idea of how it should sound in different word order.
Word of the Day, Key Phrases & Vocabulary Lists
To help keep you motivated and your vocabulary ticking along, EnglishClass101 offers a number of valuable tools and features to help you build up a large vocabulary pool.
You can sign up to a free email service where they’ll send you a new word each and every day. Little and often is always the best way to study a language, so this is a really great idea. They always provide several examples of how the word should be used in a sentence to ensure you get the right context. This makes learning new vocabulary a breeze, since our brains are wired to remember pictures and stories far more than simply isolated words. In case you miss a day or two, you can always go back to it by clicking on the section from your dashboard. From here you can scroll through all the previous word-of-the-day’s.
If you need a common phrase quickly, the key phrases section could come in handy, though we found it to be quite limited in scope. Still, it’s always a bonus. Our favorite vocabulary section, however, were the vocabulary lists. Are you a list person? Here, you can choose any topic from star wars day to new year’s resolutions and you’ll find as many as 50 words neatly packaged up into categorised lists. You can scroll through all the related words/sentences, practice your pronunciation with the record function, and add your favorites to your word bank.
Core 2000 Word List
Finally, the 2000 most common words section is a great supplementary tool. When learning a new language, especially English, you always want to focus on the most common words to save wasting your time learning the language that no one hardly uses anymore. This list provides the most common words that are spoken today in the English language. You can filter all 2467 words based on categories such as hobbies, transport and business to supplement your vocab learning. Most words come with a plethora of examples and can be easily added to you word bank or a personalised flashcard deck for you to practice at a later date.
Who Should Buy EnglishClass101?
EnglishClass101 is a great asset for anyone trying to master the English language. This can be a difficult language to learn with varying rules, so we feel people who would benefit the most from EnglishClass101 include those who:
- are self-motivated and dedicated to learning
- have time to put toward studying and learning
- are looking for a structured approach for steady progression
- want to become fluent English speakers with a focus on native accent & correct pronunciation
- want to quickly learn English phrases for travel
- plan to expand business to the United States, Canada, the UK or Australia
- have an English speaking partner or family
- are someone who enjoys visually engaging content or who learns best through audio/video content
Who Should Not Buy EnglishClass101?
On the other hand, it is hard to find a language program that is perfect for everyone. Those who might not benefit from EnglishClass101 include those who:
- prefer the help of an instructor
- prefer to attend live classes
- do not have time for study
EnglishClass101 vs. Competitors
In order to give a fair review, we must include some thoughts on other language programs. Though you can find many ways to learn English online, not all programs are as comprehensive as the others.
EnglishClass101 vs. Transparent Language Online
Transparent Language Online offers over 100 languages and English is one of them. This program costs about $25 per month and includes games, learning pathways, and English materials for 25 different native languages. It also offers speech recognition technology so you can compare your pronunciations to that of native speakers.
EnglishClass101 vs. Pimsleur
Pimsleur promises to teach you to speak English with intermediate fluency in just 30 days. It claims to work by teaching English in the same way little children learn their native tongue: by listening and repetition. It is $19.95 per month for one language or $20.95 per month for all 51 languages, which grants you access to tons of podcasts. You can listen anywhere you have access to the internet or download them for later.
How Much Does EnglishClass101 Cost?
Basic Subscription $4/month $2.80/month (using our coupon link)
- Printable lesson downloads
- Access to the complete audio archive
- Access on mobile, desktop computers and tablets
Premium Subscription $10/month $7/month (using our coupon link)
The Premium Subscription includes all the Basic Subscription features plus:
- Lesson quizzes
- Spaced repetition flashcards
- Comprehensive word and phrase lists
- Bonus content
- Audio transcripts
Premium PLUS Subscription $23/month $16/month (using our coupon link)
The Premium PLUS Subscription includes all the Basic and Premium Subscription features plus:
- Periodic professional assessments
- Persona learning pathway
- One-on-one instruction with a native speaking instructo4
EnglishClass101 Review Conclusion
So… Is EnglishClass101 worth it?
In our opinion, EnglishClass101 is one of the better programs out there to learn English. It is affordable and comprehensive, and also allows you to learn at your own pace. The lessons are both challenging and engaging, teetering along the fine line between being too flashy and trendy on one side of the spectrum and too heavy and textbook-focused on the other.
What helps this program stand out from the rest is the fact that you can fully customize your learning pathways. While this may be unsettling or even overwhelming for some, we see it as a massive advantage. It keeps the learning fresh and interesting, which is one of the main challenges many language students face. As you progress through the main level pathway, you’ll have the ability to jump around a variety of interesting lessons, making EnglishClass101 a brilliant resource for both traditional-style learners and more casual learners, alike.
While there have been concerns in the past about a lack of content for the more advanced levels, this has been recently remedied as there’s now a wealth of great content on the platform and more being added regularly.
If you are serious about becoming fluent in English, EnglishClass101 is a solid investment in your learning.
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