It is an undisputed fact, that English is the most spoken language worldwide. Learning English is key to effective communication when you travel to foreign English speaking countries like the US. In fact, you cannot get a visa or vote if you cannot speak English in the US. Now, you do not have to enroll in a class to learn English? Do you have a smartphone? Here are the 10 best apps that you can use to learn English.

1. Duolingo

This is one of the best language learning apps of all time. It features over 20 languages. You can start as a beginner or if you already familiar with the language, you take a placement test. Lessons are structured as skill trees with points awarded for completing lessons, achievements for tracking your progress and a lives system that encourages you to answer questions correctly. At the end of each lesson there are exercises that you must complete to move to the next level.

Pros:

• It is fun as lessons are set like games.
• You can track your progress
• It is free for Android and iOS.
• The app is constantly updated and more languages are added.

2. Memrise

offers a variety of courses; free on Android and iOS. It is a crowd sourced learning program as the courses are constructed by members of the Memrise community. This way, you learn what other people are also learning. The app integrates with your memrise.com account but also has an offline account.

Pros:

• You can track your progress
• It has an offline mode which means you can learn even without an internet connection.
• Teachers can use it to create learning materials and manage learning groups.
• It is a great app for tourists and enables you to learn about a country before you visit it.

3. Busuu

offers comprehensive vocabulary, dialogue and interactive tests, unlike the other apps. It is based on the CEFR language framework. Each lesson has a key vocabulary, lesson dialogue, recording session, writing practice session, lesson review and a chance to practice with other native English speakers.  It has 150 topics of learning, but only 20 are available for free.

Pros;

• You have an opportunity to interact with native English speakers and practice speaking with them.
• It is a balanced way of learning English as it incorporates reading, writing, speaking and listening.

4. Lingua.Ly

Lingua.Ly language learning app that tries to turn web content into language learning opportunities. It recommends texts to you based on the vocabulary tests and your interests. This means that your learning is not limited to what has been written specifically for other learners only.

Pros:

• It is free for Android
• You can add more words with the help of a dictionary
• You can create flashcards in audio and image form.

5. Rosetta Stone

This is one app that allows you to practice reading, writing, vocabulary and speech recognition. Since it doesn’t have foreign translation, you learn English without solely relying on your native language. A series of photos are presented on the screen, and you select the one that matches the sentence. Similar to online writing services such as Papers Board that seek to help you with your writing paper, the app includes audios that helps you learn the sounds and pronunciation while building your listening skills at the same time. As you progress, so does the difficulty.

Pros:

• Available on Android and iOS.
• It is an immersive learning method.

6. Learn English Grammar

This is an interactive app designed by the British Council to help improve your grammar. It features both the UK and US English. It has four levels from the Beginner to Advanced. Each difficulty has 12 grammar topics with 20 activities in each topic.

Pros:

• Available for both Android and iOS.
• Interactive practice activities to help you learn.
• In-app help that demonstrates how to go about questions.

7. Johnny Grammar’s Word Challenge

The Johnny Grammar's Word Challenge is a fun app that tests spelling, grammar and vocabulary in a quiz like setting. There are three difficulty levels: easy, medium and hard. You have to solve as many questions as possible within 60 seconds.

Pros:

• There are 10 topics to practice vocabulary.
• Compete with other learners on a global leader-board.
• You get feedback on wrong answers and learn how to improve them.
• Available on both Android and iOS.

8. SpeakingPal English Tutor

The SpeakingPal English Tutor is an interactive app designed to improve your English by using your smartphone’s voice-recognition technology to simulate a voice call with a native English speaker. This will aid your listening skills, spoken English and pronunciation. There are over 100 levels, but only 16 are available for free.

Pros:

• Available on Android and iOS.
• You can track your progress.
• There are quizzes to test your English comprehension.

9. MyWordBook 2

MyWordBook2 is an interactive vocabulary notebook app that helps you learn English words through flashcards that contain pictures, sounds and sentences that help you remember these words. All the word data are sourced from Cambridge University Press’ learner dictionaries.

Pros:

• Available on Android and iOS.
• You can choose a topic and learn words related to it.
• You are able to create your own flashcards.
• You can quickly review words that you have learned and check their translations at the same time.

10. Fun Easy Learn English

Fun Easy Learn English is an app that contains more than 6,000 words in its database. The app gives you an opportunity to improve your vocabulary through illustrations, recorded pronunciations and native translations. It has three levels, beginners, intermediate learners, and advanced students.

Pros:

• It is absolutely free
• It does not require an internet connection to use.
• It has fun categories that make learning more fun and entertaining.
• It comprises of unique learning languages such as Match Words, Listen and Choose, that makes language learning more fun.

In conclusion, learning English does not need to be an expensive venture for you. Technology has made learning English cheap, fun, and what’s more? You are able to learn from anywhere, as long as you have your phone. Download these apps and try them out today.

Learning English as a second language has proved to be a major challenge for many people. You may know the grammar and are able to write, but still don’t feel confident enough about speaking. Or you may simply feel that learning English is a huge undertaking that you are simply not ready for. Do not fret. Here are 10 hacks to speed your English learning process.

1. Learn The Similarities of English to Another Language You Know Well

The majority of languages always has similarities to other languages. English, for example, came from the Latin language. This means that it has similarities to other languages that originated from Latin such as Spanish, French, Italian, etc. find out these similarities and voila, you already have a large vocabulary in English.

For example; Spanish words ending in -ción becomes -tion in English. Portuguese words ending in -endo/ando becomes -ing in English. If you read more in your target language, you’ll come up with more examples. This way, you get to learn English much faster.

2. Cultural Inspiration

When you want to learn English, you have to make an attempt to imagine yourself in the English culture. This cultural inspiration is crucial as it will help you understand the cultural aspects of the English language. What are these cultural inspirations, you may ask? These are things you already enjoy doing now, but you do them in English. Instead of listening to Spanish music, listen to English music, watch films and videos in English. When you cook, try to name all the ingredients in English. If you get creative enough, then very soon, you will incorporate English in every part of your life.

3. Learn The Survival Phrases

Once you have learned some basic grammar in English, the next step is to master the survival phrases. Survival phrases are the phrases that you need to communicate with a native speaker, right from the start. These include:

• Greetings. These include hello, hi, good morning, how do you do, etc.
• How to ask for direction.
• Sorry? Excuse me?
• Can you please repeat what you have just said?
• What do you mean?
• How do you say (the new word you have just heard)?
• What does it mean?
• Do you know what I’m saying?

You also need to learn the appropriate body language. You shouldn’t cross your arms or legs when you are speaking to someone. When someone is speaking, lean forward to show that you are interested, just to mention a few.

4. Form A Learning Group

Online learning and writing services e.g. essayrepublic are great way to improve your English, however as it is quite easy to obtain professional help, you need to make friends with people who are also inspired and motivated to learn English with you. It’s not a must that they need to be native speakers. Even though you should have at least one native speaker who will correct your mistakes. While at it, have fun. Learning English shouldn’t sound like a choking task that you have to get through every day. Incorporate games into the learning. You can make flashcards, let people choose randomly and they explain the meaning of the word, how it is used and its example in a sentence.

5. Practice

It has always been said that practice makes perfect. Don’t time yourself. Focus on learning, repetition. Repetition is important because it wires your brain to remember whatever you are learning. If you ask Olympic gold medalists the secret to their success, they will tell you they practiced till they perfected the routine. Read your notes thrice. Take a small pop quiz and correct the answers you got wrong. Then read through it all over again. With time, you will realize that the words are being ingrained into your brain.

6. Break Down Topics into Small Chunks

Rome was not built in a day. Same way, you cannot master the language in a day. Break it down into smaller topics and each topic further into smaller sub-topics. Think of it as a story. You break it down into paragraphs. Each paragraph into sentences and each sentence into words. The words form the topics, which form sentences and then paragraphs. Read it slowly by slowly and soon you will finish reading the whole story.

7. Turn The Learning Process into Games

Let’s be honest, reading with no fun gets boring and tires the brain easily. But what if we turn the learning process into a game, complete with rules and rewards? Turning learning into a game, makes our mind tolerate and enjoy the repetitions of learning. The rewards make the game more enjoyable and turns learning experience from a behavior into a habit. We all know how hard it is to break from a habit. This helps us improve our English skills easier and faster.

8. Create Your Own Learning Activities

You need to develop your own personal learning activities. After you have learned beyond the basic, you need to constantly re-evaluate yourself. Ask yourself your weakest points, what you are interested in, the field you commit many mistakes, the areas you need to strengthen, etc. Create a simple learning activity to correct the issues you have discovered. Create something. Try. Fail. Correct. Practice. Examine. Fail. Try again. Repeat this until you finally succeed.

9. Persistence

Persistence is key. You can try, fail and try again. You are human. You are allowed to make mistakes and fail. At the beginning, learning will be fun.  But, then you reach a point where you feel like you are not learning anything new and you are tempted to quit. Don’t give up. If you do, you risk forgetting everything you have learned.

10. Think Outside the Box

Are you taking an English class? Then you need to widen your learning scope. Do not limit yourself to the lecture notes only. There are several language learning apps that you can employ. One of them is Duolingo. You can also download podcasts and listen to them. Look for materials on the internet and make use of them.

Are you planning on learning English? If you are, consider these hacks to speed up your learning process.

When you’re trying to decide where to go you realize how many choices there are out there. And it’s vital that you get it right. After all, if you find the right college then you’re going to end up inspired, motivated and engaged. If, on the other hand, you find the wrong college then you’re going to end up with a mountain of debt and possibly without a degree to help you pay it off.

So how do you narrow it down? How do you find the college of your choice?

That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Don’t be too humble

The first thing to do when you’re looking for colleges is not think too lowly of yourself. After all, since you can only attend one, you don’t actually need all of them to say yes. Just one will do. So aim high.

In fact, a good system is to aim at rejection. That sounds like a strange thing to say, but it works. Aim to get twenty or thirty rejections from top-end universities. If you do that you might end up ‘disappointed’ when one says yes.

Of course, this does not mean that you should apply poorly. That’s not how it goes. Do the best you can on each application, but don’t worry about it too much if it doesn’t work.

Look at colleges that have people like you

Of course you want to look at universities that have good professors. That goes without saying. Don’t just look at the professors, though. Also look at the student body, because it’s those people that you’re going to be hanging out with.

Are there groups that you’d like to attend? Do the students do activities that you’d like? Are they on the same wavelength and do they talk about the same things? All of these things matter, for the hope is that you’ll make some life-long friends at university and that’s a lot easier to do if they’re more like you.  

Don’t start out with applying to your top choice

Applying to colleges is a skill. That means that you get better at it over time. You’ll find mistakes that you were making, correct your language and generally write a better application. For that reason, don’t apply to your first choice right off the bat.

Instead, take a few less important ones and write up your applications for them first. Then, when you’re in the groove and you know everything that you need to do, apply to the one that you really want to go to. Your application will be better and you’ll have a better shot of getting into the college of your dreams.

Start early

It goes without saying and yet it still needs to be said. Searching for colleges is not something that you start with at the last minute. For one thing, many universities close their registration more than half a year before the end of the school year.

That means you can’t actually apply to any of them if you’re too late. And that will mean that you might find your dream college but won’t be able to go, or that you’ll have to wait a whole year before you can. And that’s less than optimal.

So start early, get your paper work sorted and make sure that you’ve got your applications in by the deadlines listed on the website.

Don’t focus on the wrong things

Yes, that guy/girl you saw on the college green had a great smile, but that is really not what you should be focusing on. College is the foundation of your life. You don’t choose that because somebody had a nice smile, or because the cafeteria looked nice, or because it’s close enough to your parent’s house that you can do laundry there.

Focus on what matters. Are the classes interesting? Are the teachers good? Are you going to learn something that will set you up for life?

College is a long game, so make sure you’ve got the right stakes in mind when you decide where you want to go.

Don’t pay too much attention to your parents

Sure, their opinions matter. Chances are that they’ll be helping you out financially. At the same time, it won’t be them going to college, it will you. For that reason, don’t let them push you too hard. It’s your life and you’ve got to live it as you like.

So listen to them respectfully, let them know that you’ll certainly consider what they’re saying, but don’t let them make up your mind for you. If you don’t want to study accounting but want to study theater instead, then don’t study accounting and go find your inner Shakespeare.

 Sure, the accounting might set you up better for life if you finish it, but if you don’t then you’re going to be in a much worse situation, because any degree (even theater) is better than no degree at all.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

Just because you think you’ve found your dream college doesn’t mean you have. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Instead, have a backup college – preferably several. In this way if the first college doesn’t accept you then you’ll still have the others.

Alternatively, if you find out that the college you thought was for you turns out not to be, then you can still opt for one of the other ones.

Last words

Yes, finding the college of your dreams is a lot of work. At the same time, you’ll only get to do it once in your life and if you screw it up that might well leave you hurtling at full speed towards a dead end. So take the time, do your homework and make sure that you find something that actually suits you.

If everything goes well, you’ll only have to do this once in your life, so make the most of it! This is you laying the foundation to your future. And the foundation decides what you’ll be able to build on top of it. Will it be a skyscraper or will it be a shack that falls down if you look at it wrong?