Joining a full-time intensive ESL class is, of course, a great way to improve your English quickly. You have more motivation to study, you are supported by your classmates as well as your teacher, and you are completely immersed in the language. However, for many people, it’s quite difficult to find the time for this, and it can also be very expensive. Because of this, short and flexible online lessons seem like a convenient alternative, but many learners wonder if it’s effective to take one or two short classes each week. 

If your goal is to learn/improve your English, the short but honest answer is no, taking one or two short classes each week will not help you improve very much or very quickly, especially if you have no other opportunities to use English and you’re not doing anything else to study English during the week. If you’re just trying to keep up your level or just want to enjoy a conversation, of course it’s fine, but for those wondering how to make progress by using these short classes more efficiently, I believe that it’s important to integrate them into a bigger study plan.

Informal or self-directed learning is more accessible than ever because of the many great resources available these days, and you can create a study plan for yourself by using these resources to practice various skills and integrate short lessons with teachers into your bigger plan. So, what resources do you need and how can you get them?

Textbooks - Yep, even in this digital age, textbooks are still great resources, especially if you don’t want to spend all of your study time in front of a screen! Textbooks are available for all skills, not just grammar; there are even whole books dedicated to phrasal verbs, for example, or idioms. Textbooks are also graded by level, unlike many online resources, so you have more control over the difficulty. Ask your teacher(s) or other language-learners for recommendations or check out the many reviews and recommendations on YouTube.  

Curated/Graded input - Graded readers and websites with carefully constructed articles or videos that use level-appropriate vocabulary and grammar are quite useful to beginners. While these may feel contrived/unnatural, it is often too difficult and discouraging to jump straight into “authentic” input from a low level. Graded input helps to build confidence and expose learners to target vocabulary and forms. These can, however, be harder to find than “authentic” input, so you’ll need to check with a bookstore, library, or your teacher(s) for recommendations. Some test preparation materials may also work well. In my case, for example, because my Japanese level is very low, listening tasks for the JLPT N5 or N4 test are useful to me. I’m simply not ready for “authentic” listening such as news stories or TV series. If your level is a bit lower, and you depend on this type of input, you might also consider taking lessons with a bilingual teacher who can help you in your own language when necessary. Someone who has learned the language already may be able to offer great insight and anticipate the challenges that you might face. 

“Authentic” input - It’s also good (and usually more interesting) to get authentic input from news articles, online videos, TV series, etc. once you’re ready for it. There are things that you will never learn from educational materials like textbooks and other types of curated input, so authentic input is important once you reach a certain level. It also helps to put the language in context and provides a reason to use the language. If you’re actually curious about some news, you will want to read and understand it! Books are a great option at all levels, because even beginners can try kids’ books or young adults’ books. YouTube videos, Netflix series, and news articles are great once you reach an intermediate level. Ask for recommendations and find a few sources (websites, channels, etc.) that you like and trust. Most importantly, do something with this input! Speak to someone about what you watched or read or write about those topics using some of the vocabulary that you’ve learned. A short class with a teacher is a great chance to talk about something you’ve seen or heard recently and to try using new vocabulary and get some feedback on it.

Output - We’re not quite at the point where you can have a great conversation with Siri or Alexa, but there are still plenty of ways to practice output by yourself. AI has improved a lot, and functions such as voice typing in Google Docs and apps like ELSA Speak can help with pronunciation and dictation. Writing checkers such as Grammarly and writing practice sites like Cambridge’s Write & Improve provide opportunities to get feedback without a teacher (though it’s best not to rely completely on these tools as they’re not perfect). There are also plenty of resources online for English tests, such as IELTS, that can provide you with different types of writing tasks, tips, and models. Websites like The Purdue Writing Lab can help with writing tips, formatting, and guidelines. These resources can help you to find motivation and improve your output as much as possible before meeting with a teacher, leaving you with more time to address persistent errors and big-picture challenges during lessons. 

Other resources - Over the last three years, there has been an explosion of new online learning resources, and you can find all kinds of interesting tools out there to help in your studies, from sites like SKELL and YouGlish that help you to understand words in context to the many flashcard-style apps like Memrise or Anki that help you to memorize vocabulary to translation tools like DeepL (which was introduced to me recently by one of my students!). Of course, don’t forget to bookmark a great online dictionary (or two!) and a thesaurus (to find synonyms). It might be a good idea to create a favourites file in your browser to collect all of your study resources and take some time to get familiar with each one and think about when and how you should use it. Making effective use of just a few resources is probably better than getting carried away with many different apps and sites, so perhaps consider limiting yourself to 10 or so such resources that you use regularly. And, of course, ask your teacher(s) for recommendations about new useful resources. It’s rare to stumble upon a great resource by accident; almost every website and app I use today was introduced to me by someone else.   

Now, you may be thinking this is all a bit overwhelming, but what I’m suggesting is this: combine your online lessons with your teacher(s) with a few other resources and integrate your skills in your study plan. This could be as simple as reading a short article or watching a short video on a great YouTube website such as TED-Ed, checking some new vocabulary from the transcript by using an app or website, discussing the topic with a teacher during a lesson (trying new vocabulary and asking lots of questions), and then following it up by writing about the topic to review what you’ve learned. This whole process should take only an hour or two, but it will give you a greater sense of purpose in your studies and you’ll be able to get deeper into a topic and the grammar and vocabulary around that topic. Hopefully, you’ll learn not only English but also something about the world and about yourself.

That was a long one, but thank you for reading and have a great week!

Zach