We are lucky to be born in the modern age and have a broad selection of language learning tools. Gone are the days of only being able to learn language in-person. We can develop our language skills using primarily online tools. There are free English learning tools everywhere!
The traditional tool is a dictionary, but to be honest, it’s not the most useful. In fact, it’s low on the list of useful tools. They are limited, boring, and formal. So which other tools are there that you are underutilizing?
1. Anki
If you have to have just one of the many free English learning tools, it’s Anki. This is a free tool that helps you memorize things forever. Yes, forever. This isn’t a course, and it doesn’t tell you what to study. It is a smart flashcard app that uses math to make sure you are practicing the words you need to practice and not wasting time on things you already know. And did I say that it’s free?
Using it is very easy:
- Create cards
- Review
That’s it! You just have to make the cards, which are the flashcards, for all of the things you want to remember, and the app will do the rest. (If you don’t know how it works, here is a great beginner’s guide to get you started!)
This tool is actually useful for memorizing anything: birthdays, scientific terms, formulas, interesting facts about Tom Cruise. Anything! Medical students and language learners are the biggest groups of people that use Anki because they have the most memorization to do.
The way I do it works really well: audio, photo, and translation. Each flashcard has a native audio for the word and a picture that represents the word. That way, I build connections with my eyes and ears, not just my first language. The translation is only there for when I can’t remember the meaning, because we can’t rely on translations to learn a new language!
There is no tool that has been a greater help to me in learning a new language than Anki. It saves time and helps you be efficient. Oh yeah, and it’s free!
2. Forvo
Listening is the foundation of language learning. If we don’t rely on native audios, we will speak through our own understanding of the written system, and we’ll get set in saying things the wrong way. English teachers call this “fossilized errors”. These are mistakes that are set in stone through years of misuse.
Do you struggle to say things right? Struggle to remember what words sound like? You have to be using Forvo to solve this problem. Forvo is a free online bank of audios for words and phrases.
It’s an amazing place where you can get native audio, without asking a stranger on the street to say something for you. What makes Forvo better than other things, like translators and dictionaries, is that you can even download the audio! If you’re like me, you’ll download for use in Anki.
I guess Forvo is more of a free English learning resource, but I still have it in this list of free English learning tools because, practically speaking, you’ll use it like a tool.
3. Search Engine (Images)
Search engines aren’t just for finding your favorite website over and over again. They have a powerful tool that helps you see anything in the world from your living room couch: image search.
Image search should often be used as a visual dictionary, one that you can see. Not sure what the difference between a seal and a sea lion is? Search in images. Want to know what the difference between a pine tree and a spruce tree is? Search in images. This is especially useful when there is something that you don’t know the meaning of, even when it is translated into your language, for example some food, plant, or clothing that isn’t in your country.
A dictionary won’t tell you that. A translator won’t tell you that. Most of the things in life we understand by seeing, not reading, so seeing a dozen pictures of something will immediately help us understand something and will even help us remember it because we have a greater wealth of connections in our brains with the word.
I had this struggle with a Chinese word. In the dictionary, the word 刀 means a sword, a knife, and a few other things. I didn’t know which word I should use for “knife”. What made it worse was that when I searched for sword I got around 10 different Chinese words. So I had to put them all in baidu, the Chinese search engine, one by one to figure out which one is most often used to refer to sword. In the end, I found the right one. (See why an online dictionary isn’t on my list of free English learning tools?)
Of course, this tool is best for physical things, because abstract ideas are hard to picture, but you’ll actually find some good illustrations of some abstract things, like this picture of “efficiency”. So try this one, but if the results are unclear, no worries.
Note: Don’t use a non-English search Engine. They are not designed for native English speakers, and you won’t get the same results natives are looking for!
4. AI chat
If you aren’t using an AI chat, you are missing out. This is the most exciting free English learning tool I’m sharing with you. This new revolution is a dream come true for language learners (and students of all subjects) around the world.
AI is not only a great conversation practice partner, but it can even help you understand and interpret long stories, give you cultural advice, correct your grammar, show you how to use words, and more. All with just a little typing. You practice your simple writing skills while being taught English. Let’s get into the details.
The most common thing you’ll do is probably get example sentences. I just asked for 50 examples sentences with the word cat and got 50 unique sentences! This is great for learning accurate uses of a word, building connections, and expanding on a topic. When you read the sample sentences with the words, you find connections with other words that help you remember the first word. When the sample sentences have words you don’t know, you will learn more about that topic. When I got 50 sentences with the word “dog”, I saw other words that relate to dogs: actions dogs do, personalities of dogs, and places dogs live and go.
I did notice that it can be a struggle to make it share this many sentences. It seems to prefer only five, but if you keep asking, you’ll get more.
AI can be used to correct your grammar, too. Put in a sentence, any sentence, and ask if it is correct. You’ll get a correction and an explanation about it! This isn’t as good as a native teacher, but it is most of the time just as good, free, and at your fingertips.
Need an immediate explanation of some grammar point? AI is here to help! You can ask AI about any grammar point you want, and it will give you explanations, when to use the grammar point, and sample sentences. It’s really quite amazing, and it levels up our language learning self-study, big time!
You can also use it to better understand things. It’s not super useful with single sentences, but if you put in a longer passage, like a short story or a paragraph, you can ask for the main points, the moral, and the theme. It’s amazingly accurate. I tried this with an ESL-tree post and it told me exactly what I was thinking while writing the post! This helps to check your reading comprehension.
You can also ask it to do things like write what happens next or what happened before it. This is a good way to get your hands on unique English content or help you with your creativity.
Have you tried talking to an AI chat in English yet? It’s not like talking to a native, but it is actually useful practice. You can practice asking questions and even get the chat bot to ask you questions. It’s fun, and you can practice your reading and typing skills. Don’t do it for hours every day, but you can do it for a nice change up in your practice routines.
While other AI chats are cool, we have made our own specifically for ESL. If you want to see sample sentences of a new word or grammar point you are learning, a dialogue on a specific topic, a list of words on a topic, or discussion questions on a topic to practice speaking with your friends, you have to check out our ESL Toolbox.
5. Browser translator
There are a lot of learning opportunities on the web. Especially on native English websites. But we often don’t understand some of the things we see. Lots of our browsers come with page translators built in, but this doesn’t help language learners. These are free tools, but they aren’t free English learning tools because they don’t teach us anything. Page translators just do the work for us.
Instead, we need a translator that can teach us specific words on the page. I looked for and found one called Mate Translate. It’s a browser extension. That means it can be added to your browser. Google Translate was recommended to me, but it isn’t available in China, so I never used it.
It’s good for selecting specific words or sentences to translate individually, instead of just translating a whole page all at once. That way, you can actually learn what is written and not always browse in a translated version of the internet.
Find one that works for you on your device with your browser. Most of them are free tools or have a free version, as Mate Translate does, so you won’t have to break the bank.
6. Phone recorder
This tool is underutilized: we all have it, but we aren’t using it! We language learners should always be ready to record the things we hear.
If we are talking to natives, or we are in class, or watching a movie and you hear something you don’t understand, immediately take out your phone and record (ask if they can say it again if it’s someone talking or rewind if it’s something you’re watching). Then you’ll have a piece of real-life that you can listen to again and again until you are familiar with it.
Soon, you’ll have a big bank of audio that you can listen to and practice. You can also ask natives to read something for you while you record so that you can mimic their pronunciation.
By recording things, we give ourselves the chance to hear something over and over again. Only have 1 hour of class with a native every week? Record it and you will be able to listen more than once. Voila! Now you can listen to a native for 3 hours this week instead of 1!
7. Phone camera
Same thing goes with your camera! Do you see something you don’t know what it is? Take a photo! Is there something happening that you want to describe that you can’t? Take a video! Later on, you can use these with your native friend (or teacher) as learning opportunities.
This way you are bringing your real life into the classroom, which means you are bringing your teacher into your real life. This is a great way to get out of the “textbook” approach and learn what you actually need!
It’s also helpful for adding images to your flashcards. Did you just learn the names for spoon, fork, and knife? Great! Take a picture of each one and turn them into Anki flashcards. Now, every time you review, you’ll see what you have to remember the name of instead of relying on the translation method.
I know that your phone isn’t exactly a free English learning tool, but since you don’t have to buy it, it’s effectively free for you!
Summary
Well, to sum up, here are 7 free English learning tools that you should be using. Maybe only 2 or 3 work for you, but you won’t know until you’ve tried them! I hope you can find something that helps from this list so your English can grow. 👍