Professional Documents
Culture Documents
WR Learnenglish
WR Learnenglish
WR Learnenglish
1
Website Review - learnenglish.britishcouncil.org
Introduction
This is a free website developed by the British Council. Users must sign up for an
account using their email address. Overall, the site has a clean design with few ads and
content clearly categorized into six sections. External British Council site such as
LearnEnglish Kids, Teaching English, and LearnEnglish Teens can be accessed via the
homepage. These sites have a similar layout to the homepage and will be referenced in
this review. However, this review will primarily focus on the content of the homepage.
Translations of some content on the homepage are available in Chinese and
Arabic; however, no other translations are available. Content is available at all levels of
the Common European Framework (CEFR) but the site seems to be geared toward
intermediate to advanced level adults. Content can be searched based on level, topic,
and grammar point. This review will analyze and assess the various forms of input and
output available on the site, opportunities for interaction and feedback, and offer a
suggestion for pedagogical application of the content.
Input/Output
Although individual comprehension check activities could be considered a form of
language output, users have almost no opportunity to practice the productive skills of
speaking and writing. Most content on the site comes in the form of input provided
through videos, podcasts and articles meaning users primarily develop the receptive
skills of reading and listening. The input for videos and podcasts is presented as semiauthentic material (Robin, 2011), which mimics authentic input but is created
specifically for pedagogical purposes. The site provides rich linguistic input in line with
Doughty and Longs (2003) MP4, geared to the British culture and language.
Overall, the input of the website follows Mayers principle of Coherence - there
is not much extraneous material on the page that could be distracting for learners.
The section for grammar explanations uses some input enhancement to highlight the
target grammatical forms, which is in line with the Signaling principle by Mayer, but it is
still not visually interesting. Some grammar sections have too many examples that are
not authentic or interesting and require too much scrolling, which can be unmotivating.
Grammar exercises have a focus on form and users are not encouraged to engage in
meaningful use of these structures.
LearnEnglish Teens suggests a different model for grammar learning - by
watching videos. This approach fulfills Mayers Multimedia principle stating that
people learn better from words and pictures than from words alone (Mayer, 2014). The
videos show grammatical structures used in natural conversations, which helps to
present grammar in context and gives the learners real-world models of the language.
Overall, videos on the website present graphics and narration without subtitles,
which is in line with the Redundancy principle and helps students to concentrate on
the visual and audio information. There are transcripts available for students to