YOUTUBE

YouTube is the best and the worst (free) resource for self-study English. Why?

It’s got some great videos. Well presented, sharply taught content, with nice clear graphics and good diction. The only problem is – there’s also a TON of click-bait to wade through to find the good stuff! You can waste literally hours of your life on there, and ultimately learn very little.

A clickable thumbnail does not always guarantee a good video.

There are plenty of flashy sites with lifestyle content and permanently grinning presenters reading from AI generated scripts. These slick – but ultimately mediocre – videos can get high volumes of traffic, tempting you to start watching them. And you’re a couple of minutes in before you find out if it’s a good video or not (maybe longer, after they’ve begged you to like, subscribe, leave comments, sign up for notifications, sold you a VPN or their VIP course, etc, etc..!).

So I’ve done some of the heavy lifting work for you. I’m highlighting sites where the focus is on the learning, rather than production.

Here’s my recommendation of the best five FREE YouTube channels for self-study English:

SMRT English – I really like the videos on this channel. Brought to you by ‘proper’ teachers (not YouTubers!) they focus on North American English for an academic audience. Lots of grammar and tense reviews, the channel is well structured into handy playlists. Highly recommended!

POC English – I really like this guy too! POC (Piece of Cake) English is presented by Madhi, a non-native teacher with an infectiously fun style of presentation. He really makes his content enjoyable to watch (he reminds me of the late American comedy character PeeWee Herman!). Grammar, vocab, phrasal verbs and idioms are all here in regularly loaded content.

Socratica – Ironically, this channel is not primarily an ESL one. Socratica describe themselves as making ‘high-quality educational videos on math, science, computer programming and more.’ They certainly do that. They also include some very well presented academic English videos which are worth checking out.

Anglopod – This is like a self-contained free YouTube-based English course. Check out the playlists for some well-structured content, covering areas including tenses, modal verbs and pronunciation. There is a paysite if you want to subscribe, but the YouTube channel gives you plenty of free stuff to start you off.

Miacademy Learning Channel – Again, this channel is not a specific EFL one. They describe themselves as ‘an online learning platform with lessons and practice games that go along with our videos.’ Their English content is very engaging, with likeable presenters delivering focused, well-structured lessons.

Adam’s Free English – Whilst we’re talking about YouTube, please don’t forget to visit my own channel. I regularly upload reviews, as well as One Minute English and other – hopefully -fun content. (This isn’t one of my recommendations, by the way!)