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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

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Website Review - learnenglish.britishcouncil.org
download and use to work on vocabulary and grammatical structures. The Listen and
Watch section also fulfills Segmenting principle in that the videos are divided into
shorter scenes for students to better process the material. Each scene has a set of
exercises with a focus on vocabulary. There is a pre-training stage before most of the
videos in the form of vocabulary matching exercises or questions about the content of
the video activating students background knowledge. Video sections also have
vocabulary exercises and discussion questions after the video, which helps to
personalize the content, gives students an opportunity to practice the vocabulary, and
encourages them to engage in a discussion of the questions by posting comments. The
most interesting questions lead to discussions where students not only answer the
questions, but share their opinions and feelings about the video. This resembles social
watching and could be an effective tool in line with the Socio-cultural theory of Vygotsky,
but, unfortunately, there is no negotiation of meaning on the part of the learners or peer
feedback, which could transform a simple commenting function into a powerful learning
tool.
Vocabulary learning is one of the weakest parts of the website. The vocabulary
section fails to fulfill the Redundancy principle since words are presented in three
forms of input - picture, text, and audio, which can lead to cognitive overload.
Furthermore, there is no personalization, contextualization, individualization, or
meaningful practice of the vocabulary. The positive thing about the section is that the
words are presented according to semantic fields (food, clothes, animals, etc.), which is
an effective way to present vocabulary to improve its retention. Also, the multimedia
itself looks authentic and exciting.
Learners can find a more meaningful approach to vocabulary and grammar in the
section Word on the street where they can watch short videos about different aspects
of life in the UK. This is supplemented by a video where instructors focus learners
attention on different aspects of the language, such as phrasal verbs, collocations,
grammatical constructions, etc. They also explain the rules, give tips on how to use the
phrases, and give advice on speaking strategies. The video explanations provide a
focus on both the form and meaning of the language, while the culture videos provide a
meaningful context for constructions and vocabulary. This section addresses Mayers
Multimedia and Modality principles, claiming that people learn better from graphics
and narration than from graphics and printed text. It also fulfills Mayers principles of
Personalization in that the instructors talk in an informal, friendly, and entertaining
style, which makes you want to listen to their explanations to the end. Furthermore, the
explanation videos use an animation effect when key phrases appear on the screen
while an instructor is giving his comments. This helps to focus learners attention and
foster noticing while addressing Mayers Signaling principle. It also follows Doughty
and Longs MP5 about chunk learning as the phrases on the screen are presented in
chunks (make an impression, do a favor, etc.), and MP6 Focus on form.

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Website Review - learnenglish.britishcouncil.org
The writing section addresses different types of academic and business writing,
explains the purposes for writing and gives examples of successful essays and
critiques. The exercises aim at teaching the structure of different forms of writing and
useful academic expressions such as reporting verbs or words that commonly occur in
specific genres. Although there is no opportunity to practice writing skills in this section,
the content does achieve its goal of giving learners the vocabulary necessary to discuss
different types of writing while also introducing them to types of writing they might be
unfamiliar with. Although this section does not have any multimedia input, it seems
unnecessary because of the focus on academic writing.
The site also makes use of podcasts as a form of input for users on the site.
Each podcast has a downloadable transcript with a developed activity and answer key.
These activities typically are in the form of a cloze or true/false activity which serve as
comprehension checks. The site also incorporates speakers with Scottish accents in the
podcasts, thus giving users exposure to accents other than an English accent. In terms
of addressing Doughty and Longs (2003) MP3 of elaborate input, the semi-authentic
podcasts and availability of transcripts to accompany the audio suggests the input is
indeed elaborate; however, there are no other means for modifying the input as speed
modification is not an option.
Interaction/Feedback/Individualization
Doughty and Longs (2003) MP 7, provide negative feedback, is present in most
activities on the site. Users are given the correct answers and shown which of their
answers are correct. However, because the output produced by users is not elaborate
and there is often only one correct answer, there is no opportunity for recasting or error
correction. Although British Council staff can post comments, in the student threads
below each activity, it seems they are mostly providing technical assistance and no
feedback on user language errors.
Overall, there are few opportunities for interaction or collaborative learning on the
site as defined by MP 9, promote cooperative/collaborative learning, from Doughty and
Long (2003). The opportunities that do exist are in the form of a discussion question
following the activities within each section. The question is posed and users can post
their response in the comments sections of the page.
MP 10 from Doughty and Long (2003) addresses individualized instruction
according to communicative and psycholinguistic needs. On the site, users can take a
free, 25-question multiple choice placement test to get a general sense of their CEFR
level. However, for a person with a low language level, navigating the site to find this
test could be challenging. Content is searchable by level, but if a user chooses an
activity based on the toolbar options, the level is not indicated on the activity. Overall,
there is no consideration for individual differences in memory and aptitude. Although,
due to the high motivation required by users to complete the activity, they are able to
develop themselves as autonomous learners albeit with little feedback and guidance.

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Website Review - learnenglish.britishcouncil.org
Users can make use of the comments section and Cambridge Online Dictionary search
bar to investigate and inquire about unfamiliar language they encounter.
Adaptation for the Classroom
Due to the various topics and forms of input covered by the content available on
the site, the material could easily be adapted and built upon for classroom instruction.
One pedagogical application would be to use the descriptions of a certain writing genre
to introduce students to a new style of writing. The genre descriptions on the site are
concise and although they dont provide a detailed description, they could serve as a
reference guide for students. For example, in an EAP course aimed at preparing
undergraduate or graduate level students for academic study in an English-speaking
country, the information available on writing research reports could be very useful. A
teacher could use the structure as its seen on the site as the basis for guiding students
in an analysis of various research and academic articles. This structure could also serve
as a guide for a long-term research paper written by the students. Throughout the
period of a course, a teacher could also introduce various forms of writing genres and
create an activity where students need to identify the genre of different texts based on
the models.
The website presents the content on the British culture that can be used in
cultural and linguo-cultural courses. A teacher can use the culturally rich input and
construct tasks and activities around this input to develop students speaking, listening,
reading, and writing skills.
Conclusion
Although the opportunities for output are limited on this site, the content serves
as excellent supplemental materials for nearly any type of language course. Because
there are few pre-teaching or post-teaching components to each activity, a teacher
would need to create these to accompany the content. The questions posed to users
before and after each activity could serve as a basis for these pre- and post-teaching
activities in order to activate schemata and provide a logical wrap-up for each activity. In
general, the video and audio are interesting and meaningful and could serve as a good
foundation for a lesson. The grammatical explanations and introduction to various forms
of writing could also supplement a lesson on these individual topics. Apart from general
or ESP language courses, the content could also provide meaningful practice for
standardized test preparation, most likely the IELTS exam due to the use of British
English on the site.