It's been a while since I featured a new English learning site on The English Blog. There was a time (a few years ago) when new sites seemed to be appearing every week, but my Top English Learning Sites list (see left-hand sidebar) has remained unchanged for I don't know how long. Why is this? Perhaps there's not much money to be made in creating super-duper sites for English learners. But I think another possible reason is that everyone is into mobile learning and apps these days. The heyday of the English learning website seems to have passed.
Having lamented the decline of the online English learning site, I now have to backtrack slightly because I did come across a rather good one recently. iStudyEnglishOnline was created by Sançar Sahin, an English teacher based in Barcelona. According to Sançar, "The site has been created to provide a clean and easy-to-use free resource for students learning English", and I have to say that I was very impressed by the overall look and design.
The site has four main sections: Vocabulary, Grammar, Expressions & Idioms, and Verb Conjugations. I liked the Vocabulary section best, which is organized by theme (Clothes, Kitchen, Food, etc.), and features attractive pictures with English and American pronunciations. I particularly liked the video quiz, which tests your knowledge of the vocabulary.
There's nothing earth-shatteringly new here, but it's all very nicely done and would be a good resource for lower-level to intermediate learners. Sançar and his team have also created the iOS application iUnderstandEnglish, which features 12 different native speakers, each with a regional British accent, talking about real-life situations (find out more here). The app is currently free, so you should definitely download it today (if you have an iOS device, of course).
