Free Stuff

Free Things at The English Navigator

Free Stuff

FREE * STUFF * FREE * STUFF * FREE * STUFF

Is there a nicer word in the English language than ‘free’?

  • free will
  • free time
  • free wifi
  • free food
  • free hugs

Courses and classes and private lessons cost money.

Unfortunately, they have to.

Classrooms are rented, teachers are paid, textbooks are bought.

So you want as much education as possible, but it’s so expensive.

Not everyone has the budget to pay for all of the education they would like.

Thankfully, there are plenty of free English learning resources too. If you know what you are looking for, and where to look.

That’s why I created this page.

I have been asked so many times for suggestions for free English learning resources, that I decided to put together a selection of some of the most useful. Most of these are completely free, but where there is a price, it is quite low. Free alternatives suggested wherever possible.

Which skill do you want to develop?

I Want To Improve My … Vocabulary

Improve Your Vocabulary with The English Navigator
  • dictionary.com – Look things up, get a ‘word of the day’, cross-reference words
  • thesaurus.com – Understand words with a same, similar or related meaning (synonyms) and words with opposite meanings (antonyms) using a thesaurus

All can be searched for using test names (GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, TOEİC, IELTS, PTEA, SAT, ACT)

I Want To Improve My … Reading

Improve Your Reading Skills with The English Navigator

I Want To Improve My … Listening

Improve Your Listening Skills with The English Navigator
Dialogue – one person is speaking and one listening
  • Radio
  • The internet brings radio channels and programmes from all over the world, including many countries and cultures where English is spoken. Educational and entertaining, and usually easy to follow and learn some new words and phrases.
    • BBC Radio 4 – Offers a wide variety of educational, social and entertainment in British English, mainly in correct Queen’s English (also called ‘received pronunciation’) but often including regional accents.
    • BBC World Service – delivers a lot of Radio 4 content to the world, but also adds many international subjects and offers educational content to help people understand British culture and language.
    • BBC Learning English – Some simple resources to learn English while listening to selected news items and interesting programmes.
    • Voice of America – This is the version that lets you listen to news and read the words at the same time, to help learn American English while you get America’s view of world events and culture. I don’t generally recommend learning American English unless you intend to work with Americans or live in America, as the spelling and pronunciation is unique to the USA and most of the English language tests are in British English. Other English speaking countries (for instance Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, India, Nigeria, European Union) mainly use British English (International English) spellings, as do the many countries that have English as a second language (for example Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, African countries, etc). American English is much more phonetic though, so it will be a lot easier to learn if you mainly want to speak and listen.
  • Audiobooks
  • There are books from every genre and for every level of English, so if you want something to relax to, listening to an audiobook provides the same theatrical experience as TV, but using the power of your imagination to visualise the story.
  • Podcasts
  • It is the 21st century, and everyone is a content creator. Either via websites or apps, this is the fastest growing way of taking new information.
  • These are the major podcast applications and websites, where you will find every kind of content you could wish for. Every day hundreds of new podcasts are launched.
    • Audible (monthly fee, but unlimited content is free)
    • Stitcher (free plan has a lot of content, membership fee for premium content if you want it)
    • Spotify (monthly fee, unlimited free content)
    • iTunes (monthly fee, unlimited free content)

Podcasts may also be found everywhere on the web hosted on business or personal websites. You can download episodes for listening later, or follow channels for regular updates.

  • YouTube
  • Ok, I know you’re thinking ‘well duh!’, but if I don’t include it someone will message me suggesting ‘what about YouTube hocam?’.
  • Ignoring all the personal vloggers, there are some really interesting and informative channels published here.
    • Everything is available, but not always easy to find, and quality varies enormously.
    • Music with Subtitles and / or Lyrics
    • TV Series, movies or documentaries with subtitles and / or transcripts
    • English learning content (apparently anyone who speaks English can be an English teacher now), but search for English exams with listening parts, especially IELTS or TOEFL.

I Want To Improve My … Speaking

Improve Your Speaking Skills with The English Navigator
  • Speaking / Social Clubs
  • This the number two most asked question I get every week. Where can I practise my English? My answer depends on what you are trying to achieve. Something basic or advanced? Something focused on language or something more social? Something with native speakers or something with other learners?
  • There are many speaking clubs, and a wide range of different formats; general, business, speaking only, trips and activities, only in English or with a mix of languages and cultures
  • remember that it is not too important how many people attend, it is the quality of the conversations that matter.
  • I have spent a lot of time supporting, organizing or promoting speaking clubs in Ankara, and I have checked out their claims where possible.
    • Some say they have lots of native speakers (they don’t). No, seriously, they really don’t. I have taught in most of the private language schools and joined most of the speaking clubs, I would guess that you will find a maximum of three or four native speakers at any school, and maybe one or two native speakers in any speaking club if you are lucky. Those are generous figures.
    • or that they offer lots of different languages (generally not true). Do they have some other languages? Sometimes, and they may be able to support conversations in those, but generally it’s English, English, English and English, with occasional German or Spanish. You may see a lot of national flags displayed, but don’t assume that means the people speak those languages, and definitely don’t get too excited about your chances of meeting a native speaker of those languages.
    • or they use tricks to get people to join (have you had a random social media friend request from a hot girl / guy you’ve never met inviting you to meet for a good time at one of these speaking clubs? Sorry, it’s a fake account used to get you to come and spend money. He / she won’t be there, but they hope you stay anyway and buy food or drink).
  • I used to provide links to the clubs I know personally, with my thoughts about them. However, every year some disappear, some change their quality, and some new ones get started. It’s very easy to do a quick online search for them and find several to contact.
  • Try Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and of course Google and Bing. Maybe even the AI chatbots, since they are search engines too now.