The internet is flooded with a myriad of language schools with various course structures, experience levels, pricing packages, and much more. Here, we will walk you through the best online language courses that have an established reputation.
Each site here has excellent online ratings, as well as high-quality feedback from students – both of which are extremely valuable for those looking to sign up to a new online language course/school.
Rosetta Stone is one of the most popular language learning platforms that promotes excellent user experience. The online school has an easy-to-use interface both on desktop and mobile, making it easily accessible for many. It offers a total of 24 language courses, including Spanish, Chinese, Italian, and Arabic. The site is particularly suitable for students who want to learn a particular language in the long-term.
If you want to create a strong base on grammar and vocabulary, Rosetta Stone will be right up your alley. The school also offers optional tutoring sessions and live streaming to further help you build a solid foundation on a language you’re interested in. On top of that, the language learning platform has games and bonus content to make your learning process fun and interactive/.
Busuu is a high-standard language learning site that will work best when used with a full classroom course, especially if you’re planning to ace a language. It has extremely well-structured courses, which adds to why Busuu will work great as a complementary learning method. The site promotes healthy interaction between language learners so that everyone can help each other to get better at reading, writing and communicating in a number of languages.
Busuu offers courses in 12 different languages including Turkish, Polish, French, and German. If you opt for a premium package at Busuu, you can check your progress via placement tests at McGraw-Hill Education. This is an amazing way to determine whether you’ve reached your language learning goals, and can benefit progress monitoring.
Babbel is a language learning app that offers courses in 14 languages overall. The courses on the app are designed by more than 150 experts who prioritise the unique goals of each student.
Babbel utilises excellent language teaching features such as speech recognition technology and proven spaced repetition method. After learning a language course on Babbel, you’ll be able to speak confidently during travel, work, and while making new friends who speak the language you’ve learned.
The app is crafted with a fun, game-like structure that motivates the students to learn a language without getting scared by foreign terms. Babbel is mostly suitable for beginner learners, but the app also allows you to jump to an advanced level if you already have a basic understanding of the chosen language – which is great news for those experienced learners.
Pimsleur is an affordable language learning app that offers courses on 50 languages with variations in some for a more detailed focus. For example, when learning Spanish, you can learn Latin American or Spain-Castilian Spanish. For Armenian, you can choose Eastern or Western Armenian to learn. The app benefits from various methods such as a spaced repetition system, making the language learning experience for students much easier.
Pimsleur has a well-established reputation for teaching beginner-level students in their desired languages. It promotes organic learning which allows the students to learn and retain information on new languages. No one will be getting bombarded with more information than their brain can take in with Pimsleur. So, if you want to learn a language from scratch, Pimsleur is an excellent option for you to try out.
Preply is a language learning site that is designed for one-on-one lessons, where the student can select a tutor to obtain lessons from. The site has a great selection of tutors who teach 24 languages in total. If you’re not satisfied with one tutor, you have the option to replace them without any additional charges.
Some language courses have thousands of tutors to choose from while others offer hundreds of them. So, you’re bound to come across one who’ll help you reach your desired goal for a language.
The tutors on Preply are certified native speakers – you can be assured that you’re learning from the best. Plus, the site verifies the profiles of the tutors thoroughly before featuring them. Through Preply, you’ll be able to develop your vocabulary in a chosen language and once learned, communication in the language can be achieved to a high-standard. Plus, it has a 4.4/5 rating on TrustPilot – a trusted ratings site.
Duolingo is probably one of those language learning apps that everyone has heard of. This is because it’s a free app that offers lessons for up to 36 languages, including rarely-seen languages such as High Valerian and Navajo. The app feels more like a game than a language learning platform, meaning that there is something for everyone when using Duolingo.
While Duolingo might not be the best option if you want to excel in a language in a way that your work depends on it, it sure is a fun way to grasp vocabulary and learn certain phrases of a language you’re really interested in. By completing the levels on Duolingo, you’ll be able to communicate with native speakers in a country you’re travelling to.
As the name suggests, Instant Mandarin is an e-learning platform that offers Chinese courses for prices as low as $1. With one-to-one Mandarin Chinese lessons on this site, you’ll be able to learn and improve on this language as you go. The courses offered on this site are tailor-made to meet the individual goals of each student.
Plus, it has an extremely user-friendly design that anyone can work with. All you need to do is fix a time with a Chinese tutor and let them walk you through the language – it’s super simple.
Language schools on the web have organised structures to teach the students something they are foreign to without scaring them. A good language school should be interactive to replace the classroom atmosphere of traditional language classes. With that said, let’s see what makes a language school great.
When students are bombarded with loads of information regarding a new language, it can be extremely overwhelming for many, resulting in some backing out of learning. Great language schools focus on teaching students in increments. Therefore, learners will be able to work at a sensible pace for their language learning.
When materials are split, students can grasp an understanding of the discussed subject much easier. The best online language courses should also take measures to help students retain the knowledge that they have just obtained after each language lesson.
Learners are always interested in a specific online school when the structure is fun and interactive. This is where gamification comes into play. The gamification concept utilises game-like scenarios in their lessons to benefit student learning. Usually, the tasks are divided into many levels and you have to achieve a certain number of points to get to the next level.
Some of the best online language courses also deliver rewards and medals for reaching certain objectives. This way, not only is it fun, but it also helps you to master a certain lesson before moving on to the next.
Any good language school on the web should have an easy-to-use interface that ensures maximum accessibility to all their materials. As a learner, you should be able to browse, download, and find the appropriate resources throughout the subscription of the language course.
Automated evaluation of tests, quizzes, and assignments on the e-learning platform saves a lot of time for the tutors. Plus, students can find out where they stand instantly instead of waiting for the tutors to mark the assessments. Through automated evaluation, the automation of correction takes place and the data is recorded accurately.
In any language school, smooth communication is vital for the learning process to be successful. A great language school should offer multiple forms of communication with the platform including email, chats, discussion boards, or even social media. Also, at least one teacher for a particular language class should always be available for the students to contact.
A language school should have a well-structured curriculum with transparent goals at the end of each lesson and each course. Any language course should have a healthy combination of short lessons, tests, and reviewing materials. As a result, students won’t get overwhelmed when they are subjected to new information in a foreign language.
The academic standard of the best language learning schools plays a huge role in determining the authenticity of the site. The experience of the tutors will also play a part in what we look for in terms of academic standard. Learning a new language is a lot tougher than any other subject.
Therefore, if an online school is claiming that a student will reach a certain amount of progress within a given time, it’s important to question the metrics the e-learning platform uses to determine that.
New language schools are emerging on the web daily. This is why it’s crucial to research how long a particular language school has been operating. Instead of focusing only on the flashy slogans on the website, it’s pertinent to determine whether they are experienced enough to support the challenges students might face while learning a new language.
Previous and current students are the best judges of deciding the quality of education a language school delivers. Therefore, checking online ratings and feedback of the website as well as particular language lessons can be a great starting point.
However, we also look into websites like TrustPilot that portray ratings of best online language courses. No e-learning platform can earn 5 stars the majority of the time – no one is perfect. With that said, a great language school should have an overall high rating on these websites, as well as positive feedback from personal experience by former students.
The cost of language schools on the web can vary significantly based on the website, course structure, and tutor demand. While some language lessons may start at as low as $5, others may cost you hundreds of dollars. However, the majority of best online language courses offer price packages based on course duration.
For example, Babbel and Rosetta Stone have 3 months/6 months/12 months packages at affordable prices. Babbel’s packages are as follows – $12.95/month, $8.95/month (for 3 months), $7.45/month (for 6 months), $6.95 (for 12 months).
Some of the best language learning schools such as Pimsleur have packages based on levels of courses. For example, if you want to subscribe to only one level you have to pay $150, but if you want to take advantage of a combination of 5 levels, you can get it for $575. Then, there are sites like Preply where the cost of a language course depends on the tutor, meaning the price can range from $1 to $40.
Learning a language over Skype or Zoom promotes a comfortable experience as it comes naturally to many – especially in recent times. For introverts, learning a language online is extremely comfortable as it will allow you to speak up more as opposed to doing so in a class full of other students.
Learning a language online is less time-consuming and convenient for a lot of students if they are trying to grasp a language alongside school or work. Some people can easily take short language lessons on the go, such as during a break at their workplace.
Plus, you can have access to the best online language courses from anywhere in the world without having to worry about looking for a traditional online course in your city.
While learning a language online through the best online language courses, one-to-one communication with the tutor is extremely helpful when it comes to achieving correct pronunciation. Plus, it helps the students gain confidence and makes them better at speaking the language over time.
In the best online language courses, both the tutor and the student have access to the internet. Tutors can easily send links of pictures/videos to the student when they’re having a hard time grasping a concept. Visual learning has proven to be quite helpful for a lot of students so a lot of the time, tutors make the most pictures and videos to make the student understand certain words/pronunciations.
To wrap up, we can safely say that the best language learning platforms conducted online are somewhat more convenient than physical classes, especially in recent times. On top of that, the language learning platforms that we are reviewing on our website are some of the best language learning platforms available on the internet! Take a look at all of our online course reviews right here!