When you study English as it’s used in real conversations, it motivates you to put in that extra effort into learning the language. After all, having face-to-face conversations with native English speakers helps you improve your English faster and can be an enjoyable experience.
All you need are resources to learn English through real conversations. In this article, I’ll show you my 14 favorites!
Real English Conversations is a fabulous (wonderful) resource that helps you learn new techniques to enhance the way you study English. For example, it has specific audio courses that teach you how to listen to English conversations.
It works best for intermediate and advanced learners, but beginners looking for an extra challenge can benefit from it, too.
Speak English With Vanessa features playlists that can help you learn various aspects of the English language.
For example, if you want to get speaking practice, you can click here. The videos feature conversations between native English speakers that you can follow by downloading the free PDF worksheet in the description. After each conversation, Vanessa will ask you questions and give you time to respond.
Like Speak English With Vanessa, English with Lucy is a channel for English learners taught by one woman.
The difference is that English with Lucy teaches you British English. If that’s the dialect you want to pick up, her channel is a good one to follow. The videos revolve around specific topics like hobbies, sports, slang and more.
Zapp! English’s podcasts come in the form of MP3s you can download to your smartphone or any other compatible device.
The program is focused on casual English vocabulary and expressions. This helps you improve your comprehension of authentic English in a variety of contexts. You’ll hear American, British and international accents here.
If you pay for the Effortless English course, you’ll get their lessons delivered straight into your inbox. These lessons come in the form of MP3 files, which you can listen to on any device that can play them.
Better at English podcasts stand out because they’re recorded conversations from real life between real people.
Topics range from mundane (ordinary) topics like shopping and greeting people to those that require more specialized vocabulary like office culture and pet ownership.
Each audio lesson comes with a PDF you can download. The file includes the discussion transcript and vocabulary notes.
This Udemy course is aimed at upper intermediate English learners and is designed to teach you 500 new words in context.
There are about 7.5 hours of video material in here, not to mention supplemental resources like articles. Once you’re done with all of it, you can get a certificate of completion.
On Helena Daily English, you can choose from 30 real English conversation topics. That means that, assuming you review one lesson per day, it’s possible to become conversant within a month or so!
The lessons come with a YouTube video, a transcript of the YouTube video and a vocabulary list with example sentences.
In real life, English conversations don’t flow the way they do in textbooks. Native speakers will often go off on a tangent (say something that is not connected to the topic at hand), which can make it frustrating for learners to keep up.
SpeakRealEnglish tries to address this by giving you a comprehensive English course. You can learn through videos with audio and transcripts, pick up new vocabulary, practice with guided conversations and take quizzes to see how much you have learned.
Real English uses videos of conversations from real-life people who were asked questions on the streets. Each lesson also has interactive tasks for you to complete.
Through Real English’s videos, you’ll see that even native speakers can also make grammatical errors! For that reason, each video has a feature that highlights any mistakes and provides suggestions for correct usage.
If you’re busy or need a quick review, head to ESL Fast’s “Speaking is Easy” and “Easy Conversations” lessons. Here, you can practice reading along with the written words as you listen to English conversations based on a theme.
After listening to the lessons, you can complete various activities such as fill-in-the-blank, sentence construction and writing down dictation (something spoken out loud to be written down).
FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
It uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the English language and culture over time. You’ll learn English as it’s spoken in real life.
FluentU has a variety of engaging content from popular talk shows, nature documentaries and funny commercials, as you can see here:
FluentU makes it really easy to watch English videos. There are captions that are interactive. That means you can tap on any word to see an image, definition and useful examples.
For example, when you tap on the word "searching," you'll see this:
Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It even reminds you when it’s time to review! Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they’re learning with the same video.
Why Real Conversations Are So Important for English Learners
You’ll have a more well-rounded (complete) knowledge of the English language. Not only will you learn how to read words on a page, but you will also know how to use those words in contexts like real-life conversations. As a result, you can become more fluent in less time.
You’ll be exposed to the day-to-day language in English-speaking areas. Aside from proper pronunciation, you will also learn slang, expressions and casual speech patterns—all of which are vital to reaching native-level language mastery.
You’ll learn how to say the same thing in more ways. Often, the English you learn from textbooks won’t match perfectly with the English spoken in everyday conversations. For example, when you learn all of the ways to say “you’re welcome” in English, you begin to sound less repetitive and more interesting.
How to Create Your Own Language-rich Conversations
Practicing your own English conversations will help you get the most out of the resources above. Try the following tips the next time you talk with English-speaking friends or have an English language exchange.
Identify and discuss shared interests. Find something you and the other person like to talk about. This will make the conversation longer, more interesting and more fun for both of you.
Be brave and try new words. You won’t learn how to use difficult vocabulary unless you give them a try in real conversations!
Encourage friendly feedback. Invite your English-speaking friends to suggest words you could use or change. This turns every conversation into a learning experience!
Time to get chatting! Use our resources and handy tips to speak up and get real in your English discussions. Let the language and learning flow.
