When you take an online course to help you learn English, although the rules of grammar are the same, it is important to recognize the difference between American English and British English. If you want to immigrate to the United States or Canada or do work with businesses in these countries, then you should learn the proper American form of the language. The main difference in American and British English is in how some words are spelled and specific vocabulary words.



In an online course, look for the type of language that it focuses on. A free audio course using American spelling and vocabulary as well as the pronunciations of the words is an important component of the course. This way you will learn how to enunciate the vowels and pronounce words the way a native speaker in North America would do so. In order to access an audio course, you do need to have Macromedia Flash installed on your computer, but since you can get this free online, you won't incur any cost in taking a free course.

The topics covered in such an audio course include conversation starters in which you learn how to introduce yourself and talk about yourself. Other topics include getting around a city, making travel arrangements having a telephone conversation and writing essays and research papers. They also include short snippets of conversations that college students would have with one another and short talks on various subjects.

You can read each of the passages silently as you follow along with the native speaker. You can then practice reading the same passage aloud and record your speech. This allows you to compare with how well you pronounce the words and your rate of fluency with that of the speaker. Finally, there is an exercise on the passage in which you answer a series of multiple-choice questions to show that you understand the material presented in the passage. Thus, taking an audio course will give you the skills you need in listening, speaking and reading.

When you take advantage of a free English course, you will learn the rules of grammar. This course is presented in a series of lessons, each of which has a listening, speaking, reading and writing component. All the key structures are presented in relevant dialogues and sentences and in context rather than isolation so that you see how the words are used in relation to the rules. These come with instructions and practice exercises to help you succeed.

If you do need extra help, you can choose to pay a personal tutor for an hour or more directly from the site. This tutor will help you with any aspect of learning English with which you are having problems. You don't have to sign up for regular services and can choose a tutor only when you need one. If you are taking classes at a school, using the free online courses will give you extra practice and resources to help you become an English speaker even more quickly.