English Central – This site falls under the “conversational English language learning” category, where users learn English through watching contemporary videos and repeating the conversations or dialogues played out on the screen. To give an example, I watched a video of President Barack Obama’s speech, and then was asked to repeat several sentences. EnglishCentral graded my pronunciation (I got a B), and by my third take I did much better.
But grades aren’t what’s important here. Since language learning is always extremely difficult – particularly if the main mode of learning is through books and texts – the audio-visual component is absolutely essential for internalizing the cultural contexts of a language. This service strikes me as one of the best ESL tools available online at the moment, and it is perfect for both students and teachers of the English as a Second Language (ESL) education group.