Tools and Resources I Recommend
The tools I point my students toward, the ones I use in my own language learning, and why each one earns its place.
I get asked about tools a lot. Which apps should I use? What’s worth paying for? Where do I start?
The answer is simpler than most people expect. You don’t need many tools. You need a few good ones that cover reading, listening, watching, mouth training, and real conversation. Here are the ones I recommend.
LingQ — Reading and Listening
LingQ is the tool that changed my own language learning, and it’s the one I mention most on this blog.
At its core, LingQ lets you read and listen to any English content with built-in vocabulary support. Import an article, a podcast transcript, a YouTube video, a chapter of a book, anything you find interesting, and read it with instant word lookup. Tap any word you don’t know, the definition appears without leaving the page, and you keep reading. The flow never breaks.
Every word you encounter is tracked. Unknown words appear in blue. Words you’ve saved and are still learning appear in yellow. Known words appear as plain text. Over time, the colours shift as your vocabulary grows, and your known words count climbs with every session, giving you visible, measurable proof that the input is working.
Most content comes with audio, so you can read and listen at the same time, which research shows produces deeper retention than either channel alone.
LingQ also has AI features built in, including context-aware definitions, content simplification for material that’s slightly above your level, a built-in AI chatbot for questions about what you’re reading, and transcription that converts any audio into readable text.
If I could only recommend one tool, this would be it.
Lingopie — Learning English Through TV and Film
Lingopie is a streaming platform built for language learners. It hosts a curated library of real TV shows, films, cartoons, music, and podcasts with interactive subtitles.
Every word in the subtitles is clickable. Tap a word, the video pauses, you see the definition, and it’s saved for review later. The flashcards that are created use the actual scene from the show, so you’re reviewing the word attached to a character, an emotion, and a moment rather than a bare definition.
There’s a sentence loop feature for replaying tricky lines, adjustable playback speed for slowing things down, and a pronunciation tool for practising phrases aloud. Content is graded by level from A1 to C1.
Lingopie also has a Chrome extension that brings these features to Netflix, meaning the entire Netflix catalogue becomes interactive learning material.
If you’re spending evenings watching shows anyway, Lingopie turns that time into genuine English acquisition without it ever feeling like study.
Glossika — The Bridge to Speaking
Glossika fills a specific gap that most tools don’t address: the space between understanding English and being able to produce it.
You listen to real English sentences and repeat them, privately, with nobody watching. The system uses AI-driven spaced repetition to track your performance and bring sentences back at the moment you’re most at risk of forgetting them. Sentences you handle easily get pushed further into the future. Sentences you struggle with come back sooner.
Over weeks of consistent practice, natural sentence patterns settle into your mouth. You’re not studying the grammar inside the sentences. You’re absorbing whole, correctly formed phrases through repetition until they become something you can produce without thinking.
I think of Glossika as the bridge between the silent input phase, where your eyes and ears do the work, and real conversation, where your mouth has to join in. By the time you sit down with a real person, the mechanics of producing English are already warmed up.
Available in both British English and American English.
StoryLearning Conversations — Story-Driven Listening
StoryLearning Conversations is Olly Richards’ course built around story-driven English listening at the intermediate level.
Twenty chapters of natural English dialogue with full transcripts, designed to be compelling enough to keep you listening while pitched at exactly the level where acquisition happens most effectively. If you’re past the beginner stage and looking for structured listening material that feels like content rather than coursework, this fills that gap well.
Try StoryLearning Conversations here.
iTalki — Real Conversation With Real People
iTalki is where the input becomes output. It connects you with English conversation partners and tutors from around the world for one-on-one video sessions.
No gimmicks. No gamification. No AI pretending to be human. Just you and another person, talking in English. You browse profiles, find someone whose style and personality suit you, book a session, and have a real conversation.
Teacher availability is displayed clearly. Time zone conversion is handled automatically. Payment is processed through the platform. Reminders go out before sessions. The whole logistical layer that used to make arranging conversation practice feel like a project has been taken care of.
What’s left is just the conversation, which is the part worth showing up for.
If you’d like to work with me specifically, in warm, natural, pressure-free sessions where the goal is real communication rather than grammar drilling, you can find my profile and book directly here.
Toggl — Track Your Listening Hours
Toggl is a free time-tracking app. It’s not designed for language learning, but it’s one of the most useful tools a learner can have.
Create a project called “English Listening.” Start the timer when you put your headphones in. Stop it when you take them out. Watch the total accumulate over weeks and months.
On the days when progress feels invisible, your listening hours tell the truth. The number only goes up. The hours don’t lie. And a learner who can see they’ve accumulated three hundred hours of English listening has concrete, undeniable evidence that the work is real.
Setting a yearly goal and tracking against it is one of the most effective motivational tools available. Free, simple, and quietly powerful.
Refold — The Method Behind the Method
Refold is a comprehensive guide to the immersion-based approach to language learning. It lays out a clear roadmap from beginner to advanced, with detailed guidance on how to structure your input at every stage.
If you want a deeper understanding of the theory and structure behind the input method, Refold is one of the best resources available. It also has an immersion tracker for logging different types of input and watching your total immersion time build over time.
A Note on How I Use These
I don’t recommend using all of these at once. Pick one or two that match where you are right now. If you’re focused on building your reading and listening foundation, LingQ is where I’d start. If you want to add TV and film to your input, Lingopie. If you’re ready to start getting your mouth moving, Glossika. If you’re ready for real conversation, iTalki.
The tools serve the method. The method is simple: read, listen, and speak. The tools just make it smoother.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you. I recommend these tools because I use them and believe in them. If a tool isn’t on this page, it’s because I haven’t found it useful enough to recommend.