Resourcesfor students

Short daily posts and videos. Follow two or three; little and often works best.

• Maria Speaks English — A Spanish teacher who explains, in very short videos, the mistakes Spanish speakers make most often.👁
• English with Lucy — Clear lessons on British pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary from a teacher with a very easy accent to follow.👁
• Languages with Amelia — Quick posts on everyday expressions, slang and the small differences that make you sound natural.👁
• English with Patricia — A Brazilian teacher who helps non-native speakers find their voice, improve their English pronunciation and build confidence using the language.👁
• mmmEnglish (Emma) — Australian teacher whose “imitation lessons” ask you to copy her sentences out loud to improve rhythm and pronunciation.👁
• English Life with Benjamin — British English explained with humour — pronunciation, idioms and cultural details.👁
• English Enjoyed (Thomas Finch) — Witty posts about unusual, elegant and very British vocabulary.👁

Tools you can keep on your phone or in your browser and use in five spare minutes.

• Duolingo — Short daily exercises that keep you in contact with English even on your busiest days.👁
• Language Reactor (for your browser) — Adds double subtitles to Netflix and YouTube so you can check a word without stopping the video.👁
• Quizlet – simple online flashcards — Make your own word lists in a minute and revise them as flashcards, tests or games.👁
• Anki – flashcards that remember for you — Free flashcards that show you a word again just before you forget it.👁
• Hello Nabu — Practise speaking out loud with an AI partner that corrects your pronunciation immediately.👁

Perfect for the car, the gym or the washing-up. Start with the transcript if you need it.

• Diálogos en inglés (Amigos Ingleses) — Phillip and Isabel talk about real English and explain the tricky parts in Spanish when you need it.👁
• English Learning for Curious Minds — Strange but true stories from history, science and culture, spoken slowly and with a full transcript.👁
• The Truth — Short audio dramas — sometimes funny, sometimes dark — that feel like films for your ears.👁
• BBC Sounds podcasts — Hundreds of British podcasts on every subject; try Woman’s Hour or The Life Scientific.👁
• Smithsonian’s Stories from Main Street — Ordinary Americans from small towns tell their own stories in their own accents.👁
• Luke’s English Podcast — A London teacher chatting about language and life, with over 900 episodes and many transcripts.👁
• The Moth — Real people telling true stories on stage, with no script and no notes.👁

Watch with English subtitles, not Spanish or Catalan ones — reading and listening together helps the words stick; remove the subtitles when listening is your goal. The list runs from easiest to hardest, and the accent is marked for each one.

Start here

• Planet Earth II (David Attenborough) — RP (standard British). Slow, beautifully clear narration, and the pictures explain half the vocabulary for you.👁
• Friends — General American. Short scenes, repeated everyday vocabulary and jokes you will already know. The classic first series for a reason.👁
• Modern Family — General American. Family life and everyday vocabulary; the characters speak at very different speeds, so you can pick a favourite and follow them.👁
• Heartstopper — Southern British. Modern British teenagers speaking clearly about friendship and first love. Gentle and easy to follow.👁

When you feel ready

• The Crown — RP (standard British). Careful, formal pronunciation and a lot of useful vocabulary about politics and public life.👁
• Grace and Frankie — General American. Two older women start again after their husbands leave them for each other. The actors speak clearly and the situations are easy to follow.👁
• The Good Place — General American. A comedy about what it means to be a good person. Clever vocabulary about ethics, but always explained inside the joke.👁
• The Four Seasons — General American. Six old friends go on holiday together four times a year. Natural, overlapping conversation between adults.👁
• Cunk on Earth — Northern English (Bolton). A fake documentary in which a very confident presenter asks historians extremely silly questions. Slow and clear, but the humour is dry — you may need a second viewing.👁
• Ted Lasso — American + British. An American coach in London; the show plays constantly with the differences between the two Englishes. 100% recommended.👁

For a real challenge

• Workin’ Moms — Canadian. Four friends try to combine babies and careers. Fast, overlapping dialogue and a lot of modern slang.👁
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine — General American. Very quick comedy in short scenes — ideal if you only have twenty minutes, hard if you want every word.👁
• The Lincoln Lawyer — General American. A defence lawyer works from the back of his car. Excellent for legal and courtroom vocabulary, spoken at speed.👁
• Sherlock — RP (standard British). Fast and clever; Benedict Cumberbatch’s diction is excellent, but he speaks very quickly indeed.👁
• Dept. Q — Scottish (Edinburgh), with English and Syrian voices too. A cold-case detective story. A good, gentle introduction to Scottish accents because the lead detective is English.👁
• Derry Girls — Northern Irish. The hardest on this list: fast slang and a strong accent. Try it when you want to test yourself.👁

Five minutes of play is still five minutes of English.

• CodyCross — App, iPhone and Android. Themed crossword puzzles with trivia clues; a new one every day, and excellent for building vocabulary and spelling without feeling like study.👁
• Word Scramble (Cambridge Dictionary) — Read a definition and unscramble the letters before the clock runs out.👁
• -ed pronunciation games (EnglishClub) — Drag each verb to the right ending sound: /t/, /d/ or /ɪd/.👁
• Semantris (Google) — Type a word connected in meaning to the one highlighted; the computer guesses what you mean.👁
• Wordle — Guess the five-letter word in six attempts — one puzzle a day, and everyone plays the same one.👁
• Freerice — Answer vocabulary questions and the site donates rice to the World Food Programme.👁
• Vocabulary games (British Council) — Wordshake, Sushi Spell and other short games organised by topic.👁

Pronunciation improves when you speak out loud, not when you read about it. Say everything here aloud.

• YouGlish — Type any word and hear real people saying it in thousands of real videos.👁
• Howjsay — A pronunciation dictionary: search a word, press play, copy it.👁
• Shadowing: what is it? How do you do it? — Listen to a short recording and speak at the same time as the speaker, copying the rhythm exactly. Tip: practise shadow reading with audiobooks, or with the help of text-to-speech tools.👁
• Phonemic chart (printable) — All 44 sounds of British English on one page — print it and keep it in your folder.👁
• Interactive phonemic chart — The same 44 sounds, but click any symbol to hear it and an example word.👁
• Pronunciation of -ed — Why we say wanted, liked and played in three different ways, with a clear table of rules.👁
• The schwa sound explained — The most common vowel in English is a lazy “uh” — understanding it changes how you hear fast speech.👁
• Word stress and noun–verb pairs — Why PREsent (the gift) and preSENT (the verb) are not the same word when you say them.👁
• Schwa and rhythm (sentence stress) — How weak sounds create the natural music of an English sentence.👁
• Speaking reference B2.1 – for phones — A guide with phrases for your speaking practice (and exam!), at B2.1 level.👁
• Speaking reference B2.2 – for phones — The same guide, with the phrases and expectations adapted to B2.2.👁

Speaking groups and English corners

Meet other learners and speak English for an hour with no marks and no pressure. All three are free Meetup groups — join the group to see the next dates.

• English Corner Tarragona — A regular, relaxed English conversation meet-up in Tarragona.👁
• Tarragona Language Network — Language-exchange evenings in Tarragona: English plus other languages, so expect a real mix of people.👁
• English Activities Cambrils — Conversation and activities in English in Cambrils — handy if Tarragona is too far.👁

Write a little every week. It is the skill that improves fastest with practice.

• British vs American spelling — Colour or color? Centre or center? A clear guide to the main differences.👁
• Improve your writing (British Council) — Model texts at B2 with exercises: emails, reviews, essays and reports.👁
• Write & Improve (Cambridge) — Write a text, submit it, and get feedback on grammar, vocabulary and style in seconds, plus a CEFR level for your work. Over 250 free tasks.👁
• LanguageTool – spell and grammar checker — Paste your text and it finds the mistakes a normal spell-checker misses.👁
• Academic Phrasebank (University of Manchester) — Ready-made phrases for introducing, comparing, arguing and concluding.👁
• Tip of My Tongue — For when you know the word but can’t find it — describe it and the site suggests it.👁

Choose something you would read in your own language. Interest beats difficulty.

• eBiblio Catalunya – digital library — Borrow English ebooks and audiobooks free with your public library card.👁
• Magazine zone (British Council) — Short articles written for B1 and B2 readers, with comprehension exercises.👁

Listen once for the general idea, then again for the details. Don’t translate in your head.

• LyricsTraining — Fill in the missing words of your favourite songs while the video plays.👁
• World news in 7 minutes (SEND7) — The day’s world news in clear, simple British English — seven minutes, every weekday.👁
• 6 Minute English (BBC) — Two presenters discuss one topic for six minutes and teach six words along the way. Transcript and vocabulary list included.👁
• Listening activities online (Randall’s ESL Lab) — Over 300 free conversations with quizzes, sorted by level.👁
• B2 listening (British Council) — Graded recordings with transcripts and exercises at exactly your level.👁
• C1 listening (British Council) — Longer, faster recordings with transcripts, for when B2 listening starts to feel comfortable.👁

Grammar and vocabulary theory and practice. Do a little, check it, and move on.

• Tenses — Every English tense explained simply, with free exercises after each one.👁
• 50 common irregular verbs — The fifty you really need, as a list, a PDF and a pronunciation video.👁
• Grammar exercises (Agenda Web) — Thousands of free interactive exercises sorted by grammar point and level.👁
• Practise grammar points (British Council) — B1–B2 grammar with clear explanations and two levels of practice for each point.👁
• C1 grammar (British Council) — The advanced structures that take you beyond B2, with practice for each one.👁
• Phrasal Verb Demon — A whole site about phrasal verbs: how they work, why they are metaphors, plus games and quizzes.👁
• Clark and Miller – free English lessons — Seventeen of the best lessons from an English teacher who explains things very visually.👁

Use an English–English dictionary whenever you can. It teaches you two words instead of one.

• WordReference — Fast translations plus forums where real people argue about the exact meaning.👁
• Oxford dictionary – collocation dictionary — Shows which words naturally go together: you make a decision, you don’t take one.👁
• Cambridge Dictionary (Spanish/Catalan) — Definitions written in simple English, with translations and audio in both accents.👁
• Cambridge Thesaurus — Find a more precise word when good, nice or interesting is not enough.👁
• Urban Dictionary — Slang and very new expressions. Useful for understanding, risky for producing — check before you use it.👁
• Forvo — Hear a word pronounced by native speakers from different countries and regions.👁

Do these under time pressure at least once before the exam. Don’t worry if a website labels a text “C1” — B2.2 at the EOI is closer to C1 than most B2 material, so most of those texts are the right level for you.

• FCE reading tests (English Corner MA) — Full reading papers: multiple choice, gapped texts and multiple matching.👁
• Gapped texts (ESL Lounge) — Practice for the part where you put the missing sentences back into the text.👁
• Gapped text with tips — A harder gapped text with an explanation of the strategy after each question. Labelled C1, but right for B2.2.👁
• Reading tests B2 (Exam English) — Free practice papers you can do online and mark instantly.👁
• Reading tests C1 (Exam English) — The same site, one level up. Labelled C1, but a fair stretch at B2.2.👁

Explaining something in English to someone who hasn’t seen or read it. Practise out loud, and give yourself no more than a minute to prepare.

• Oral mediation – advice — What the examiner is listening for in the mediation task, and how to prepare for it.👁
• Images to train C1 mediation — A new picture every day with questions attached — excellent for practising how to describe, interpret and explain what you see.👁