USA Learns

What USA Learns is

USA Learns is a free website that helps adults learn English online, "anytime day or night," in the words of its introductory video. It is a learner product rather than a course platform: there is nothing to build or sell, and the learner pays nothing. A visitor registers, picks a course and works through lessons on their own schedule. The site says more than 7,000,000 adults from around the world learn American English online with it. Its copyright line names the Sacramento County Office of Education, and the About Us menu includes a page on the project and its developers.

The homepage asks one question, "What do you want to learn?", and offers three answers: English, U.S. Citizenship and Job Skills. Those three branches cover the whole site. The English branch is the core, a set of general English courses at beginning and intermediate level. The citizenship branch prepares people for the naturalization interview. The job skills branch holds a course for nursing assistants. A separate course, Access America, combines language practice with practical orientation for people who have just arrived in the United States.

The English courses

The introductory video describes three English courses that teach beginning and intermediate English for free. The 1st English Course teaches beginning English. The 2nd English Course teaches intermediate English. The third, Practice English and Reading, also teaches intermediate English. The homepage shows a fourth tile, English 1 Plus, alongside them. Across the courses, the video says, a learner can watch hundreds of video lessons and do 1000s of English learning activities.

The homepage names the skills those courses cover: speaking, listening, vocabulary, pronunciation, reading, writing and grammar. On top of the language itself, learners can study life skills and learn about daily life in the United States, which the Learn English menu lists as Life Skills in English. The same menu splits the material by skill, so a learner who wants grammar or pronunciation practice can go straight to that area.

What the activities look like

The introductory video walks through the inside of a course, and the activity types are specific.

• Vocabulary. "Learn New Words" activities introduce English words, and a learner can listen to each word as many times as they want.
• Listening. Learners hear 1000s of English words and sentences and answer questions to check their comprehension.
• Spelling. In some activities the learner sees a photo, hears the word and then spells it. A correct answer earns two stars; after a wrong answer the learner can try again and learn the correct spelling.
• Reading. A learner reads a story and then answers questions about it to build reading skills.
• Grammar. Some activities start with a video on a part of speech, such as adjectives, followed by questions to practice what the video taught.
• Pronunciation and speaking. Learners say vocabulary words aloud, answer questions and compare their voice to a native English speaker from the United States. The video's example has the learner answering Ms. Marquez's question, "Are you feeling OK?"
• Writing. Writing activities practice the new vocabulary and grammar from the lessons.

Each skill gets its own kind of practice rather than one quiz format applied to everything. That matters for an adult who picked up spoken English at work but never learned to spell or write it, or for someone who reads well and freezes when asked to speak.

Courses for life in the United States

Access America is for adults who are new to the United States. The homepage says it helps learners understand living in the U.S. while they practice English vocabulary and grammar. An update described in the site's news section added more speaking practice, vocabulary games and flashcards to every lesson, new Getting Help videos about how to access resources, and extra listening items throughout the course.

The USA Learns Citizenship course is for people who want to become U.S. citizens. The homepage says it can help a learner "prepare for all parts of the naturalization interview process," and a news item says its new activities will help learners apply for naturalization and pass the interview. The course recently gained 30+ new videos and more speaking and listening practice, and it is free like the rest of the site.

Skills for the Nursing Assistant is the job skills course. The homepage says it teaches "communication and academic skills to successfully work in a hospital, a doctor's office, or the healthcare field," and adds that this course is also free. For an adult who wants to move into healthcare work, it pairs the language with the setting where it will be used.

Access, devices and cost

Everything on the homepage is labeled free: the English classes, the citizenship course and the nursing assistant course. The site lists no prices, plans or paid upgrades. Getting started takes a registration, after which, the video says, a learner can start learning English online immediately. The Get Started menu adds short guides on how to start learning English free, how to study the English courses, and advice from teachers on how to learn English, and the introductory video is also offered as a printable version.

USA Learns runs on phones, tablets and computers. The site credits a grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation for making it available on phones. The site itself can be switched between English and Spanish, which helps a beginner who cannot yet follow instructions written in English. A For Teachers section sits beside the learner pages for instructors who want to use the courses.

What learners say

The homepage carries three short testimonials from learners in different countries. Martina, from Mexico, writes, "I am learning a lot." Esther, from Kenya, says, "Thanks to USA Learns, I know how to speak English well. I will always be grateful for what you do to help adults around the world." Joao, from Brazil, calls it "an excellent site to learn English or if you want to have perfect pronunciation." They are brief, but they line up with what the site sets out to do: speaking confidence and pronunciation for adults studying on their own.

Who it suits

USA Learns suits adults who want to learn or improve American English and cannot or do not want to pay for classes. Beginners have a clear starting point in the 1st English Course, and learners at an intermediate level have two further courses to move on to. Recent arrivals get Access America, which pairs English practice with practical information about life in the country. People preparing to become U.S. citizens get a free course aimed at the naturalization interview, and people aiming for work as nursing assistants get a course built around communication in a healthcare setting.

The format is self-study: recorded video lessons and interactive activities that a learner works through at their own pace, at any hour of the day. That fits adults who work shifts or care for family and cannot attend a class at a fixed time, and it suits someone who wants to repeat a word or an activity as often as they need without anyone waiting. A learner who wants a live teacher, conversation with classmates or graded assignments will want a class or a tutor next to it. A learner who already speaks English at an advanced level will find the courses stop at intermediate.