The 15 Best Online English Intermediate Courses for B1, B2 and Beyond
Have you heard about “Middle Child Syndrome?”
It sounds like a disease, but it is not.
It is a theory about how middle children (people with both older and younger siblings) often feel ignored.
Unlike the oldest child, they are not given big responsibilities. Unlike the youngest child, they do not get pampered by their parents. This makes them feel neglected and confused about their role.
Sound familiar?
Well, that is because almost every intermediate language learner also goes through something similar.
They often do not receive as much help as beginner learners do. And unlike advanced learners, they do not feel confident enough to start conversations and take charge of their own learning.
The intermediate level is a confusing level. Many learners start to feel demotivated when they reach it.
But do not worry, we are here to help!
In this post we have collected the best English intermediate courses online.
They will give you all the help and attention you need!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
B1 Boss! 15 English Intermediate Courses to Level Up Your Language Skills
Courses to Master General Intermediate English
Upper Intermediate English Course (Universitat Politecnica de Valencia)
Cost: $200
This is an English learning program that is designed to improve the language skills of intermediate learners to the upper intermediate level. It is a group of four courses that each deal with separate areas of intermediate English.
The courses in this program focus on grammar, vocabulary, listening, speaking and writing skills. The program teaches how to write both formal and informal letters, reports and emails.
It covers topics related to business, food, modern life and even the current developments in the world. It has a special focus on globalization and how technology affects work and education. Globalization involves businesses and economies increasingly expanding across different countries.
It also includes content to help you prepare for the B2 First English examination held by Cambridge University.
Most learners finish each course within four weeks (the expectation is to study four hours per week for each course in the program). So you can effectively finish the whole professional program in just 16 weeks.
This certificate course can greatly help you in educational as well as professional settings.
FluentU English Course
Cost: Monthly subscription, free trial available. See pricing page for current rates.
Want to start speaking English the way native speakers do in real life? FluentU is an immersive English course that aims to teach you the language naturally. It does this by pairing native videos like movie trailers, clips from series, funny commercials and other content that native English speakers actually watch with learning tools.
And since you are watching English videos that native speakers actually watch, you will learn a lot about pop culture from English-speaking countries.
There are over 1,500 intermediate video lessons (with options for low-intermediate and high-intermediate learners). While you watch a FluentU video, you can click on any word in the interactive subtitles for an instant definition, grammar info and a clear pronunciation. You can also see the word used in different videos on FluentU or add it to a flashcard deck.
After you are done watching, take the follow-up quiz to learn some of the key words from the video and practice your translation skills. Special exercises are also available for your flashcard decks, featuring a spaced repetition style of learning which alters how often you see a word based on how well you know it. Here, you will also get a chance to type and speak some of your answers.
If you’re enjoying your intermediate learning on FluentU, there are many advanced English videos waiting for you to improve to the advanced stage. Plus, you can take these intermediate English lessons anywhere with the mobile apps for iOS and Android.
ESOL Intermediate English Lessons
Cost: Free
This is one of the most comprehensive lists of English lessons for intermediate learners.
The lessons cover topics from grammar, vocabulary, reading and listening comprehension. Most lessons deal with a particular topic such as the history of Valentine’s Day or Green tourism. These lessons also have practice tests and quizzes to test your learning.
Most of these lessons are integrated skills lessons. The word “integration” means the joining of different things into something new. Here it means that the lessons teach you various skills together at once (like reading, grammar, vocabulary and so on).
This makes ESOL’s intermediate lessons ideal for anyone who wants to improve their general English skills, but does not have much time to practice different skills separately.
It is best to pick and choose the lessons that are closely related to your own goals.
For instance, if you want to work in an English-speaking country, it is best to pick lessons that are related to business or formal English. If you are interested in British English or living in the U.K., check out “The Life in the UK Test”—a preparatory lesson for the U.K. citizenship test. It includes a vocabulary worksheet, a video lesson and a quiz in the end.
iPass IELTS 100-hour Intermediate English Course
Cost: €45 (free demo)
This is a comprehensive course for general English skills for low-intermediate and upper-intermediate learners.
The course is divided into two parts and each part requires at least 50 hours to complete.
The first part is for low-intermediate practice. It deals with vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing practice and some general topics that usually come up in daily conversations like health and weather.
The second part is designed to take you to the high intermediate level and improve your basic skills and knowledge further. If you already have basic intermediate knowledge, then you can simply enroll for the high intermediate course and skip the first part of the course.
The website also provides a free test so that you can know your current English level.
Since the test is designed for IELTS practice, many of its lessons are designed according to the pattern of the IELTS English proficiency exam.
But even learners who do not plan to take the IELTS exam can benefit from this course since it has a lot of practice-based components and constantly tests your learning in the course through quizzes and assignments.
Memrise Intermediate English Vocabulary Course
Cost: Free
This course provides a simple way to learn more than 1,300 intermediate English words in a short period of time. The words are grouped into categories based on how difficult they are to pronounce and how frequently they are used in English.
This course provides audio recordings of the words and gives examples of how to use them in sentences. The course also has memory games to help you review the words you have learned.
Intermediate Courses to Make You a Grammar Wizard
English Grammar Intermediate — Phrasal Verbs (Alison)
Cost: Free (official certificate available starting at €21)
Phrasal verbs are perhaps the trickiest part of English grammar for intermediate learners to get comfortable with. This short course helps learners gain a better understanding of the patterns behind phrasal verbs.
Phrasal verbs are phrases made up of a verb plus an adverb or a preposition or both. Some examples include “come across,” “fill up” and “break up.”
This course has video lessons and assessments. It can easily be finished in a few hours.
The course goes into quite a few details, such as how phrasal verbs change in different tenses or how the same phrasal verb can mean different things in different contexts.
The course also deals with specific words such as “in,” “out,” “up,” “down,” etc. and how they have multiple meanings in different phrasal verbs.
The major reason why phrasal verbs are so confusing is that the meaning of the individual words can vary a lot. This course is designed to teach learners how to determine the exact meaning of a phrasal verb based on how it is used.
English Grammar Intermediate — Adjectives and Adverbs (Alison)
Cost: Free (official certificate available starting at €21)
This course will give you a deeper understanding of how adjectives and adverbs function in the English language.
This intermediate course uses interactive content and recordings of native speakers to teach you how to use English adjectives and adverbs correctly. It focuses both on listening and reading skills.
The first part of the course deals with adjectives, especially the ones ending in “-ing” and “-ed” like “confusing” and “confused.” It also teaches you about the different kinds of adjectives like “fact adjectives” and “opinion adjectives.”
It then talks about how adverbs are related to adjectives. It specifically deals with the usage rules of adverbs such as how to use them before an adjective, another adverb or a past participle.
The special feature of this course is that it explains these detailed concepts using plenty of examples and real-life recordings. It helps the learner naturally understand how adjectives and adverbs are used in normal English along with learning the formal rules of grammar.
The interactive quizzes also help you quickly review what you learned and remember your lessons more easily.
Intermediate Grammar Specialization (UC Irvine)
Cost: Free (need to subscribe to Coursera for official certificate)
This is a group of courses for intermediate learners who want to focus specifically on their grammar skills.
The entire program takes around four months to complete if you practice for at least five hours per week. You can finish this course much faster, depending on the time you are able to devote to these courses. You can also enroll in just one lesson instead of going through all the courses in the program.
The course materials include a mix of videos, assignments and reading materials. But video lessons are the main focus of all these courses. The videos also have subtitles in various languages such as Vietnamese, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, French and Slovak.
A special feature of this specialization is that you can create a grammar “scrapbook” with all the important information in it after you finish all the courses. You can use this digital scrapbook to quickly review the basic rules of English grammar.
It also has a special lesson for the tricky parts of English grammar.
This program is offered on Coursera by UC Irvine, a well-known school in the U.S. If you pass the courses and get a certificate, it will look great on your resume. You can find lots of other university-quality courses on Coursera.
Courses for Future Scholars
An Intermediate Guide to Writing in English for University Study
Cost: Free
University students spend most of their time writing essays, assignments and papers. This course gives detailed tips about how to improve not only your English writing skills, but also your ability to research, use logic and refer to other research findings.
This course lists out the main differences between academic writing and other forms of writing. You can learn how to properly present all the information you know in academic papers or essays. It focuses on how to construct paragraphs, what are the main parts of a paragraph and how to present facts and statistics.
It also tells you how to quickly search for information and use it in your writing.
A major component of academic writing involves logical thinking. This course is also useful to know how you can best understand essay questions to properly answer them.
Apart from your own skills, this course also talks about peer support. This includes taking help from your friends or classmates or helping them in writing an academic essay.
These practical skills can be a lifesaver for any English learner who is about to start college—especially if you will be taking an English class or even studying at an English-speaking university.
If the course is not currently being offered, you can sign up to be notified when it starts again.
Writing, Presenting and Submitting Scientific Papers in English (Tsinghua University)
Cost: Free (official certificate available for $49)
This academic course focuses more on how to write a scientific paper rather than an essay.
A scientific paper usually talks about specific research or experiments. Sometimes it can also include a summary of all the research done by other scientists about one topic.
Along with scientific papers, you can also learn how to make a scientific presentation or submit proposals for funding. In other words, it teaches you all the communication skills needed to become a researcher.
Since the course is created by a Chinese university, it focuses on the differences between academic cultures in Western and Eastern countries. It also tells you about important rules and protocols that are followed by major universities and research bodies around the world.
Pre-college English (Saylor)
Cost: Free (includes certificate)
Although this course is not designed specifically for English learners, it can still be very useful for them. The course has a special emphasis on the foundations of reading and writing such as spelling, grammar and sentence structure. At the same time, intermediate learners will be challenged to focus on ideas, arguments and organization of their points.
This provides the perfect opportunity for you to take the first step towards combining basic English skills with more advanced skills such as logic and presentation of ideas. This course is best for upper-intermediate English learners.
It mainly focuses on two things. The first part deals with active reading. This includes reading deeply to gain the most information possible from a text. It also includes identifying main ideas and major themes. This course teaches you some simple strategies that help you do all of this.
The second part deals with analytical writing. The word “analytical” comes from “analysis,” which means to examine the parts of something carefully. In this context, analytical writing means combining ideas and presenting them in a way that makes sense to other people. You will learn how to write a good introduction and conclusion and how to summarize a lot of information quickly.
Each unit in this course has a study guide that provides a summary of the main content and intended goals of that unit. It also includes a list of important words used in that unit and their meanings.
Exploring English: Shakespeare (British Council)
Cost: Free
Shakespeare is the best known English writer in the world. Even though he wrote many centuries ago, all of his works are still read and performed in almost all parts of the world.
This course teaches you English words and expressions by using five plays written by Shakespeare. This course was made for non-native English speakers, so they simplify the works of Shakespeare so that learners are able to understand them.
Along with vocabulary and idioms, this course also gives some historical background about Shakespeare and introduces the main ideas and themes of each play.
You can review what you have learned with the short quizzes that are provided with the course. You can also have conversations with learners around the world and share your opinions and ideas.
Since Shakespeare is such a well known writer, learning about him will also allow you to talk about his works with native English speakers in almost any country.
Courses for Successful Professionals
Easy English for Meetings
Cost: $49 (discounts offered regularly)
Business meetings are essential to any corporate employee’s daily routine. Meetings are used for making decisions, discussing results and presenting new ideas or having conversations with clients.
An employee’s performance in these meetings determines how the boss sees him or her. Indeed, business meetings are often used to decide whether an employee gets a promotion or not.
This course is designed to help intermediate English learners develop particular skills that will help them use English for business meetings. These skills include planning a meeting, writing invitations for a meeting, setting an agenda and more.
The course is offered by an English trainer who has nine years of business English teaching experience. The course uses videos, texts and other multimedia resources to teach students.
You can access this course on your mobile device, so that you can learn while traveling or anywhere else. You can also download the course materials for offline access.
This course is offered on Udemy, another popular online education platform. The great thing about Udemy is they frequently offer huge discounts on their course prices.
Business English: Making Decisions (Open University)
Cost: Free
As a professional you have to constantly make decisions that affect the work of a large number of people. Communication is one of the key components in any decision making process.
This course is specifically designed for learners who eventually want to work in the U.K. But it is beneficial for all professionals who either want to work in an English-speaking country or an English-speaking organization.
This course will help you understand the decision-making process as it works in the business world. You will learn how to use English skills to make a plan, share with it with others, take and give feedback and reach a decision.
It also gives you a background about business culture in the U.K.
Each section of the course has interactive activities that help you practice and get a better sense of how businesses usually make decisions.
It also covers parts of grammar such as phrasal verbs in the context of business English.
The best thing about the course is that you can download all the material and complete it at your own speed.
Preparing to Network in English (Washington University)
Cost: Free (official certificate available for $99)
“Networking” is a popular term in the business world. It means meeting new people who might be useful in improving your professional life.
In this course, intermediate English speakers learn how to network in a professional setting. The rules of networking are quite different from the rules of a workplace. It is also different from a casual party where you make new friends.
This course explains the basic rules of interaction in these settings.
You will learn how to use social media websites like LinkedIn and face-to-face meetings to make new connections. You will also learn to introduce yourself effectively in English.
This course also explains business culture in the U.S. and Canada and teaches you how to greet people in a culturally appropriate way.
Using the lessons and the activities in this course, you will also be able to identify what makes you unique to help you stand out from all your competitors.
This list of intermediate online English courses will surely help you beat the “Middle Child Syndrome” of English learners. Just choose a course that is right for you and keep practicing. And once you think you are ready to go to the advanced level, try these strategies to learn all the skills you need to reach fluency.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
