Cailey Johanna
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The Top 7 English TV Apps for Language Learners
Imagine getting home after a long day, then relaxing as you pull out your phone and watch your current favorite show.
Whether you’re into thrillers, comedies or binge-worthy TV series, the best TV apps give you access to tons of great shows and videos at any time.
You’ll also get to pick up new vocabulary, improve your listening and learn more about English-speaking culture.
These top seven English TV apps will help you do exactly that. You’ll be able to watch both educational episodes and authentic English TV shows, from home or on the go.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Netflix
Highlights: From Scratch | Dahmer | Love is Blind
I can’t talk about TV apps without including Netflix. Today, Netflix is one of the most well-known services for watching English TV shows—and shows in many other languages. There are a ton of selections on Netflix and many of them have the option to add English subtitles.
Subtitles make it easy to learn because you can read the words while you hear them. The best form of practice is to play an authentic English show with English subtitles, so you learn the written and spoken words.
But if you’re not quite ready for that, listen in English with subtitles in your native language. Or, there are tons of Netflix TV shows that you can watch in your native language with English subtitles.
Hulu
Highlights: The Handmaid’s Tale | The Kardashians | American Horror Story
Hulu is very similar to Netflix. I wanted to include it in this list because it’s another go-to (reliable resource) for many people. One perk of Hulu over Netflix is that Hulu includes a lot more reality TV shows. Reality shows follow real people living their lives, instead of actors playing a story.
This means you can practice with conversation that’s even more real, casual and natural. This page lists Hulu’s most popular English-language reality shows for you to choose from.
Hulu also has other shows, though, so you can find something interesting no matter what you like watching. You can find cooking shows if you need to practice food vocabulary, or shows about school if you need to master your classroom English.
Tubi
Highlights: John Wick | Hell’s Kitchen | The Conjuring
Tubi has a large selection of movies and TV shows. No matter what your interests, you’re sure to find something on Tubi. The app lets you search by actor, genre or title.
One of the cool features of Tubi is that it lets you build a video queue (a list of the shows you’re interested in) so that the app will keep playing exactly what you want to see.
Tubi uploads new content every week. That means that you’ll always have tons of new options to choose from, so you’ll never get bored of practicing English while watching TV on Tubi.
BBC Learning English
Highlights: Big Business | News Review | English in a Minute
This resource is designed with language learners in mind, with videos that tend to be shorter and often more educational. The TV clips include news reports, English lessons and dialogues, etc.
BBC Learning English lets you view and read the transcript of the video. Try reading the transcript before watching the video to see how much you can understand. Then watch the actors and see if you understand more the second time.
Finally, BBC Learning English offers several quizzes and tests if you want to push yourself a little harder and make sure that you’re learning while you watch TV.
FluentU
Highlights: Vincent Van Gogh Visits the Gallery | Brooklyn Nine-Nine: “I Want It That Way” | Meaning of Life According to a Scientist
FluentU gives you the best of both worlds: authentic English TV and helpful language learning tools. The program has hundreds of clips from real English content that native speakers actually watch. This means you can study the language with clips from TV shows, movie trailers, news segments, commercials and more.
Each video has a transcript and interactive subtitles. When you hover your mouse over a word, you get a quick definition. Click on it and you’ll see more information, including example sentences, audio readings, video clips where the word is used and the option to save the word as a flashcard.
You can review the vocabulary in each video by taking the quiz that follows it. You can also study your saved vocabulary words with personalized exercises that track your learning. With the mobile app, you can even practice pronunciation through speaking questions.
English Club TV
Highlights: ECTV News | What Did They Say? | Worth Seeing
English Club TV is all about educational videos. Many of the videos give you English language learning tips, and can help you learn grammar, spelling and vocabulary as you watch.
This app doesn’t have as much of a selection as the others on the list, but I wanted to include it because each video is specifically made to help you learn English. At the end of each video, you can take a short quiz to see how much you’ve learned.
TVPlayer
Available on: Android
Highlights: Queen Elizabeth II: Reign Supreme | Animal Instinct | Digital Addicts
TVPlayer has nearly 30 channels that you can watch anytime, with diverse themes like food, history, sports, nature and fitness. Some of the channels on TVPlayer even show live footage, so with this app, you’ll feel like you’re watching real TV.
Many of the channels can be recorded. This is great if you just don’t want to miss an episode, but it’s also great for language learning.
By recording a show, you can go back to that same episode and watch it as many times as you want. The repetition will help you remember and practice any new words you learned.
Take a look at these English TV apps and get comfortable no matter where you are. You can learn while you watch your favorite shows plus some great resources specifically designed to help you learn English and speak like a native.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
