Alan Last updated: September 23, 2023

The 25 Best YouTube Channels for Learning English in 2023

There are thousands upon thousands of English YouTube channels available to watch online.

How do you know which one is the right one for you to learn this popular language?

From language lessons to science, history, popular slang, idioms, fun facts and even English for kids, there’s something for everyone on YouTube.

We’ve created a list of the 25 best English YouTube channels to guide you in the right direction.

Let’s take a crack at them now!

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1. Rachel’s English

Rachel’s English is a great channel for learning English pronunciation. New videos are uploaded every Tuesday, so you’ll never run short of learning content. Plus, all the video lessons have closed captioning so non-native speakers can understand, as well.

The playlist “Sounds: How-To” is dedicated to helping you learn about mouth positions for each sound in American English.

More advanced learners will also find the playlist “Words That Reduce” useful, as they can learn how native speakers shorten words when they talk.

Rachel’s videos are packed with lessons on phonetics, pronunciation, grammar, idioms, sentence usage and examples to help you learn more easily and efficiently.

2. English with Jennifer

English with Jennifer is a rich collection of hundreds of videos that are grouped into easy-to-use playlists. There are lessons for beginners, tips to improve your writing in English, grammar explanations and much more.

What makes these videos stand out among the rest is the fresh and simple presentation and the special focus on pronunciation.

There are no scripts or actors—just real, native speakers of American English. Jennifer also offers one-on-one private lessons.

3. Business English – Learn with Business English Pod

Taking English lessons a bit further, this YouTube channel from English Pod offers viewers the opportunity to learn business English.

Each lesson is clear and thorough, covering topics such as job interviews, negotiating, talking on the telephone, presentations, meetings, supply chain management, finance/economics and contract law.

4. VOA Learning English

The VOA Learning English YouTube channel provides learners with something a bit different.

The channel offers subtitled news reports that are read out loud at slower speeds than normal. This gives the viewer time to read the subtitles and listen to every word clearly and slowly.

5. Learn American English

This is a fun YouTube channel that teaches real English slang, idioms and phrasal verbs through whiteboard lessons and cute animations. The videos show you the usage and meaning of each saying while improving your English vocabulary.

You’ll also learn pronunciation and listening skills to help you along the way. Learn American English also offers some business English lessons, as well as the opportunity improve your score on the IELTS, TOEIC and TOEFL exams.

6. KidsTV123

Yes, this channel is made for kids—but it can also help adults learn English!

KidsTV123 has a collection of songs geared toward general language learning. Many of these also focus on language elements that kids would learn in school, such as numbers, colors and the alphabet.

The videos have simple, clear animations and the songs are pleasant for you and your children to listen to!

7. Mental Floss

This is a truly unique channel offering trivia-based learning videos to teach American culture, history, science and much more.

New videos are uploaded every Wednesday at 3 p.m. EST on the Mental Floss YouTube channel.

The videos debunk myths, share fun facts and everything in between. This is a fun way to use your listening skills to study the English language while also learning some interesting facts along the way.

8. Crash Course

Like some of the other resources on this list, Crash Course is a collection of different channels.

Each channel presents a course through a series of videos using a combination of human narrators and animations. These video lessons are eye-catching and engaging.

The channel currently has about 20 different courses, with most collections containing 30 videos each. These videos offer a good variety of material to help you learn both English and other topics, like U.S. and world history, literature, government and politics, biology and even video games!

9. Study with Andrea

English teacher Andrea Giordano is the host of her YouTube channel Study with Andrea. This engaging channel is perfect for learning American English vocabulary quickly, as the bite-sized lessons are easy to follow.

It’s an especially useful resource for advanced vocabulary, idioms and phrasal verbs.

The host also speaks slowly and clearly, making it easier for learners to understand every word.

10. Learzing

Learzing makes learning English fun and easy by sharing short videos of idiomatic phrases from movies, news clips, social media and more.

Learners also get to hear expressions used in the context of the story. It’s a great tool for committing new English idioms to memory and speaking more like a native English speaker.

You’ll also learn phrasal verbs and slang along the way.

11. Accent’s Way English with Hadar

Hadar Shemesh is the host of the YouTube channel Accent’s Way English with Hadar. After moving to New York, she mastered speaking American English like a native speaker thanks to the guidance of the dialect coaches in her acting school.

Now, she’s offering the same opportunities to viewers interested in learning English through her YouTube channel, focusing mainly on pronunciation and grammar.

With new videos and shorts uploaded frequently, you’ll have plenty of content available to learn English with Hadar.

12. Go Natural English

The channel Go Natural English is just that—native-spoken English taught in a natural format.

The focus is mainly on English speaking and listening skills. The channel teaches conversational phrases, grammar and English vocabulary in a relaxed format while helping you to understand English conversations easily.

13. National Geographic

National Geographic has over 20 million subscribers—and growing—because it’s a major resource for science, news, exploration, nature and adventure.

The video content is educational, telling stories that matter and inspiring people to care about the planet.

This channel is ideal for both American and British English learners: The narrators, interviewers and interviewees in their documentary videos often speak clearly and use accents from around the English-speaking world.

The videos are easy to follow even if you’re not yet at an advanced level. Plus, you can always turn on the subtitles at the bottom of the video to practice your English reading skills, as well.

14. Earthrise

Previously known as JacksGap, this channel states it has undergone a “huge transformation,” rebranding its very popular YouTube channel as Earthrise.

The channel is mainly focused on factual storytelling, with an emphasis on climate change and the current climate crisis.

This is a great learning resource for English learners, as videos are captioned with English vocabulary and subtitled when other foreign languages are being spoken.

15. Lingua Marina

Lingua Marina is hosted by Marina Mogilko, a Russian native who moved to California and speaks excellent English.

She teaches viewers that making mistakes when learning to speak English is normal. From pronunciation to vocabulary, conversational practices, listening skills and more, this channel offers a relaxed teaching approach to learning English.

16. Pronunciation Pro

Annie Ruden is the host of Pronunciation Pro, where she teaches English pronunciation and fluency to her viewers.

While pronunciation is the main focus of this learning channel, Annie also covers a variety of topics such as consonants, short and long vowels, conversational practice and listening skills.

Great for beginners to advanced learners, this channel has a host of videos to get you started toward fluency.

17. Business English with Christina

This is another great business American English resource channel. Business English with Christina helps learners become more confident in their business speaking skills while learning valuable pronunciation and grammar techniques.

New lessons are posted weekly for business entrepreneurs, international business owners and more.

Plus, if you sign up for Christina’s newsletter, you get additional learning bonuses to help you along the way.

18. EnglishClass101.com

Designed for fast, easy English language learning, the video lessons on EnglishClass101.com covers many aspects of English and its culture, so you can discover more about the countries as you learn their language.

You’ll learn through audio and video lessons with real teachers for beginners through advanced learners, with new lessons uploaded every week.

You can also sign up to receive one new word per day directly to your inbox to keep you tuned into English regularly.

19. English Addict with Mr. Duncan

With over one million subscribers and his YouTube channel going 16 years strong, this is one of the most popular and notable YouTube channels for learning English—it’s easy to see why.

The English Addict with Mr. Duncan channel has grammar, pronunciation, spelling, word definition, British expressions and idioms, and everything in between, Mr. Duncan is passionate about this teaching English and his video lessons are free to the masses.

You can also join him for live lessons every Sunday and Wednesday (2 p.m. GMT: UK time) on YouTube.

20. BBC Learning English

If you’re interested in learning English, one of the world’s most famous broadcasting companies, the BBC, offers free English video lessons via their YouTube channel, BBC Learning English.

You’ll learn proper pronunciation, grammar and conversational skills, as well as important topics regarding British culture.

There’s also a collection of videos that feature words you’ll hear in the news.

21. British Council | LearnEnglish Kids

Both children and adults who are learning English as a second language can benefit from listening and singing along to nursery rhymes (traditional kids’ songs) on the LearnEnglish Kids YouTube channel, created by the British Council.

This is a great channel for children that’s packed with animated videos and nursery rhymes. Each well-produced English-language video features entertaining cartoons and subtitles in English.

The channel also has a “word of the week” English language video series where you can see and hear children from around the world say a new word.

22. Oxford English Now

Oxford English Now boasts a fast, easy and fun way to learn English.

On this channel, you’ll find grammatical English lessons on verbs, pronouns, past and present tenses and more. You’ll also see many examples, quizzes and more.

It’s a great starting point for learners in the beginning stages.

23. mmmEnglish

With more than five million subscribers, mmmEnglish has 200 English lessons to build your vocabulary, develop pronunciation, and learn grammar and conversational skills.

There are lessons on phrasal verbs, idioms, adjectives, slang and more, so beginners and advanced learners will find an array of lesson choices at their disposal.

24. English Pronunciation Roadmap

English Pronunciation Roadmap is a clear, concise and fast-tracked learning channel geared toward teaching English.

It provides guidance on intonation, vowels, pronunciation, consonants, verbs and much more. This channel is an excellent resource to help you on your way to English fluency.

25. Papa Teach Me

Papa Teach Me is a funny and entertaining channel that has lessons on idioms, expressions, phrases, common words and much more.

Video lessons are uploaded weekly, and you’ll enjoy the humor within the lesson content—making learning a much more enjoyable experience.

What Is the Best YouTube Channel for Learning English?

Rachel’s English has to be the most authentic, diverse, comprehensive, yet clear-cut, online English learning resource on YouTube.

With nearly five million subscribers, over two million views and content updated every Tuesday, you can’t go wrong choosing this as your main go-to for learning English.

Is YouTube a Good Way to Learn English?

Yes, YouTube is a good way to learn English because:

It offers a variety of language learning resources on one platform.
Having a variety of materials can promote immersive learning, which is essential to learning a new language.
You’re able to pause and rewind YouTube English language videos whenever you need to.
Videos offer visual or audio lessons, or both.
Learning a new language on YouTube is free.

YouTube has a few downsides, as well. For instance, subtitles aren’t always accurate and you have to put in some work to study since you’ll have to keep a dictionary open as you watch. These downsides can be addressed by using a program like FluentU, which has built-in tools to help you learn with videos.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

Whether you’re a child or an adult, an absolute beginner or nearing fluency, YouTube has a vast variety of English language channels for you to learn from.

And with our list of the 25 best English YouTube channels recommended for your learning pleasure, nothing stands between you and fluency. For more online lessons, check out our posts on the best English web series on Youtube and the best websites for learning English—many of them are free!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

And One More Thing...

If you like learning English through movies and online media, you should also check out FluentU. FluentU lets you learn English from popular talk shows, catchy music videos and funny commercials, as you can see here:

If you want to watch it, the FluentU app has probably got it.

The FluentU app and website makes it really easy to watch English videos. There are captions that are interactive. That means you can tap on any word to see an image, definition, and useful examples.

learn-english-with-subtitled-television-show-clips

FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities.

For example, when you tap on the word "searching," you see this:

learn-conversational-english-with-interactive-captioned-dialogue

FluentU lets you tap to look up any word.

Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.

FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. Learn more.

The best part? FluentU remembers the vocabulary that you’re learning. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You have a truly personalized experience.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)