August 19, 2026 10:05 am (IST)
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British Council launches free open online courses for IELTS, English
Kolkata, May 8 (IBNS): The British Council has announced the launch of a series of free Open Online Courses for teachers and learners via the FutureLearn platform on popular demand.
Registrations are now open for Understanding IELTS: Techniques for English Language Tests and Exploring English: Language and Culture.
The course on Understanding IELTS: Techniques for English Language Tests is beneficial for aspirants of higher education and global migration.
The curriculum will take the learners through each stage of the IELTS test — reading, writing, speaking and listening.
Those interested in Exploring English: Language and Culture will get to know more about the language, British culture and ways of improving their English language skills. The program does not follow a language syllabus but takes authentic English in context as a starting point.
In April 2015, a four-week course on Understanding Language: Learning and Teaching was also launched for teachers of English. This course focused on exploring English language and tactics of learning and teaching other languages. It introduced some of the latest ideas in research and practice in language learning and teaching.
A Facebook video contest was also launched for the participants of the course.
Over 400,000 learners have registered for British Council MOOCs earlier.
Chris Brandwood, Regional Business Development Manager, English, British Council South Asia, said, “I am delighted to announce the new series of free courses available on FurtureLearn. With these web-based courses, we continue to build on our long-standing expertise in supporting learners and teachers to improve and assess their English language ability globally. The new MOOCs will help learners to prepare for higher education study in English, and to communicate in English more effectively.”
The concept of MOOC centres on social interaction, where people engage in discussions, debates and participate in online quizzes, all of which encourage active learning. The British Council is working closely with FutureLearn and its university partners to facilitate students’ access to British Council English language content and assessment.
Candidates must be at least 13 years old to create a profile on FutureLearn. Parents can register using their own name and then supervise a child throughout the course.
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