14 Digital and Print Magazines Made for English

Learning
fluentu.com/blog/english/learn-english-magazine-2/

Dhritiman Ray February 15, 2018

Magazines can be your companions in your English learning journey while still being
entertaining.

You may’ve already discovered authentic English magazines for reading practice. In this post,
we’ll specifically cover magazines that are made for learners like you.

These English learning magazines are full of practical language tips, useful activities and, of
course, great articles in English.

Contents

How to Use Magazines to Maximize Your English Learning

Know your goals: Are you learning English to study abroad? Or are you learning
English to expand your business? Choose English magazines that are relevant to your
goals. That way, you’ll learn vocabulary that matters most to you.

Scan the whole magazine first: Before reading any article, first go to the index (the
list of articles and their page numbers, usually found at the beginning of the magazine).
Look for titles that match your interests.

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The scanning process also helps you structure the information more clearly, since you
already know the main theme and topics of the articles and how they relate to one another.

Start with the shortest pieces: Once you’ve selected all the relevant articles, start
with the shortest one. Very often, ambitious learners pick a lengthy piece about some
difficult topic, and quit midway because of mental exhaustion.

Finishing an article boosts your learning motivation. So start with an article that you can
finish comfortably so you don’t run out of steam.

Time yourself: Record how much time you took to read each article. Also note the
length of the article you finished. After finishing a session, compare the amount of time
between sessions to see if you’re improving or not.

If your speed is slowing down or isn’t fast enough, try to use different, more efficient reading
techniques.

Cut out the difficult words and play fill-in-the-blank: This is the best way to test
your memory immediately after reading an article. Just circle the words that you find
difficult while reading and cut them out after you finish. Then try to put them back in
the right places based on their meaning and context.

Start conversations in social media after reading: Most articles are about

popular or important topics that are relevant to other people. After finishing an article,
you can share your opinion about the topic by posting a status on Facebook or Tweeting
about it.

14 Fantastic Print and Online Magazines for English Learners

Print Magazines for English Language Learners

Hot English Magazine

This magazine is more directly about English learning. It focuses on idioms, grammar
and conversation tips.

Every issue has 500 idioms that you can use in your daily life. It also gives you topics for
starting a conversation, along with the latest news from the English world, so you don’t feel
clueless when talking with natives.

This magazine is ideal for learners who need to learn English for work or exams,
but it also caters to learners who need English for other reasons. Since it starts with
fundamentals such as grammar and vocabulary, this magazine is good for beginners who
need to build up the basics.

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The practical tips it provides help learners quickly apply their
knowledge to real life and improve their skills really fast.

Just English

This is a magazine published by a Malaysian company. It has two

versions: Just English Explorer is for middle school,
intermediate learners, while Just English is for teenagers and
adults.

Every article in Just English Explorer is given a rating that

tells you about the reading level you need to understand the
text. This magazine is supposed to be used in classrooms but it
can also be used for self-learning.

Just English Magazine covers news, personal accounts, sports,

historical facts and short stories. It also provides tips for
succeeding in English exams. This version focuses more on skills
and has some articles that explicitly deal with grammar and vocabulary.

Overall, this is good for reading practice as all articles are graded and you can quickly select
the pieces that are relevant to you.

Eli Language Magazines

Eli has a whole bunch of magazines made for kids and young adult students at
different levels of English learning.

Ready for English is a magazine for absolute beginners and has many pictures, games and
puzzles to aid learning and make it more fun. Teen is their magazine with the highest
difficulty level.

Every magazine has some short articles for reading practice and games such as vocabulary
recall along with comic strips. They also focus on the cultural aspects of English speaking,
which is really beneficial for people who are just starting out.

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Scholastic Scope

This magazine by the well known publisher “Scholastic” is for

intermediate language learners. It focuses on both skill
building and reading practice. Unlike others, this magazine also
aims to build readers’ writing skills and their ability to
create arguments in a debate.

Each issue has informational articles and short fiction stories. It

also uses other visual aids such as infographics, which are
cartoons and charts used to represent information. Along with
the reading material, they have tasks that readers are
supposed to do after finishing an article.

Scholastic Scope also provides essay templates (patterns that

serve as guides), which can help learners understand how to structure their arguments. They
have a regular column (a series of articles on a certain topic or by a certain author that recur
in every issue) for grammar tips.

Let’s Find Out

This is another Scholastic magazine meant for beginners and children. It focuses on building
the absolute basic skills and this is ideal for learners who are just starting out. It
features various activities for English learning. It also has basic and short articles about
science and social studies, along with narrative texts that can serve as quick reading practice.

Since this is for absolute beginners, the magazine uses a lot of pictures so that the learners
can make associations between the images and the words.

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Storyworks

This magazine features paired texts, which are different articles

about similar topics. Paired texts help readers to connect ideas
and learn concepts and terms that are related to one
another.

Since this is also a Scholastic offering, it has learning activities

and tasks similar to Scholastic Scope and Let’s Find Out. In each
issue, you’ll find articles about science, culture, history and
debates for beginner to intermediate level learners. It also
features poetry, fiction, mythology and other kinds of literature.

This magazine is best used alongside its online version,

where you’ll also find videos and activity sheets.

S Weekly

This is a weekly magazine published by a Thai company. Its

target audience is teenagers and intermediate English
learners. Apart from the education section in the magazine, it
also prints articles related to entertainment, current affairs and
cool events, as well as letters by readers.

This magazine is unique because it incorporates native

English material, such as news reports and song lyrics. It also
features grammar and vocabulary exercises so that you can
immediately test your learning and improve memorization of the
content.

Language Magazine

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Established about 18 years ago, Language Magazine has been a
reputable source of news and resources for language
learners of all kinds. Although it doesn’t exclusively focus on
English, its general focus is on the U.S., which makes it ideal for
anyone studying American English.

Not only does it provide tips and techniques for learning, it also
focuses on culture, which is one crucial component ignored by
many other resources. The readers of this magazine are also kept
updated about research, news and international organizations.
The larger mission of this magazine is to promote the idea of
global citizenship. It also focuses on making language learning
relevant to people from all over the world.

This is best for learners who not only want to learn English but also want to learn about the
cultural and scientific aspects of language.

Babel

Babel defines itself as a magazine for language enthusiasts. It’s an

international magazine about all languages, but since it’s printed
in English, it’s a goldmine for advanced English learners.

This magazine allows you to learn not only about English, but
also about your own language and every other language in the
world. This gives you the unique opportunity to connect the
content with what you already know.

Some regular features like “Ask a linguist” and “Language games”

are especially useful for learning grammar and vocabulary. Other
columns like “Languages in the world” and “Linguistic lexicon”
expand your knowledge about the history and diversity of
languages.

Its biggest articles generally explore the larger effects of language, culture and politics. It also
has a book review section where you might find the perfect text for more intensive reading
practice.

Yes

This magazine was created for adult English learners. Its aim is to make English learning
pleasurable, not plain or boring.

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Unfortunately Yes magazines can no longer be found on the
website, but you can see examples of past issues as well as brief
English learning tips on the Yes Pinterest (at the link above).

The magazine generally has two types of articles. The “general

interest” articles talk about an interesting topic—such as the
history of English language dominance in the world. The editors
usually print articles about culture, art, history and technology.
The second type of articles help you learn grammar.

Yes uses a teaching technique where they print footnotes to

explain difficult passages in an article. Footnotes are
additional chunks of information that are printed on the bottom of the page, separate from
the actual article. They usually provide extra content so the reader can better understand the
main text. But reading these notes aren’t compulsory.

Yes doesn’t translate any passage to other languages, so it’s best for intermediate to
advanced learners. Reading footnotes might also be too confusing for beginners.

Online Magazines for English Language Learners

Unravel

Unravel is a magazine made by academics for the public. The subjects they generally deal
with relate to language learning, the history of languages, linguistics and how culture affects
language.

This is definitely for advanced learners who have a love for languages in general and
who are interested in the technical side of things. Although the topics sound quite heavy,
they’re fun to read. As a learner you’ll get in-depth knowledge about how language functions
and why certain languages are so different.

It’ll be especially useful for understanding grammar rules and how they develop. All the
confusing parts about English will be explained in a beautiful and crisp way and you might
even learn something about your own native language!

Unravel also talks about relationships between various languages, which might help learners
to connect their mother tongue with English. For instance, this article talks about how
English is influencing Denmark.

But there are also short, specific pieces, like this article providing general tips for language
learners.

TOPICS

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TOPICS is the only magazine in this list that’s totally based on learners’ contributions.
TOPICS is a community of English language learners from all over the world and even you
can publish an article if you’re proficient enough.

There’s a “Learning English” section where learners talk about their experience of learning
English. The section is further divided into three categories:

“Classroom Experiences,” where people share insights from formal English study

“Foreign Exchange Students,” which revolves around cultural learning from visitors to
the U.S.

“Our Thoughts on Learning English,” where you’ll find helpful tips and strategies from
experienced learners

Another section called “Language Corner” is where you’ll find resources to learn idioms,
grammar and vocabulary.

You might also get to meet new people online and perhaps connect with a learning partner
who can practice speaking and reading English with you.

English Magazine

This is one of the most extensive reading resources available for English learners
online. This is a free magazine developed by the Learn English Network. The content is
divided into several columns.

The “Language Articles” section is the most relevant for any English learner. It provides tips
for all aspects of English learning such as internet slang, the various types of English, online
learning, grammar and even the history of certain words.

“Reading Articles” provides psychological tips and other strategies to make reading easier.
This section is more about how your mind works and how you can make learning more
efficient. For instance, this article talks about how using your imagination can improve
memory.

There are many other sections dedicated to news, science, technology and even travel. Any
English learner will definitely find something useful in this online magazine.

British Council Magazine

The British Council is one of the most reliable and respected sources to learn English. Their
magazine is especially made for reading practice. They post articles about a variety of topics
relating to daily life. For instance, they have articles related to the beach, calendars, food, gun
control and so on.

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Each article contains an audio narration, which can be very helpful for pronunciation
and listening practice. At the end of every article are a bunch of activities to test your
skills.

The magazine is also good for learning new and relevant topics. For example, they have
profiles of famous people and they explain common holidays celebrated in English-speaking
countries. They also have articles about current debates such as animal rights or climate
change.

Magazines can help you enter the world of English speakers, while also teaching you
grammar or vocabulary. Since these magazines are geared towards English learners, you’ll
also get more explanations and guidance, compared to regular English magazines which have
a lot of slang and trendy words.

You can also find learner-friendly versions of other English media, such as music, podcasts,
books and videos. They can help you build your skills in many of the same ways that these
magazines can. Some language learning resources can even take English media meant for
native speakers and transform them into lessons.

For example, FluentU takes authentic English videos, such as movie trailers, music videos,
and news reports, and equips them with learner tools. For every clip, there are interactive
subtitles to look up what any word means, as well as flashcards and quizzes that can test your
writing and speaking skills.

Your studies can take an interesting spin once you try out resources like magazines and other
non-textbook content. With them, you can develop a well-rounded understanding of English
and the English-speaking cultures.

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