What YouTube videos are good for
There are 3 things which I recommend you use these videos for:
- Improving Grammar (Where a teacher explains how to use grammatical concepts correctly.)
- Learning Study Tips/Advice (Where a teacher explains to you ways how to study better and quicker.)
- Improving Pronunciation (Where a teacher gives you a method or teaches you how to say English words correctly.)
For these things, YouTube videos are very useful and if the person is good at what they do (because not all of them are), they will help you a lot.
What YouTube videos aren't so good for
- Improving Listening
- Learning New Vocabulary (But it depends on the type of video)
It is wrong of me to say that watching YouTube videos that try to improve your English vocabulary and listening are bad for you (because they aren't). But most of them aren't really effective at helping you to improve either of them.
Why they won't really help you
The reason why YouTube videos are not that effective at helping you to improve your listening skills is because when you are watching a video, it is very easy to stop listening to what the people are saying and just watch what they are doing or read the subtitles if the video has them.
With improving your English vocabulary, most YouTube videos are fine if you already know what the vocabulary they are teaching you means, but most of them (there are some exceptions) are not very good if you don't. The reason why is because being told by someone what new words or phrases mean and when to use them is the worst method for learning and remembering them.
The best method for learning any new word or phrase, is not being told, but working out/discovering its meaning and use by yourself. And it is the process of thinking about what a word means and when it is used that will make you remember it. And this doesn't happen when watching a video of a teacher in front of a whiteboard telling you what words and phrases mean and when they are used. However, there are some videos on YouTube which will help you learn and (more importantly) remember the meaning of new vocabulary, by not telling you what the meaning is, but getting you to decide from the context what the meaning of it is. And we have created some of these videos. You can have look at these videos for learning phrasal verbs and expressions by going to our YouTube Channel and see if you find them useful.Better ways to improve your listening and vocabulary
To improve your listening more effectively and quicker than YouTube, I recommend that you listen to podcasts or the radio. These are free and you can listen to them on your mobile/cell phone wherever you are.
To see a list of recommended podcasts to improve your listening, read my article on 'Excellent podcasts for students learning English'.
To improve your vocabulary, I would generally recommend that you regularly read in English and do online written exercises which are designed to help English learners to improve their vocabulary (like the exercises you can find on this website). But if you want to use YouTube to improve your vocabulary, I would recommend watching videos like ours and avoid those were people just tell you what the meaning is.
Remember, the best way to make sure that you understand and remember any new vocabulary you see is to use the context (the sentence and topic of the text) where you find the word or phrase to guess its meaning and use. By doing this, it will help you to both really understand what it means and remember it in the future.
In conclusion
To make the best use of your time, use YouTube videos to help you with understanding grammatical structures, to learn study tips/advice and for pronunciation. For learning vocabulary, avoid watching videos where a teacher tells you the meaning and uses and don't use them for improving your listening.
Although both listening to podcasts/the radio and learning vocabulary by reading and doing online written exercises is more difficult and takes longer then watching a 10 minute video on YouTube, you'll improve your level of English a lot quicker.
You have to remember that learning or improving your level of English isn't easy or quick. It takes a lot of time and practice. But by doing the things that I have recommended, you'll use your time better and improve your English quicker.
