Abstract:

Nowadays, learning foreign languages has become a competitive advantage in absolute necessity – for work, traveling abroad or for your own self-improvement. Knowledge of foreign languages is a wealth that accompanies us throughout our lives. It enables us to communicate with ease, to create new friendships, to become better in career, to feel confident and relaxed in our communication both in the business environment and in our free time.

In our busy everyday life, however, we all find it hard to spend enough time to devote ourselves to the difficult task of learning a foreign language. Our free hours are rare, and the inconveniences associated with spending and traveling to language schools often deter us from the desire to visit a language course.

Online language courses allow the user to determine the number of visits by himself, to set the speed of material studied by himself, to exercise a multitude of topics and the tasks assigned to it. The user can use the platform from different locations and devices and at the same time have the comfort of their home and optimize their free time and wishes.

Why should the users try the online courses? There are some reasons for this:
1) Comfort – the user can learn from home. It is more comfortable and it saves lots of time and money on traveling.
2) Flexibility – the user do it when it suits him. Often the progress is saved automatically so the user can take a break and come back anytime.
3) Repetition - the scientifically proven method called Spaced Repetition might be used. It is really easy to learn and hard to forget when using this method.
4) Easy to use on every device – online courses run smoothly on every computer, tablet, or smartphone. The user does not have to download or install anything.

Most of the online courses include:
1) Lessons - the user learns the most important vocabulary and phrases in beginner and intermediate lessons. One lesson usually takes 45 minutes and builds on the previous ones to refresh what the user has already learned.
2) Grammar – most of the users are afraid of grammar. But the online systems have a solution – the user progresses super fast thanks to the intuitive grammar section in the courses.
3) Audio book (available in some online courses) – the user practices listening and reading skills in an engaging way thanks to the unique audio book full of adventure and intrigue.
4) Exams - in the special exam section, the user is able to check on his progress and generate a custom lesson based on his results.
5) Conversation - the user can practice conversation with other students through Skype or forums.

The online foreign languages courses offer a large set of interactive speaking topics to help the user break the ice.

The paper provides an overview and analysis of the possibilities of different online foreign language learning systems in Bulgaria. These systems offer learning English, German, Spanish, Italian, French and Russian, most often for levels A1 and A2, and less often for levels B1 and B2. Some systems offer learning Business English, for example for presentations, emails, negotiating and meetings, or more specialized studying English for preparing for IELTS.

The paper gives a number of examples illustrating the way the material is presented - lessons, vocabulary and grammar, as well as different types of exercises to enhancing the students' learning. An overview of the final exam for obtaining a foreign language certificate is also provided here.

Keywords:

Teaching and learning, online systems, foreign languages.