Editorial Policy

Who is responsible for the content

Virtuous English Academy is founded and directed by Vugar Novruzov, who holds the role of Academy Director. He sets the framework every lesson is written against, reviews the published curriculum, and is the signatory on the placement certificates the site issues.

Editorial responsibility is not distributed or anonymous. If a lesson on this site is wrong, there is a named person accountable for it, and the fastest way to reach him is through the contact page.

The material itself is produced by a small team of language educators, curriculum designers and software engineers working to a single shared standard, described below.

What every lesson is written against

The whole site is organised around the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), which defines what a learner at each level should be able to do. Nothing here is levelled by feel.

• Level — a structure or a word appears at the CEFR level where the framework places it, which is why the present perfect is taught at A2 and reported speech at B1.
• Sequence — lessons assume only what earlier lessons have taught. A B1 page will not quietly rely on a B2 structure.
• Vocabulary — the word lists are sized and graded per level, from 300 words at A1 to 2,100 at C1, and each word is placed at the level where a learner would first need it.
• British English — spelling, vocabulary and pronunciation follow British usage throughout, and where American usage differs materially we say so rather than ignore it.

How a lesson is actually built

A page on this site is assembled in a fixed order, and each stage is checked before the next begins.

• The scope is set from the CEFR descriptor for that level — what the learner should be able to do by the end.
• The teaching content is written: the explanation, the errors learners at that level actually make, the model sentences and the questions.
• The practice is written against the explanation, so that every quiz item tests something the page has taught.
• The page is reviewed for accuracy, level and British usage before it is published.
• Once live, it is corrected whenever a reader or a review turns up a problem.

The result is a page that teaches something specific rather than a template with the topic name substituted in. That distinction matters to us: a word list with no explanation attached is a database, not a lesson.

Where we use AI, and where we do not

We use AI tooling in building this site, and we would rather say so plainly than let you discover it.

What it is used for

• Drafting and structuring material at scale — a curriculum of this size could not be produced by a team of our size otherwise.
• Generating consistent example sentences and practice items against a fixed specification.
• Checking level consistency and spotting where a page has drifted above or below its CEFR band.

What it is not used for

• Publishing without review. Material is checked against the framework before it goes live, and the named Academy Director is accountable for what is published.
• Inventing sources, credentials, qualifications or endorsements. We do not claim accreditation we do not hold.
• Replacing the correction process. When a reader reports an error, a person reads the report and fixes the page.

Our position is that how material is drafted matters less than whether it is accurate, correctly levelled and genuinely useful — and that the honest way to hold that position is to disclose the method rather than to imply a different one.

Corrections and how to report an error

Errors in a language course are not cosmetic — a wrong answer key teaches the wrong thing. Reports of factual or linguistic mistakes are the messages we act on fastest.

To report one, use the contact page and tell us the page address and what is wrong. You do not need to explain the grammar; pointing at it is enough.

When we accept a correction we change the page itself rather than adding a note underneath, because a learner arriving tomorrow should not have to read a correction history to find out what is true. Substantive changes to our legal and policy pages are dated at the top of each page.

Advertising, independence and what we sell

Every lesson on this site is free. There are no subscriptions, no paywalls and no locked content. The site is funded by advertising through Google AdSense, and how that works for your data is set out in full in our Privacy Policy.

Advertising has no influence on what we teach or how we teach it. We do not accept payment for editorial placement, we do not publish sponsored lessons, and no advertiser sees or approves content before it is published. Our policy pages carry no advertising at all.

We do not sell courses, books, tutoring or certification, so there is no product our lessons exist to funnel you towards.

What we do not claim

Being straightforward about the limits is part of being trustworthy about the rest.

• We are not an accredited examination board. Our placement test estimates your CEFR level and our certificates record your progress on this site. They are not a Cambridge, IELTS or TOEFL result and should not be presented as one.
• We are not a substitute for a teacher. Self-study material cannot correct your speaking or respond to your particular difficulty the way a human teacher can.
• We do not offer personalised tutoring or homework marking, and we say so rather than leaving the impression that a message will get you either.