Some students have asked about listening practice that can be done outside of class. One opportunity these days is “podcasts” – audio files like radio programs or lessons that are made available regularly to download to your computer. Most can be put on your mp3 player to listen to anywhere.
Here are some podcasts I recommend. I found them all through iTunes, but some have stopped updating, so you must go to the website.
English as a Second Language Podcast – a slow, easy dialogue or other listening exercise. The podcast also explains vocabulary, idioms, and culture notes. The website has transcripts, written vocabulary, and other notes available for people who register.
English Through Stories for intermediate and advanced learners of English. Each podcast is a part of a “soap opera” or continuing drama story. After the story, the podcast also discusses vocabulary from the story. On the website, you can read along with the story if you want to, but I recommend listening alone first. There are twelve episodes to listen to and read.
ESL Business News – “International business news read in slow, clear English.” This podcast has stopped updating, but there are five issues available for you to listen to.
Fun English Lessons – “A fun and interesting ESL podcast for intermediate to advanced students who want to learn useful vocabulary and culture. Two Canadian brothers discuss all kinds of topics and explain clearly any new vocabulary and phrases.” You can listen to these online, and there are transcripts and culture notes available for the dialogs so you can read as well as listen.
Grammar Challenge – “Improve your English grammar with the BBC. Each week we challenge an English language student on an area of the English language such as verb forms, tenses, prepositions and pronunciation. Listen to a short presentation on the topic then try to answer the questions. The programmes are recorded on location in an English language classroom. Each episode lasts for six minutes and is made available every Friday.” The website has written information about the grammar in the conversations and the challenge.
Learning English with CBC Manitoba – “…weekly English as an Additional Language (EAL) lessons based on CBC Manitoba radio stories.” There are written lessons for students to download. This is a more advanced English lesson that would be good for Intermediate and Pre-University students. To subscribe, go to the CBC podcast page and find Learning English. Note: the news, culture and situations in these lessons will be related to Canadian life.
English for All (AETN, television channel 3) – This is a TV program to help adults learn English. It has simple language and everyday situations. It plays Fridays at 5:30 a.m. & Mondays 5:00 a.m. (repeat of Friday’s episode), so you may need to record it if you can.
For some general news listening, I recommend http://www.npr.org/. There is a wide variety of stories and programs available for listening online every day on many subjects. For listening practice, try following this procedure:
1. Read any information about the story – title, pictures, summary.
2. Listen ot the story.
3. Try to answer the question: what is this story about? (Main idea – you don’t have to understand all the details.)
4. Listen again.
5. Pretend you are talking to or writing an email to a friend. Summarize the story for your friend.
NPR: Story of the Day – one news story, about 5 to 10 minutes long, is selected each day. You will hear clear American English at a normal, everyday pace and sometimes with regional accents.
Addition: Free Audiobooks and free audiobooks by women authors at Girliebooks
(Information updated 13 June 2009)
