Here's an excellent source for English
listening practice. You'll find lots of exercises here for all
levels. Just click on the level or type of exercise that you
want to try. Some of these are original exercises and some
are links to other listening exercises. These will keep you
busy for a long time!
Listening to as much English as possible is a great way to improve your
ability. At this site, you'll find some very interesting radio stories
about American people. The stories were originally broadcast on American
public radio stations.
There are 19 stories to listen to on this site. To see the complete
list, click on the archive link.
Your Turn: Listen to one or more of these stories. If you have trouble
understanding the story, listen to the story again. As you listen, write
down vocabulary words that you don't understand. Use your dictionary to
find the meanings. After listening, write a short report on the story.
Answer these questions:
1) What were the main events in the story?
2) Who were the characters (people) in the story?
3) Where did the story take place?
4) What kind of story was it? (Funny, serious, sad, etc.)
5) Did you enjoy the story? Why or why not?
Do you watch the news on TV?
Ananova is the world's first virtual
newscaster. She's not a real person,
but a computer creation. She has
been programmed to read real news
in a realistic way.
To watch the newscast, just click
on her picture.
What do you think about Ananova?
Does she seem like a real newscaster?
Check out the links on the site
for more information about Ananova.
Your Turn: Why don't you try to do your own
newscast? Just find some news stories
on the Internet or the newspaper.
Make them shorter by editing any
information you don't need. Then
sit behind a desk and read it to
your class. (If you have a video
camera, you can even tape it!)
At this amazing site, you can listen to some of the most
famous and important speeches in history.
Every day you'll find a new speech
to listen to. Use the SEARCH BOX or the BROWSE SPEECHES menu
to find other speeches.
You can listen to many famous and
historical speeches here. For example:
-Neil Armstrong on the moon.
-Lou Gehrig saying goodbye to his fans.
-Robert Kennedy announcing Martin
Luther King's assasination.
-Edward Kennedy speaking at his
brother Robert's funeral.
-Richard Nixon announcing his
resignation.
-Paul McCartney announcing he's
not dead. Really, he's not.
Your Turn: Read a short segment of each speech
and some information about the
speech before you listen to it.
If the speech is too difficult,
listen to it several times. What
do you think the main idea is?
All of these
stories are related to sounds and you
can listen to some very rare and
interesting sounds.
For example, you can hear:
-a story about some rare tape
recordings from the Vietnam war...
-a story about how sound effects
are made for the movies...
-a story about a woman who collected
more than 4000 folk songs from her
home state of Vermont (US)...
and lots more!
To use the site, just click on the
story you want to hear. Then you can
read about the story and listen to it
on your RealPlayer.
Your Turn: Sometimes we hear so many sounds that we
don't really notice them. Think about the
sounds that you hear everyday. Pay close
attention to sounds that you hear in one
day and make a list of them. Compare them
with your classmates' lists.
Before television was popular, people in America
used to listen to exciting dramas and mysteries
on the radio.
The Mercury Theatre on the Air (1938) was one of
the most popular radio programs. Orson Welles was
a popular actor who started this weekly program.
At this site, you can listen to many of these
original shows.
The most famous show is "War of the Worlds," a
drama about Martians who invade Earth. The program
sounded like a news program, so many people thought
that Martians were really invading, and there was a
lot of panic.
Some of these shows may be a bit difficult to understand,
but they are really interesting and fun to listen to!
Do you like scary stories?
Here are four traditional ghost stories
and folktales from the American South.
You can READ these stories, or you can
LISTEN to a storyteller telling the story.
New stories will appear each month, so check
back.
Your Turn: Do you know a traditional folktale or story
from your home country? Make a few notes
about the story, and then tell the story
to your classmates.
At Randall's, you can choose from a long list of
interesting listening activities. You can choose
a level from Easy to Very Difficult.
First, listen to the conversation. Some conversations
are short, and some are longer. After you listen, try
to answer questions about the conversation to test your
understanding. Finally, you can read the tapescript to
check anything you're not sure about.
You can listen as many times as you want to each
conversation, and there is a wide variety of conversations
to choose from. There are even a few video conversations!
Takako's Great Adventure is an exciting story
about Takako, a Japanese girl who travels to
Canada to visit her pen pal, Christine.
She is met at the airport by a man who says
he is Christine's uncle. But there is something
strange about this man. Something doesn't seem
right....
This mystery has ten episodes. You can listen to
each episode and then do some interesting activities.
You can also read the tapescript for each episode.
The tapescript has a very useful feature that lets
you find the definition for new vocabulary by clicking
on the word.
Listening to the news in English is a
great way to improve your listening
skills!
At this site, you'll find links to English
news and talk shows from 14 different countries.
By listening to news from different
countries, you'll have a chance to
listen to various English accents.
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