Level 100 = beginner/advanced beginner
Level 200 = intermediate
Level 300 = upper intermediate
Level 400 = advanced
Need a dictionary to
help you with new vocabulary? Click here.
Level 300 and
up American
RadioWorks Documentaries -
Over 50 online documentaries providing background, original
photography, interactive elements and streaming audio. The
documentaries cover a fascinating range of topics. The
combination of text and visuals helps the English learner to
understand the audio content. Examples include:
Witness
to Terror (9/11),
Mandela:
An Audio History, and
Global
Politics of Food. Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®
or QuickTime®, Level 300 and
up CNN
Student News - View a video of
a new news story each weekday. There is an accompanying
reading that is similar in content and structure but not a
word-for-word transcription. There are discussion questions.
Video requires a password which you get for free by signing
up for an email newsletter. An entire 10 minute version of
the shortened online video can be videotaped off CNN from
3:12 AM to 3:22 AM Eastern Time M-F.
http://.www.cnn.com/fyi Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®
or QuickTime®, Level 300 and
up English,
Baby! - Learn English free
with our online English lessons. Our ESL lessons help you
study English slang, basic English, business English and
have streaming audio to listen to natural conversations.
Authentic, entertaining material geared toward teens and
twenties. Great for advanced students but can be daunting
for lower levels at Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up English
Bites - This Australian site
provides interesting interviews on a wide range of topics
accompanied by videos, transcripts, vocabulary explanations,
comprehension exercises and more. There is a huge amount of
material here and the quality is very high. Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up Click here if you need to download
QuickTime® Level 300 and
up ESL
Bear Lyric Activities (Douglas
Kellar) - Complete gap-fill exercises for some of your
favorite songs. Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up Level 300 and
up Favorite
Poem Project - At this
fascinating Web site, click on the title of one of 50 poems.
You will then see a video of the person who will be reading
that poem. However, before the poem is read, the video will
explain why this poem is particularly important to the
reader at Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up Fire
Fighter Protective Clothing Tour
(Davis, California Fire Dept.) - Ever wondered how fire
fighters can survive inside burning buildings? They have to
wear very special clothing to protective themselves. At this
site you can read about, look at, and listen to information
that shows some of this protective gear. Click here if you need to download
Flash®. Level 300 and
up Level 300 and
up Level 300 and
up Marketplace
(PBS) - A daily public radio show that maintains several
years of audio archives. Shows prior to December 24, 2002
include transcripts. Excellent for building vocabulary
because the transcripts are accessible to Babylon
(www.babylon.com/)
and other online dictionaries. Especially interesting to
students in business and economics at Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up NY
Times Year in Pictures -2003 -
Although we're past the year 2003 now, this imaginative site
shows beautiful photos plus audio descriptions of the most
important events of the year in the categories of National,
World, New York, Sports and Culture. Choose low or high
bandwidth depending on the speed of your Net connection. Level 300 and
up Online
NewsHour with Jim Lehrer -
Listen to the daily news from this respected show on PBS
(the Public Broadcasting System). Some of the stories have
only audio, and others have the written text so you can read
along as you listen. Also, on the left side of the screen is
a subject index of over 30 topics. Each contains the past
NewsHour stories, again with text and audio. This is also a
good place to look if you need to do a research project for
class! Also, have a look at Online
NewsHour Extra. This is a
special resource for students. There are articles
written by students and
lesson
plans for teachers. This is a
great way to stay informed on current events. Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up Pulse
of the Planet - Listen to
short audio segments on nature, culture and science from
National Geographic. In the Archives section, you will find
short audio clips that have text you can read as you listen
at Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up Radio Documentaries - These
sites cover a wide range of extremely interesting topics.
There is something here for everyone! All of these sites
receive some support from National Public Radio.
Radio
Diaries (more than 30 stories
- people document their own lives for public radio:
teenagers, seniors, prison inmates and others whose voices
are rarely heard, includes transcripts); Transom
(topics that don't normally appear on radio, accompanied by
articles); Hearing
Voices (an offbeat collection
of stories, some with illustrated articles and transcripts
to accompany the audio); Sound
Portraits is dedicated to
telling stories that bring neglected American voices to a
national audience. Audio is accompanied by a story,
transcript and sometimes links to additional resources.
Explore these resources to learn more about the U.S. and the
world at large! Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up Scientific
American Frontiers (PBS)
&endash; An amazing site with all the Scientific American
Frontiers shows back to 1990 archived. Since they allow
educators to videotape their broadcast shows and use them
for up to a year, this is also a good support site for
classroom video use. Includes quizzes and other support
materials at Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up UEfAP
- Using English for Academic
Purposes(Listening) - Designed
for English learners in academic settings, this Web site
combines advice, based on current research, along with
interactive exercises. The listening section includes
notetaking practice too on a variety of academic topics.
This site was designed by Andy Gillett, University of
Hertfordshire at The main
page of this site gives access
to academic study materials in speaking, writing, vocabulary
and reading. A really excellent resource. Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 300 and
up Voice
of America Special English - This is a terrific site
because it combines audio material (freely downloadable)
that is designed especially for English learners (slow
speed, simple structures). At the same time, learners are
connected to content that is current and very useful =
motivating! Here is a blurb from the Web site: "Through the
years, Special English has become a very popular tool for
teaching English, although it was not designed as a teaching
program. The short sentences, limited vocabulary and slow
pace of speaking make it easy to understand. It succeeds in
helping people learn English in a non-traditional way.
People around the world practice their listening and
speaking skills by recording the programs and playing them
repeatedly. Internet users can also listen to programs on
the Special English Web site while reading the text. And
they can receive scripts of features by e-mail. Here is a
"how
to use the site" link.
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/index.cfm Level 300 and
up Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 400 Historical
Voices - The purpose of
Historical Voices is to create a significant, fully
searchable online database of spoken word collections
spanning the 20th century - the first large-scale repository
of its kind. Historical Voices will both provide storage for
these digital holdings and display public galleries that
cover a variety of interests and topics. There are two ways
to use the site: 1) You can access galleries that contain
audio materials. Currently, the galleries include:
Studs
Terkel: Conversations with America,
The
Oyez Project (including
streaming audio of oral arguments in front of the U.S.
Supreme Court), Earliest
Voices (voices from the first
50 years of audio recording), History
and Politics Out Loud (speeches
and personal communications), and The
African Digital Library
(Western African affairs in multiple languages). 2) You can
look for audio materials on a content area of your choice
using the search engine on the site. Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 400 Justice
Talking (National Public
Radio) - Learn about some of the most important political
and legal issues in the U.S. today by hearing debates
between experts. There are over 100 debates. In addition to
the debates, you have access to an overview on each topic,
introduction to the guests, court cases and additional Web
resources, and a quote on the topic. A great way to practice
your listening while learning information critical to
understanding the U.S. political/legal system and the values
underlying it at Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 400 SoundLearning
(Minnesota Public Radio) - Sound Learning is a launching
point to Minnesota Public Radio's content on the Web. Choose
from the following content areas: English/Language Arts,
Social Studies, Music, Family/Consumer Science at Level 400 Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Level 400 Do you want more? See Listening
Resources for English Language
Learners (Ohio University).
You'll find Listening, Skills, Activities, and Broadcasts
& Podcasts at Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®. Click here if you need to
download
RealAudio®.
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/documentaries.html
Breaking-News
English - Ready-to-use EFL /
ESL lesson plans based on current affairs. All of these
current events lesson plans contain a news article,
listening (MP3 file), communication activities, pair work,
discussion, reading and vocabulary exercises. Classroom
handouts are reproducible in Word and PDF. Updated
daily.
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/index.html
http://www.englishbaby.com/
http://australianetwork.com/englishbites/
English
Listening Room (Charles Kelly)
- Listen to the songs (they are fast!) and fill in the
blanks for the missing words. This is part of the larger
site, "Interesting
Things for ESL Students."
http://www.manythings.org/pp/
English-Trailers.com
- Do you like to watch the coming attractions for movies?
These are called "trailers" and they are short,
action-packed summaries of the movie. Now you can choose
from more than 50 trailers to watch and then do English
activities: summary, cloze, script, quiz and Web links. The
exercises help you understand the trailers and the Web links
are there for you to find out more information about the
movies and the people in them. If you sign up as a member,
you can see even more trailers and you can send the results
of the language activities to your teacher. Cool!
http://www.english-trailers.com/
http://www.eslbears.homestead.com/lyrics.html
ESL
Business News - ESL Business
News is a new weekly podcast of international business news
read in slow, clear English. In addition to a link to an MP3
file of the podcast, the http://www.eslbusinessnews.com
website provides a link to the script that accompanies each
podcast so that the listener can follow along, making it an
ideal learning tool for students studying business
English.
http://www.eslbusinessnews.com/index.html
http://www.favoritepoem.org/
You'll need Flash v. 6 or later.
http://www.ci.davis.ca.us/fire/pct/
Light
Up Your Brain - Classic
children's stories (though loved by us older people too),
such as "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "How the Leopard Got
His Spots." mp3 files download to your computer or play
directly. You can also read the text while you listen, which
makes this site accessible to intermediate level ESL/EFL
students. There is also a games section when you're finished
listening to stories! at
http://lightupyourbrain.com/stories.html
LingualNet
(Michael and Keiko Rost) - According to the founders,
"Lingual Net builds on the central theme of 'learning
English through movies'. Why movies? Movies-- from home made
videos to full length feature films-- represent the essence
of communication." When you visit the site, you can watch
videos/films in the following categories: Narrative,
Animation, Commercials, Cine-Poetry, Homemade, Documentary
and Travel. Learners can view the materials with or without
subtitles, and can also answer quiz questions as they view.
Finally, learners can submit a review of the materials
they've watched. There's a lot of creative and engaging
media here so give LingualNet a visit at
http://www.lingual.net/index.php
http://www.marketplace.org/
The
Moonlit Road - Ghost stories
and strange folk tales from the American South. Click on the
"Hear the Storyteller" links to listen as storytellers read
these strange tales, complete with excellent sound effects.
After starting the audio, you can click on "Read the Story"
to see the text as you listen.
http://www.themoonlitroad.com/featurestories001.html
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/photo/20031229_YIP2003/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/newshour_index.html
http://pulseplanet.nationalgeographic.com/
http://www.pbs.org/saf/archive.htm.
Stone
Soup - Listen and read along
as youth read stories that they wrote themselves.
http://www.stonesoup.com/main2/listen.html
http://www.uefap.co.uk/listen/listfram.htm
Youth
Radio - Youth Radio's Web
Radio station is dedicated to keeping listeners updated on
what's going on in the world for today's young people
through music and commentaries. In addition to listening to
music, pick a topic from the list on the left side of the
window. You will hear a commentary and can follow along with
the text at
http://www.youthradio.org/webradio/index.shtml
http://www.historicalvoices.org/galleries.php
http://www.justicetalking.org/
http://www.soundlearning.org/
Studio
360 - A new national radio
show about arts and culture, hosted by novelist and
journalist Kurt Andersen and produced by Public Radio
International and WNYC. Current issues, events and trends in
art are a jumping off point for an exploration of ideas that
aren't necessarily "news," yet are provocative and offer a
lens on experience that only art can provide. Studio 360
presents richly textured and emotionally resonant stories
that look at art's creative influence and transformative
power in everyday life at
http://www.wnyc.org/studio360/index.html
Talking
History - based at the
University at Albany, State University of New York, is a
production, distribution, and instructional center for all
forms of "aural" history. Our mission is to provide
teachers, students, researchers and the general public with
as broad and outstanding a collection of audio
documentaries, speeches, debates, oral histories, conference
sessions, commentaries, archival audio sources, and other
aural history resources as is available anywhere at
http://www.talkinghistory.org/index.html
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