Fullspate audio material

There is a risk when we teach English that not only do we pay insufficient attention to listening skills but we also fail to make good use of the masses of audio material that are relevant to the EFL/ESL classroom. There is a heck of a lot of stuff that we can listen to, and an increasing amount of it is available for download on the internet. The files are often big and downloading them either needs a lot of patience or a super-fast internet connection, but we would say it is worth the effort. Audio material is such a stimulating way to present new language. The chances are that a word heard in an interesting context is much more likely to be remembered (and remembered effortlessly) than a word silently read on a printed page.

We are beginning to make our own very hesitant attempts at producing audio material (see the first files listed below) but further down the page are links to a wealth of richer resources. And if you know of more, do share them with us.

Here are the links to our audio files.

• The schwa - echoes of the jungle in spoken English
  Get to know the sound that some say is the key to natural-sounding English.

• How to hesitate
  A series of talks showing how native speakers use certain phrases when they hesitate.

• Using songs to "tune into" the rhythms of spoken English
  A nice little song from Just Jack as an example of how some songs can help us tune into the rhythms of spoken English.

• Urban Legends
  Is it true that electric fans are responsible for the deaths of so many people?

Free audio goodies elsewhere

Here are a few places to find audio files for free.

Voice of America has a good range of monologues about topics in the news although the artificially slow rate of delivery will not be to everyone's liking.

ESLpod.com has some quite interesting dialogues in American English about issues of general interest complete with vocabulary explanations and comprehension questions. Again, the unnaturally slow rate may be a major drawback.

Thewordnerds.org is our favourite so far with long interesting dialogues in American accents sometimes about oddball topics, delivered at a normal speed (as it should be, in our opinion). Very professional.

Businessenglishpod.com has lengthy and very well presented explanations of business terms in American accents sometimes with the transcript unfolding at the same time. A great resource for business terminology.

Freetalklive.com is not an EFL resource but something akin to an American online phone-in programme with conversations between the anchor-man (Ian) and everyday Americans talking about what's been on their minds. No vocab help of course and sometimes the quality of the voices over the phone makes comprehension a little difficult, but genuine stuff.

The BBC World Service has its Learning English department that offers a range of audio material in the very best of British accents.

Download entire American radio broadcasts from the National Public Radio archive. Teachers who want to deal head on with some of the thorniest social issues might like the Democracy Now prgrammes which are listed in this archive.

CNN - the American mainstream news network - also do podcasting

e-pron.com offer a wide range of pronunication exercises that don't get too technical, including things like sentence stress.

manythings.org have lots of texts to read while listening to them being read in an American accent. Plus other listening and pronunciation exercises (like tricky word pairs and tongue twisters).

Why not download an entire audio book? Find these at freeaudio.org, scottsigler.net or librivox.org.

Know of anything better? Let us know so we can put the word around.

Turn texts into speech online

A tip from Gail Hawthorne via a useful article in the Times Educational Supplement: You can use your own text or any nice text you come across and use a free service on the web to change it into an audio file, using software to create simulated speech, choosing from a range of different accents.

One site offering this for free is www.readthewords.com. Once you register just copy and paste the text into the relevant box, choose one of 16 canned voices, click the button to convert and either wait or have them send the audio file by email.

A version more fun for kids is www.voki.com. Here users get to create a speaking avatar, choosing from fun stuff like a range of hairstyles and skin complexions. By pasting in a short text it can then be given a voice. If everyone in a class has access to the internet, they could create an avatar and have it say something interesting (for homework) to "show and tell" in the following lesson.

Learning English from the Pussycat Dolls

And why not learn English from the Pussycat Dolls? Heck, why not?

Some lyrics - even bad ones by the Pussycat Dolls - can provide a useful focus for discussion, but more importantly they can provide excellent examples of the way words undergo interesting transformations when they get run together in vocal English.

The Pussycat Dolls - you may remember - gave us a great example of how the phrase "Don't you ..." becomes "Doancha ..." as in "Doancha wish yuh girlfriend woz hot like me."

This fun teaching aid can be found HERE.

As for the lyrics, one question I would ask is: Does the first verse make sense?

I know you like me (I know you like me)
I know you do (I know you do)
Thats why whenever I come around she's all over you
And I know you want it (I know you want it)
It's easy to see (it's easy to see)
And in the back of your mind
I know you should be home with me

Dont cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me
Dont cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me
Dont cha, dont cha
Dont cha wish your girlfriend was raw like me
Dont cha wish your girlfriend was fun like me
Dont cha, dont cha

Footnote: To some students, the phrase "she's all over you" may be a new one, and there is an interesting contrast here with the phrase "It's all over" (not in the song).

Thinking of ways to supplement this (coz there's not a helluvalot to be said about this particular song)? How about Britney Spears's "Gimme More"? This is a perfect example of how "give me" becomes "gimme", and for students who can't get to grips with this at the first hearing Britney repeats it one or two (or 30) more times. (A snippet of the song would suffice.)