Listening. A key practice for improving your English.

Who’s this for?

English Learners, especially learners at a basic or immediate level.

Why?

Because this will make English easier to understand. You will get use to the sounds and the patterns of English and this will also help your speaking skills. You will find it easier to hold conversations in English.

Listening and English

Listen more. Listening is the forgot skill in language learning. It’s also easy to do these days. You can have English on your smart phone, your MP3 player, your computer and TV

Listen to Simple English

Listen to simple English because you will learn faster that way. Many people listen to CNN and BBC news when it’s far too difficult for them. They would learn faster by listening to simpler English.

Simple English Resources

Lingq - Listening and Reading materials

Lingq has lots of short stories and texts with audio. Most of the listening and reading material is free. They have a big library of listening material at all levels. Join them and you will be able to download a lot of useful listening material for English (and other languages).



This YouTube channel has lots of stories for children. They are simple to understand and you can read along as well.

British Council - Simple Short Stories

A collection of short stories in video. The stories are easy to understand and use basic language.

Be Your Language Learning Boss!

Free Photography

















The good old days

Once upon a time it was difficult to get language resources. We relied on language schools to get them and to show us how to learn. We used textbooks as an entrance to a new language. Reading and writing were important activities in learning a language.

You were a student. The teacher was your Boss. The teacher’s boss was the curriculum and the curriculum was usually decided by some nerd who liked to write textbooks.

Progress was measured by exams and the level of text book that you reached. It didn’t matter whether or not you could understand a native speaker of that language.

The much better new days

Language schools are still around and thriving. Some have moved away from textbooks and offer real choice for the students.

Whether or not you choose a language school, you have much more choice now than before to be the boss of your language learning.

What’s new!

The internet.

This has allowed several things to change with language learning.

• Learners can talk to each other.
• It’s much easier to get in contact with someone who speaks the language you’re learning.
• It’s much easier to get resources.
• Language learning communities have developed based on ‘sharing’.

Learners talk to each other

This is important. The old advice was work hard and get through the text book. This simply didn’t and doesn’t work for a lot of people.

The new advice from learners

• Listen more
• Get ‘real’ language materials. Youtube has tonnes of language material, though at the moment it’s a pain to find useful stuff.
• Focus on your language Environment.
• Get resources that you enjoy.
• Involve people
• Use space repetition to help remember
• Use Audio Books.
• You can find out which language schools have been recommended by other learners.

Get in contact

Facebook, Lingq, Skype, LiveMocha and Meetup are some of the ways you can use to meet native speakers.

New Resources

Free

• Examples of using Youtube - English Dutch
• Lingq (lots of free listening resources)
• Dutch Resources

Paying Resources
• Yabla TV - Yabla English TV
• Podcasts - Germanpod101

Community learning

Lingq has lots of listening and reading material avai
lable for downloading. The community created the content. I find this approach very interesting and a forebearer of things to come in the language learning world.

Livemocha and Buusu are other language learning communities. Though I’m not sure what exactly they offer.

Free Offer for English Learners

Language Bridge is offering free use of its software for a limited period.

Get Better at Speaking English

The software is aimed at improving your English speaking. They do this through ‘shadowing’, which is basically listening, speaking and reading at the same time.

I’m not sure how long the offer is on for. So I have written to them to get more detail of when the offer will end and how long you can use it for.

What you need to do to get the Free Software?

Email info@language-bridge.com and explain why you are learning English.

State which package you want. They have the following packages;

• English for Chinese Speakers
• English for Russian Speakers
• English for Spanish Speakers
• English for Czech Speakers
• Generic Version - English for the Rest of the World
• Russian for English speakers

For free use of their software, Language Bridge wants you to share your experience of using it.

What can you say in the email?

Some examples

For Work.

I have been learning English for years but am unhappy with my spoken English. I want to improve my spoken English. With better spoken English my work opportunities will increase. I will be able to work for international companies and work with people from around the world.

For Study

I find speaking English difficult. I want to be fluent in English because I have spent a lot of time learning it. Also with good English skills I will be able to study aboard. This is something I really want to do.

For Travel

I travel a lot but my poor English makes this difficult. I want to speak English fluently so that my travels are easier. Also with fluent English I can make friends and contacts with people from different countries.

Good Luck

Chris.

Click here for link to Language Bridge