Authentic online listenging materials
Randall's Cyber Listening LabThis is one of the most comprehensive listening sites on the web. For years, Randall has been adding to this amazing archive of audio activities. This ESL/EFL multimedia site is designed to help English learners improve their listening comprehension through a variety of audio and video conversations, interviews, and news reports. The audio clips include idiomatic phrases in American English. Exercises are separated into easy, medium, and difficult levels.
Steps to follow:
1. Read the prelistening exercises
2. Listen to the audio a few times
3. Try the vocabulary activities and text completion quiz
4. Then, at the bottom of the quiz, open the quiz script
5. Put your mouse on any of the bolded vocabulary words in the quiz script and you will be able to read their definitions.
6. Read the scripts outloud or practice the conversation with a partner, and pay attention to the pronounciation, intonation, pacing and loudness. Practice as many times as you could until you think you could master the text very well.
Introduction to English Learning PodcastsA
podcast is an audio file that you download from the Internet. After you download it, you can listen to it on your computer or on an MP3/portable music player (for example, an iPod).
ESL Pod.Com: English as a Second Language PodcastThis podcast is run by a volunteer team of experienced English as a Second Language professors in the States. More information on ESLPod.Com at
http://www.eslpod.com/eslpod_blog/about-us/ESL Podcast 466--Having a Good or Bad Bedside MannerGoing to see the doctor can be a stressful event. In this episode, you'll listen to a coversatioon about doctors. It'll use a lot of vocabulary doctors might use when you visit them.
A brief introduction to some of the important language tests
語言訓練測驗中心 (LTTC) Language Training and Testing Center
http://www.lttc.ntu.edu.tw LTTC administers various tests, including those developed by itself and those administered on behalf of other institutions. Over 400,000 people a year take tests administered by the LTTC.
GEPT (a local test)全民英檢參考字表
http://www.lttc.ntu.edu.tw/academics/wordlist.htmEducational Testing Service--ETS is a nonprofit institution advancing quality education with valid educational testing, curriculum development assets and test prep products. You should be able to find most of the major tests here. e.g.
TOEFL iBT tipse.g.
To download TOEFL IBT Sample Questions
The Pool of Issue Topics (GRE)
*
More Exposure to English from EnglishClub.Com
Songs
What a Wonderful World (
Lyrics,
Song) by Louis Armstrong (an anti-war song)
a. It's a song first recorded by Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) and released as a single in 1968. It's also a theme song in
Good Morning Vietnam.
b. The song details the singer's delight in the simple enjoyment of everyday life with a hopeful and optimistic tone to the future.
c. The song was not a hit in the United States but was a major success in the UK. It was the biggest-selling single of 1968 in the UK. The song made Louis Armstrong the oldest male to top of the charts, at sixty-six years and ten months old.
d. Armstrong was born into a very poor family in New Orleans, Louisiana, the grandson of slaves. He spent his youth in poverty in a neighborhood of New Orleans. His father abandoned the family when Louis was an infant.
e. Armstrong grew up at the bottom of the social ladder, but he seldom looked back at his youth as the worst of times but instead drew inspiration from it.
He said, "every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine—I look right in the heart of good old New Orleans...It has given me something to live for.
To find out the meaning or lyrics of an English song--
SongFactsMoviesSomewhere outhere (
Lyrics,
Song) from
An American TailAn American Tail is an animated flim that tells an familiar story in terms children can easily understand. Fievel Mousekewitz and his family of Russian-Jewish mice escape from their homeland in the late 1800s, boarding a boat headed toward America to evade the Czarist rule of the Russian cats. Fievel, however, is separated from his family upon his arrival in New York City, and he discovers to his horror that there are cats in America too (his father said there weren't). Fievel meets his share of friendly and hostile mice, and he eventually befriends a cat as well. For more info: American Immigration Past and Present
Musicals6.
A musical is a play or a film in which part of the story is sung to music.Some famous musicals: Les Miserable, The Phanton of Opera, Cats, and Annie.
Maybe from Annie (
Maybe, with lyric)
Dumb Dog from AnnieSomewhere Over the Rainbow (
Lyrics,
Song) from The Wizard of Oz (1939)-- Connie Talbot (
Song)
RadioTime--RadioTime grabs radio content from Internet radio and traditional radio stations and puts them all together into one neat package. Users don't have to rely on multiple applications and products to get the whole world of radio.
Speech technonologies for language learningby Bob Godwin-Jones
Different components
sounds--pick vs. peek
syllables,
stress of a word--preSENT vs. PREsent
intonation--
Changing Meaning through Word Stresslinking--
Linking Consonant to Vowelreduced--
Accent Reduction3.
Pronounciation
An introduction to the sounds of American English, done by the University of Iowa.
4.
Minimal Pairs--for beginning learners
What is a minimal pair? A minimal pair is two words that differ in only one sound.
Minimal pair practice5.
Two Vowel Songs
PBS Kids (Public Broadcasting Service).
When Two Vowls Go WalkingTwo Sounds Made by C6.
Accent ReductionThis is a nice accent reduction site, with everyday conversation topics.
7.
Chatbot
Short for chat robot, a computer program that simulates human conversation, or chat, through artificial intelligence. Typically, a chat bot will communicate with a real person, but applications are being developed in which two chat bots can communicate with each other. Chat bots are used in applications such as e-commerce customer service, call centers and Internet gaming. Chat bots used for these purposes are typically limited to conversations regarding a specialized purpose and not for the entire range of human communication. e.g.
Alice--an online chatbot
Two articles for extended reading--
a.
Alice chatbot wins for third timeb.
I Chat, Therefore I Am... 7.
Free Online Education Resources (English for Academic Purpose)
A.
MIT OpenCourseWare--A free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world. (highly recommended)Will be presented by Joshua.
B.
Academic Earth--Academic Earth is an organization founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world-class education.
C. A Free Resource provided by NTU
台大演講網BBC Learning EnglishA.
Words in the News e.g.
Tall people earn moreSteps:1. Read the summary.2. Listen to the report as many time as you want until you think you couldn't get anything more.3. Read the report (text) and look up the unfamiliar words in the dictionary.4. Listen to the report with the text.5. Then, listen to the report "without" text one more time and see if you could understand everything. If not, go back to the text one more time.6 . Spend several minutes to memorize the words that you think might be helpful to you.7. Keep the handout and review it once per day, in the following three consecutive days.
B.
BBC Message Board--You could ask your questions about the English language here and a teacher from BBC will answer your questions. Quite an efficient one.
C.
Learning English Blog--BBC Learning English has two blogs. One blog is updated by a student and the other blog by an English language teacher.
D.
Six Minute English--from BBC Learning English
E.
The Flatemates3.
Other News Sites
A.
Simple English News--This site provides news stories in simplified English for a wide variety of subjects. Good for lower intermediate learners.
B.
The New York Times Learning Network--Students can read the day's top stories, take a news quiz about today's world, and play special crossword puzzles. Teachers can access a daily lesson plan for grades 6-12. Each lesson plan and the article it references can be printed out for classroom use.
C.
The New York Times
