Listening Practice

News in Easy English:

• VOA News in Special English http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/index.cfm
• Breaking News English http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

News in Authentic English:

• National Public Radio http://www.npr.org/
• CNN http://www.cnn.com
• Reuters video http://www.reuters.com/news/video
• New York Times video http://video.on.nytimes.com/
• MSNBC (NBC News) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
• ABC TV News http://abcnews.go.com/
• CBS TV News http://www.cbsnews.com/
• CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) http://cbc.ca/news/
• BBC News (British Broadcasting Corporation http://bbc.co.uk/
• World English http://www.world-english.org/listening.htm  Here you can listen to radio broadcasts in English from the U.S., Canada, England, Australia, and other countries.
• New York Times videos  http://video.nytimes.com/?src=hp1-0-V
• 60 Minutes videos http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml
• Ordinary people read poems, tongue twisters, famous quotations, etc. http://www.repeatafterus.com

Other listening practice designed for ESL students:

• Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab http://www.esl-lab.com/
• English Listening Lesson Library Online http://www.elllo.org/
• Real English http://real-english.com/
• English Listening Lounge http://www.englishlistening.com/
• English Online Interactive: http://englishinteractive.net/
• Listen a Minute http://www.listenaminute.com/

More challenging listening practice:

• Academic Earth: "Thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars" on all kinds of topics. This is great for some challenging but stimulating listening practice. http://academicearth.org/
• TED.com. "Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to all the world." http://www.ted.com/
• iTunes-U. Apple's iTunes University. You can download and watch lectures from universities all over the world on many topics. (Best of all, it's free!) You'll need to download iTunes software, but that's free too, and it's available for both Macs and Windows computers. http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/
• RSA Animate videos. Listen to a short lecture on an interesting topic while an artist draws related illustrations. You have to see it to appreciate it. http://www.thersa.org/events/video
• Khan Academy. Thousands of short videos, especially about math, science, economics, and SAT preparation. http://www.khanacademy.org/
• Videos uploaded by Boston University teachers and students. http://www.bu.edu/buniverse/

Other cool things:

• Storyline Online. Videos of well-known actors reading children's stories. Sponsored by the Screen Actors' Guild Foundation.  http://www.storylineonline.net/
• Listen and Write Dictation Practice. http://www.listen-and-write.com/audio
• Audio Puzzler Listening Game. http://www.audiopuzzler.com/