Monday, November 02, 2009

Developing Listening Skills : Podcasts

There are lots of free resources available to anyone who wants to improve their listening skills, and below I have put together a list of links which could provide you with audio material and podcasts which you can access for free and practice listening to in your free time. You'll need some software to manage subscriptions to podcasts, and iTunes is an obvious choice, with its own searchable podcast directory.

To start with some slightly less academic material, it's worth visiting the audio/visual pages of the Economist website. The BBC website also has audio and video supplements to its news stories, which allow you to read text and then listen to an oral version of the same story (not the same words though). The BBC also provide a huge bank of podcasts on a range of topics. Navigate the menus on this page to find something relevant to your field. The Guardian has a similar wealth of audio material on mostly serious subjects here. Extra software is not necessary for audio provided by the Guardian.


For more academic listening materials, openculture is a useful hub of links to universities all around the world offering free audio resources. Universities with lectures available as podcasts include Bath and Ulster.


I think that should be more than enough to keep you going. Let me know if you need any suggestions as to activities to do while listening to these recordings.




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