Listening Resources

THE NEWS

All large national news services have audio and video on the home page of their websites or on an easily accessible page. 

Everybody knows the BBC:

Try these other national broadcasters. It's easy to find something interesting.

Canada

New Zealand

US public broadcasting service

http://www.pbs.org

Also check:

https://edition.cnn.com/cnn10

http://www.france24.com/en/

VOA has its news broadcasts:

https://www.voanews.com/

plus a news site specifically for learning English through the news:

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/

TRAVEL

This is a really interesting travel podcast by a couple of New Zealanders:

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY

This site is well organized, and should be easy to use on any device. The audio files are right there on the page, the topics are good, and the presenter speaks clearly, so that you can follow, even if your listening level in English is not that great.

Similar to the site above, but with more on the natural sciences, this is an excellent Canadian popular science programme. Go down the page to find recent past episodes. Each episode contains a number of interviews on different topics.

You almost certainly know about:

https://www.ted.com/talks

Check anything available from NASA, but especially:

https://www.nasa.gov/podcasts

BUSINESS ENGLISH AND GENERAL ENGLISH

Try:

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/business-english/learn-business-english-online/

See the list of sites on the blog, especially:

https://www.edx.org/

You will easily be able to filter subjects on that site.

Here is a well-made video series about hiring a new manager, containing vocabulary preparation exercises. (Persevere with it, and stay with the story.):

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/youre-hired

You can also search for a subject of professional interest at:

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/professionals-podcasts

The following includes pronunciation work:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/hygiene/towardsadvanced-syllabus

This site is good for vocabulary:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/persian/features/6-minute-english

It's already mentioned above that:

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/

contains a wide range of subjects currently in the news.

TOEIC

For TOEIC listening, it's best to start with the sample questions from ETS, the company which organizes the test. If you do this, you will be able to decide if other online 'TOEIC practice' material is appropriate.

Answers are here:

Online TOEIC listening practice is of variable quality. It's sometimes difficult to find the questions and answers for the audio, so make sure you find something which is complete. If you search "youtube toeic listening", it's a good idea to check some comments and the number of up/down votes before starting to use the material.

The following site is easy to use, and is set at the correct level of difficulty:






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