Listening & Speaking Skills

During the third week we were introduced to some articles about Teaching Oral Skills. In this post I'd like to comment on the article Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials by Lindsey Miller which focuses on the importance of using authentic materials to teach listening skills. As I wrote in Nicenet, I agree with the fact that "listening skills" are valuable and often disregarded by many teachers who focus more on "speaking skills". I'd also like to highlight the importance of using authentic materials with our students even if they are beginners. As Miller mentions, the aim of listening lessons is to foster students' autonomy when confronted with listening to the foreign language in a real world context.

Here's a list of some websites which may be come in handy when you are looking for podcasts and radio programmes:

BBC World Service  In this website you'll find different radio programmes and if internet connection fails you can download podcasts.  You can choose podcasts by genre or radio station. I personally like "The English we speak" and "6 minute English". They are short digital audios which focus on a specific feature of the English language: everyday English phrases and information on different topics with examples and explanation.

VOA Voice of America is another great option. I discovered the section "The classroom" which includes videos and audios with explanations and examples about the use of idioms and how to pronounce certain words in American English. You can also find lessons and words and their origins. Let me share "Dress to kill"

If you want to work with videos, you can find good resources at English Central and Teacher's Tube. I also found some useful ones to work with my students on Teacher's TV which are now available on You Tube. These are video clips to develop creative writing.