MEA ENGLISH: listening

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How to improve English Skills by Listening to Music?

Listening to music is one of the most common hobbies. With only a few exceptions, everyone likes listening to music. The question is; Is it possible to turn this activity into an English learning activity? The answer is; It is possible but there are some points you should be really careful about while trying to learn English by listening to music.

First of all, not all songs are really beneficial in terms of learning English. In some songs, words aren't pronounced correctly and grammar structures aren't used appropriately. You can find a lot of examples to this situation by checking the Pop songs which are popular nowadays. However, the presence of only a few mistakes doesn't make a source useless. Despite some mistakes, you can still learn many words, usages and pronunciations from a song.
Always use the lyrics. It is really important to understand the lyrics. You can use subtitles if you are watching a music video or if you are listening to music from your smart phone, you can add lyrics to musics by using programs such as Itunes. Try to follow the songs from the lyrics for a period of time. After you feel that you can understand the lyrics without looking at them, start listening to the songs without looking at the lyrics.

Which ones are better for English Listening; Movies and T.V Series or Podcasts and Dialogues?

Nowadays there is a lot of discussion going on about listening materials. Some students put forward that they improve their listening skills by watching movies and t.v series (they last for 1-2 hours on average) while some others claim that they improve their listening skills by listening to podcasts and dialogues (they last for 5-10 minutes on average).

Students generally ask the following question ''Teacher, which one is better?''. Well there isn't a precise answer to this question. Both of them have some advantages and disadvantages which make them different from each other.

Some useful sources for English Listening

1) Elllo

Elllo is a perfect website for getting exposed to daily English conversations. There are some points which make elllo one of the best sources to improve English listening skills.

It covers a wide range of topics.
It involves not only British and American accent but also different accents from all over the world.
It provides transcripts for all the dialogues in the website.
It has a graded system which provides learners an opportunity to listen to dialogues appropriate for their level.
It is free for use.

2) British Council Podcasts

Podcasts are one of the most useful materials to improve English listening skills. Among the websites which provide listening materials to learners, British Council is one of the best.

The podcasts provided by British Council are quite long and this makes the podcasts ideal for listening while driving a car or on a bus.
It has a graded system starting from elementary to upper levels.
The voice quality is really good, all the audio files are quite comprehensible.
The people in the podcasts are fun to listen.
The podcasts also cover some special tips and usages as well as focusing on listening.
There are transcripts for each podcasts.
Downloading the podcasts is allowed.
There are also further studying materials as well as transcripts.

3) VOA Special English

If you are one of those who like following the news regularly (I am actually one of them), VOA Special English is one of the best websites for you to improve your listening skills.

Daily updated content with richly designed visual materials.
Both listenings and transcripts are provided.
It has a graded system so that learners can adjust the materials according to their levels.
It has authentic materials (real news stories) which make the news more effective to catch learners' attention.

4) Breaking News English

Breaking News English is another website through which you can practice both listening and reading at the same time.