At the moment I am finishing off a summer course that had a focus on improving the students' listening skills and expanding their vocabularies. I teach at a Finnish upper secondary school, i.e. in a high school, where students generally take at least one of their A-level exams in a foreign language, and English is a very popular choice.
The target level for high school leavers is B2.1 but many students reach a level even higher than that. The EFL A-level exam, or matriculation examination as it is called in Finland, is of a very high level which is why I had to plan the course so that the students would be well prepared for the actual exam in the autumn (A-level exams are arranged nationally twice a year). Yet, I also had to provide the students with listening material that was suitable also for those students who were struggling with the demands of the national exam.
To cut a long story short, here is a list of some excellent sites that I used as listening material. We used the videos and audios for open questions, multiple-choice exercises or for writing short summaries. Sometimes the students chose a video and after studying it, they created the listening comprehension questions with answers themselves.
I hope you'll find the sites useful! My students surely did, the feedback I got from them was superb!
Abitreenit: Englanti *) Read more about this below
BBC Learning English (my all time favourite!)
News in English:
*) If you are not familiar with the Finnish A-level system but would like to have a go with sample A-level exams in EFL, please don't get overwhelmed with the Finnish language on the site. The multiple choice questions are in English and you'll get the correct answers once you submit yours. Have a go and see how you would do in our national EFL test!
Ps. If you know any good listening comprehension sites, please share them in the comment section below!
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Wishing you a lovely summer and see you after the holidays!
Best, Minna
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