Excellent sites for improving EFL / ESL listening skills!

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

AsapScience

BBC Learning English (my all time favourite!)

BBC World Service Podcasts

British Council Learn English
Crash Course

English Listening Lesson Library Online - elllo

Indiana Public Media Podcast

LBC London's Biggest Conversation

Lyrics gaps

TED Talks

The Minimalist Podcast

VoA English @ the Movies

VoA English in a Minute

VoA Everyday Grammar TV

VoA News Words

Ykitreenit

News in English: 

ABC

BBC

CNN

CNN 10 (News explained in 10 minutes)

NEWS24

NEWS IN LEVELS: VoANEWS (slow English)

1NEWSNOW

SKYNEWS

YLE 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!

Wishing you a lovely summer and see you after the holidays!

Best, Minna 

Some practical tips!

How to boost your language learning? Whatever the target language, in order for you to learn, you need to be motivated! There has to be a reason for you to learn the language be it related to work, relationships, travelling or something else. If the motivation is there, things will get much easier. Where there's a will, there's a way! 

1) Learning new vocabulary

• Not all vocabulary is the same. If you are a beginner, start with the 100 most common words in the target language. Whenever possible, try to use them. The best way to learn vocabulary is to talk, talk and talk. I believe we learn most through actively participating. Be also ready to accept that you'll make mistakes, it's totally OK. All language learners have been there, including me.
• Challenge yourself to learn 1-20 new words every. Even if you went for only one word a day, you'd still end up with 365 new words a year! If you did 20 words a day, well, then wow! That would lead to 7,300 new words a year! Depending on how you like to practise, you can, for example, jot the words down in a notebook or use Quizlet to create different vocabulary sets. Quizlet is easy and fun to use, you can choose whether you want to just read or listen to the words, or if you'd like to give a try at writing or playing games (btw. I'm not being paid by Quizlet, I just think it's a great help for language learning). Make learning new words a routine, you can really make great improvements in a short period of time. 
• As said before, it's good to talk. Always aim to use the new vocabulary. If there's no one to talk to, talk to yourself! Or to your pet, or to your plants. Just make sure you talk!
• Use a pocket dictionary, there are so many apps where to choose from! 
• Spend time reading in the target language. Whether you are at the beginners level or already at the advanced level, this will increase your vocabulary and familiarize you with the structures of the language. 

2) Improving your listening comprehension skills

• Whenever possible communicate with the target language as much as you can. There really is no substitute for this. 
• Listen to the target language as much as you can, choose something that really interests you: podcasts, audiobooks, radio programmes, TV, Netflix, music, etc. The more interest you have towards the material, the more you want to do the listening. Make it fun and interesting! Get used to the rhythm of the target language. If you are a beginner, then you can start by listening to useful phrases. 
• The internet is full of excellent material for language learning. In fact, at the moment I'm teaching a course for upper intermediate and advanced level EFL learners and I have gathered some excellent websites for my students to improve their listening skills. I'll share these super great tips in my following post. Until then have a great time learning!

Best, Minna

What are your best tips for improving your language learning?

Learning a language and becoming fluent

Let’s face it, unless you are lucky enough to have been born in a multilingual family or have been exposed to more than one language in your childhood, learning a new language will take some time and effort. Anyone who has tried it in their adult years knows that unfortunately, there is no magic trick. Becoming fluent in a new language takes dedication and time. And when I say fluent, I don’t just mean that you master the structures of the language and have an extensive vocabulary. What I mean by fluency is that you start thinking in that language, you don’t translate in your mind anymore. In fact, you don’t even know how to translate something into your native language, but yet you understand 100% the meaning. You understand the small nuances, and rhythm flows easily. It’s also these kind of things I mean when talking about fluency.

My native language is Finnish and I started learning English in primary school when I was nine years old. Later on, when I was in my thirties, I started studying Spanish and that truly has taught me a lot of language learning. I wish all language teachers stepped out of their comfort zone of using only the language they master to see and feel for themselves what it is like to struggle with a new language. It is so frustrating when you have so much to say, but you just can’t put it into words. I’ve also had my go with Modern Greek, German, French and Arabic so I know a thing or two about trying to learn a new language (just for the record, all those four have so far remained at beginner’s level).

When teaching English and Finnish, I’ve noticed that some learners seem to have this natural tendency to learn by imitating. These students just know what is right because it sounds right. If you have this skill, good for you! Go with the flow. Speak, imitate and follow your intuition! If you think you don’t have this natural inclination, don’t worry, you also have the possibility to become fluent. It will probably just take a bit more time and effort, but it is there for you to achieve. With these learners I’ve noticed that the teaching of phonetics and structures has been of great help.

Fluency doesn’t happen in a snap of fingers. However, it IS possible and more importantly, with the right techniques it doesn’t have to take an eternity. All learners have their own unique backgrounds so what works for one doesn't work for the other. In my next posting, I’ll give you some practical tips based on my experiences as a language teacher for students of various language levels. 

How has it been for you, easy or difficult? What would help you in becoming fluent?

Best, Minna

Speak to you soon! Just returned from South Africa!