How you can you improve your listening skill?

Hello again!

For this session, I am going to share with you a website that can be used to improve your listening skills and hear about the news. The website is regularly updated with current news which is excellent for teaching English to students as the source is up-to-date.

Level:

- Beginner and intermediate level of English.

- However the level might be greatly depending on text level which can be suited to students' current knowledge.

Age:

- 13 to 17 years old.

How:

- Pair work, individual.

- Homework

Note: The task is possible when learners have accessed to internet connection and computers.

Below are the snapshots from the website:

Picture 1: Activities Varies from Full Mode, Quick Mode and Blank Mode.

Picture 2: Example of Full Mode activity.

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Source:

http://www.listen-and-write.com/audio/show/2187

Advantages:

• A good way to practice listening skills.
• It is a fun way to learn English.
• What's more... it is absolutely FREE!
• The content and exercises support autonomous learning where students are able to do the activity on their own.
• It is very interactive as there are audio to listen to.
• Students will be able to enhance their vocabulary.
• Besides, it exposes students to direct evaluation as students can know how well they are doing immediately.
• Multiple skills: Listening,spelling and writing.

Disadvantages:

• Source. Where is it comes from? Some people might want to know the reliability of the source so that they know whether it is authentic or not.
• It is quite troublesome if learners do not have internet access.
• Distraction. The webpage has a easy access to the social network,Facebook. Students may choose to surf the net for pleasure rather than studying.
• The layout is quite simple and boring.
• Time-consuming. Students may get carried away with the activities. So it is perhaps more suitable if teachers can make it as a homework. It is indeed a good thing to make it as homework since it promotes autonomous learning.

p/s: lyric training! I will make a post on that :D