Listening

Web sites prepared for learners of English

• Listening Page
  A collection of listening materials from authentic recording, consisting of discussions, conversations, jokes, stories …
• Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab
  This is an excellent site with lots of features. Authentic listening passages are graded from ‘easy’ to ‘difficult’. There are lots of passages to choose from – both monologues and dialogues. The accents are generally American. After listening, you can complete a short multiple choice quiz. Before, during or after listening, you can consult a transcript of the passage (called a ‘quiz script’ at this site). Useful vocabulary is highlighted on the transcript and definitions are given. The ‘text completion quiz’ allows you to listen and fill in the blanks.
• Songbirds
  Songbirds is a lively mix of classical music and drama which you can hear on the RTHK Radio 4 every week. It is written to help Hong Kong students develop English Language skills. The stories focus on the lives of senior secondary school students and first year university students. Songbirds is presented by Dino Mahoney of City University. From this site you can read the scripts and listen to the programmes. You can also find the scripts with grammar and vocabulary explanations in Friday’s Young Post (SCMP) and Saturday’s Ming Pao.
• 1stPerson.org
  This site presents first person stories and interviews by writers, journalists and artists in different parts of the world, which you can either read or listen to. There is a theme for each quarterly issue and some recent themes are: Acts of Peace, The Landscape of Loss and Hope.
• BBC English Radio – English language learning & teaching
  Your initial starting point to help you learn English using the BBC’s World Service radio which gives some great tips on how to start learning English using radio programmes.
• The Listening Lounge
  A superb site using authentic listening passages. Although this site is now mostly a pay-site, there is still a free ‘Guest Area’ that is quite extensive. Make sure you go here.
• Talking Point On Air
  This is part of the BBC site referenced below and contains excellent listening passages with supplementary texts. Also check out other recent Talking Points here.

English Radio and TV stations in Hong Kong

• Grammar quizzes
  This page contains lots of quizzes on various grammatical items. Some of the quizzes are graded by level. Some of their themes are about different places worldwide.
• Interactive English language exercises
  Six grammar exercises are offered here for uppper-intermediate learners. When you finish each exercise, you submit your answers and receive a score and explanations for the more difficult questions right away.

Radio and TV stations outside HK

• CNN.com
  Reports and video clips of breaking news from the US.
• BBC
  News from UK by audio and video.
• CBS News: Up-To-The-Minute news
  One of America’s premier TV stations with live video feeds for breaking news.