The BBC World Service’s online English portal is an excellent place to find material for studying English. It contains simple, clear explanations and a variety of exercises. It also has a wealth of useful practice material, including audio and video examples. There can be a rather overwhelming amount of material on the site, however, and it’s not always clear where you should begin. I’d like to draw attention to an excellent series of audio dialogues that you can use to practice listening skills in a variety of topics. This series, entitled 6 Minute English, has about 100 audio exercises on the site for you try, here. Here’s some of my picks for interesting topics, to get you started:
On the Right Track – all about the modern state of British trains (always a hot topic for people in the UK).
Feeling good about your country – because nationality is a common topic between foreigners. Complete with some comprehension questions and vocabulary list, as many of these examples are.
Why we love films that make us cry – for all the movie lovers out there, what’s so great about emotional films? What we in the UK call ‘tearjerkers’.
Is silence golden? – apt for a listening exercise, asking the question if the world is generally getting a bit too noisy.
The secret of happiness – who wouldn’t want to know that? Thinking about how happiness is relative across different countries.
End of the world? – something that’s always topical for me, as an author of post-apocalyptic books. Here’s a discussion of the Mayan culture’s theories about the End of the World.
Texting and walking made illegal – discussing the prospect of a ban on texting whilst walking in the United States. What do you think?
Work emails – a nice subject to follow on from my recent discussion of email greetings. We all have to deal with emails at work, so it’s a common topic that will be useful to listen to.
The site has also recently put out a whole series of Business English audio examples, which I will collect and annotate for you in my next post. Enjoy, and happy listening!
