English listening - the best of the rest

These are good if you want to improve your English listening:

Level: Beginner (below A1) and A1 (Elementary)

It is difficult to find interesting listening at this level. Try:

• Student readers, with an audio CD. Very expensive if you buy ten or twenty books, but they work.
• ESL Fast Easy Dialogs. Free online. 2/10 for interest, but it's the only listening site for beginners.
• British Council A1 podcasts. Free online. 3/10 for interest.

 

Level: A2 (Pre-Intermediate and B1 (Intermediate)

• Student readers, with an audio CD. Very expensive if you buy ten or twenty books, but they work.
• British Council Big City, Small World. Free online. 3/10 for interest.

• British Council A2 podcasts. Free online. 3/10 for interest.
• Lyrics Training. Free online. 8/10, if you like music. The combination of music videos, text and student exercises can be very motivating. For good, clear pronunciation, try classic ballads by Adele, Simon & Garfunkel, the Beatles, etc. Not all ballads are in clear English ... Bob Dylan, for example. Heavy metal and American gangsta rap will probably not help your English.

 

B2 (Upper Intermediate) and C1 (Advanced)

At these levels, there is a lot more choice of listening.

• BBC iPlayer. Free online. 10/10. A wonderful resource if you can get it.
• Voice of America News. Free online. 7/10.
• TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design). Free online. 6/10. Short talks by media people. A lot of teachers love TED, but I'm not really a fan. The subjects of TED talks are often pretty stupid, and they usually speak fast. However, they do usually enunciate quite well.
• Ordinary English books, with an audio CD. C2 students can listen to anything they like. B2 and C1 students can click here for some suggestions.
• YouTube. Well, YouTube is like the magic castle in the fairy story. You go in, you think only an hour has passed, but when you come out you are twenty years older... and everybody who goes in has a completely different experience. It's impossible to provide a guide to YouTube, but here are some random thoughts:

  First, some clear English songs and poems that aren't on Lyrics Training.
  Maybe it's great music and poetry, maybe it's not; and there are no exercises for students of English.
  Even so, if you find some words or music that you really like, it's great for learning English.

  You can listen to these things on YouTube, and usually it's easy to find the words on the Internet.
  Try these. Number 1 is easiest, number 2 is more difficult.
  Numbers 7 and 8 are for advanced students:

  1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAqJLXmjZOY
  "If I had words (to make a day for you)" . Music by Camille Saint-Saëns, words by Scott Fitzgerald.
  This version is sung by James Cromwell, from the film "Babe". The song has only 34 words, so here they are:
  "If I had words
  To make a day for you
  I’d sing you a morning golden and true
  I would make this day last for all time
  Then fill the night deep in moonshine"

  2) Some (fairly) easy poems for people of all ages:
  "Daddy Fell into The Pond" by Alfred Noyes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXnxFX_Yww0
  "Matilda" from "Cautionary Tales" by Hilaire Belloc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz1zpzqdnnU
  "Sea Fever" by John Masefield: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kABGXTN5X0
  "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" by T.S. Eliot (this is an entire book of poems): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgyRzIm7U1g

  3) "Matapedia" by Kate & Anna McGarrigle.
  There are 10 songs, and all the lyrics are here on the official website.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8q9GeHUp2w

  4) Some classic English poems for everybody (easiest first):
  "Funeral Blues" by WH Auden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mifAhvkcJU
  "I Loved You" by Alexander Pushkin. Well, no, Pushkin did not write in English, but this is a very clear and simple translation from the original Russian: SORRY, BROKEN LINK
  "When You Are Old" by WB Yeats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ttlSOHESJE
  "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUaQgRiJukA

  5) And some more songs. Like most lyrics by Simon & Garfunkel, these are in very clear English with a slight American accent.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zLfCnGVeL4
  "The Sound of Silence", lyrics here in the Paul Simon Songbook
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKlSVNxLB-A
  "I am a Rock", lyrics here in the Paul Simon Songbook

  6) Some classic poems for more advanced students of English (easiest first):
  "If" by Rudyard Kipling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEFMVIfl2UY
  "The Soldier" by Rupert Booke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcDQZTJU_aA
  "Desiderata" by Max Erhmann: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_F3KRPM0Ls
  "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncxR5JKLVA8
  "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB4cdRgIcB8
  "The Tyger" by William Blake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMwNvzRKX64
  "To Autumn" by John Keats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHAE-jF4YNE

  7) "To Be a Pilgrim" (also known as "He who Would Valiant Be" and "Who Would True Valour See".)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOPW-9mSw8Y
  This version, by Maddy Prior, has slightly archaic language.
  That's because it's the 1684 version by John Bunyan. The words are here on Wikipedia.
  I also love Maddy Prior's version of Gaudete, but unfortunately it's even older and the words are in Latin, so that's no good.
  However, more than one person has learned all their English by listening to Maddy Prior's songs!

  8) For students at "Mastery" level (CEFR C2), here are some songs with words by William Shakespeare:
  "O Mistress Mine" from Twelfth Night, sung by Sir Ben Kingsley as Feste.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNOeB-Dkef4
  "O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
  O, stay and hear! Your true love’s coming,
  That can sing both high and low:
  Trip no further, pretty sweeting.
  Journeys end in lovers meeting,
  Every wise man’s son doth know.
  What is love? 'Tis not hereafter.
  Present mirth hath present laughter.
  What’s to come is still unsure.
  In delay there lies no plenty.
  Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty.
  Youth’s a stuff will not endure."

  And Feste's Song, also from Twelfth Night:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEx2D9Tpo3s
  "When that I was and a little tiny boy,
  With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
  A foolish thing was but a toy,
  For the rain it raineth every day.
  But when I came to man's estate,
  With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
  'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
  For the rain, it raineth every day.
  But when I came, alas! to wive,
  With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
  By swaggering could I never thrive,
  For the rain, it raineth every day.
  But when I came unto my beds,
  With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
  The toss-pots still had drunken heads,
  For the rain, it raineth every day.
  A great while ago the world begun,
  With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain.
  But that's all one, our play is done,
  And we'll strive to please you every day."

  9) Finally, here's a good example of (silly) English humour.
  "Being Followed by the Rolling Stones" by Murray Lachlan Young. He has a great English accent.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARpZGkqmOFI
  And just for you, here's the first part of the words:
  “I regret to inform you, sir, that there are four elderly ladies beneath the monkey puzzle”.
  "Lock the doors, Long, lock them now. I’ve got something to tell you. I’m being followed by the Rolling Stones. They followed me here, and they’ll follow me home. They turn up at night-clubs and parties and bars, trying to make me drink beer, and talk about art. They camp in my garden; they won’t let me rest. They ring on my phone, they’re completely obsessed.
  That skinny one, thingummy, you know his name, the one with big lips, well, he’s mainly to blame, for he comes round in girl’s clothes when I’m all alone, and then looks through his fringe and says “Oy, is Charlie at 'ome?” ... with the other ones lurking in the limo ..."

   

  Enjoy!

 

And finally, for all levels:

A good online dictionary lets you listen to the pronunciation of single words. I like this one: The Oxford Learner's Dictionary. It's big, it's friendly and you can listen to both the British and American pronunciations. Free online. 5/10 for interest.