LEARNING, USING & TEACHING ENGLISH

Mike Nix's website
Self-Study Resources

 

 

Ideas, and links to online materials and resources to help you plan and do your own out-of-class English study. Updated 18th August, 2008.

Currently, this page has sections on News in English; Reading; Developing your Vocabulary; Listening; Business English; Podcasts; Websites for learning English

 

News in English

News Stories from CNN and CBS news in the US, with a news story each week. You can read, listen to and watch a video for each story. Every story has a simplifed 'abridged version' as well as vocabulary and comprehension exercises, and you can quickly check the meaning of any word in a story in an online dictionary. You can also find past news stories in the following categories:

Voice of American Special English World News in clear, slow, simplified English. Each 30-minute program includes a daily news broadcast plus two feature programs. You can also find and read Voice of America new stories on the same topics.

Monthly topical news lessons Simplified news stories at three levels - elementary, intermediate, and advanced - based on stories in the Guardian Weekly newspaper. Each lesson includes the simplified news story and vocabulary and comprehensin exercises witht he answers at the end. From onestopenglish.com.

Voice of America English News Homepage Read world news stories and listen to live world news or the latest world news summary. This site makes it easy to listen and read about the same news stories.

NPR News Read and listen to U.S and international news on National Public Radio.

ABC News, Read stories, watch videos and download podcasts on U.S and international news.

BBC News Read, watch and listen to news stories from Britain and around the world.

The Guardian British newspaper.

International Herald Tribune U.S and international news stories from the New York Times.

The Australian newspaper.

The Japan Times Read about Japanese and international news in English. You will need to register to read the stories - it's free but takes about 3 minutes to do.

The Asahi Shimbun Japanese and world news in English.

Words in the News Simplifed news stories that you can read and listen to, with explanations of the important/difficult vocabulary. General news, business and arts & sports stories are added every week, and there is an archive of stories back to 2003. From BBC Learning English.

Breaking News English Simplified versions of recent news stories that you can read and/or listen to. After the text of each news story, there are exercises designed for teachers to use with students in class but you could also use them for self-study practice.


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Reading

Read stories in easy English Borrow graded readers from the Law Faculty Resource Center. Graded readers are books in which the level of the English is kept simple so you can read quickly to enjoy the story without using a dictionary. Books are available at different levels from Level 1 to level 6, so you can choose a level that is easy for you . You can borrow these books and take them home with you and also listen to cassettes of the stories in the Resource Center. Click here to download a list of books and cassettes available. Other books and casettes/MDs can be directly borrowed from Mike Nix.

Lit2Go is a free online collection of books, short stories, poems, fairy tales, nursery rhymes and speeches and other things to read and listen to. For books, you can access one chapter at a time. You can: view the text for each reading online or download it as a pdf file, and listen online or download it to listen to on an iPod or Mp3 player. Reading levels vary from 1.0 (easiest) to 12.0 (most difficult), and text length varies from a few words (in a nursry rhyme) to full-length books. You can search for things to read by title, author, reading level, key words, and or browse by authors and titles. From Florida Educational Technology Cearing House.

News Stories from CNN and CBS news in the US, with a news story each week. You can read, listen to and watch a video for each story. Every story has a simplifed 'abridged version' as well as vocabulary and comprehension exercises, and you can quickly check the meaning of any word in a story in an online dictionary. You can also find past news stories in the following categories:

 

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Developing Your Vocabulary

Search the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary for English-English definitions and clear examples of how words are used. You can also use the Select another dictionary to go to other Cambridge dictionaries such as the Dictionary of American English.

Mirriam Webster Visual Dictionary Online A great dictionary of American English with pictures of all the items in the dictionary. You can also listen to the standard American English pronunication of each word. Search for words in the A-Z index (top left of the main page) or look at vocabulary in themes such as animal kingdom, arts and architecture, communications, earth, energy, and society. Here's an example page on different ball sports from the sports & games theme You can also test your vocabulary knowledge with a different game every week.

British National Corpus A collection of 100 million words of writen and spoken British English. You can search here to see how a word is actually used in English by typing the word into the Look up: box.

Simple Search of BNC- World Another quick way to find how English words and phrases are used by searching the British National Corpus.

British National Corpus (BNC) by Mark Davies at Brigham Young University. See how words and phrases are used in British English generally and in different kinds of English such as spoken English, fiction, newspaper English, and academic English.

The Corpus of American Contemporary English (COCA) by Mark Davies at Brigham Young University. See how words and phrases are used in American English generally and in different kinds of English such as spoken English, fiction, magazine English, newspaper English, and academic English. COCA has many more words (360 million) than the British National Corpus and is more up todate with 20 million words collected each year between 1990 and 2007.

Vocabulary Levels tests on-line from Paul Nation and Batia Laufer These are tests of the most common 1000 words, 2000 words, 3000 words, 5000 words and 10,000 words, plus the University Word List (a list of words used for university level study).

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Listening

News Stories from CNN and CBS news in the US, with a news story each week. You can read, listen to and watch a video for each story. Every story has a simplifed 'abridged version' as well as vocabulary and comprehension exercises, and you can quickly check the meaning of any word in a story in an online dictionary. You can also find past news stories in the following categories:

The Flatmates A weekly soap opera (drama) about four people and a cat who live in the same flat (apartment). Each weekly episode is about two minutes long. You can listen to the latest episode with or without the script to read, look at a language point from the episode with explanations of vocabulary and take a quiz about this week's story. There is also background information about the characters and an archive of all the previous weekly episodes. And you can discuss Flatmates online with other listeners from around the world. From BBC World Service Learning English.

Listen to Englishes around the world Worksheets and cassettes/MDs for listening to students from the following countries talking about themselves, their countries and English in their countries: Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burma China, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, Thailand. To borrow these materials contact Mike Nix.

Pulse of the Planet Daily Daily Audio Program Listenings of about 2 minutes each day on science, environment and natural history topics, with the tapescript to read. Often there are several progams on different aspects of the main topic. Topics for August 2008 include tsunamis, seaweed, nuclear physics and redwood trees. The programs for the last 30 days are available free. From National Geographic.

BBC World Service Programme Highlights A selection of programmes on different topics from around the world, including:

You can listen to each programme, read a simmary of the programme, and find links on related sites and topics. At the bottom of the page, you can choose other programmes from the 'More highlights' menu.

oneworld TV Mostly short videos on global, environmental, humanitarian, and social justice issues. Click on the Featured button for some of the best videos and the In the News button for videos on current news topics.

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab Stories and conversations ar easy, medium and difficult levels to listen to. Each listening ahs pre-listening exercies that you can do before listening, listening exercises to do whlist listening, exercies for reviewing vocabulary from the listening, and post-listening exercises you can do after listening. To get to the listening and a tapescript of it, click on the Quiz Script link at the top of each listening page.

Language Learning Tips: From Study Abroad to Online Degrees Advice to listen to on ways to study English, and issues like finding an apartment to live in and getting health insurance. Each listening also gas a tapescript to read and some pre-listening discussion questions. From Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab.

20-Minute ESL Lessons Short English lessons with a focus on learning vocbaulary for a specifiic siutation or function (e.g. talking about computer sand the internet or making hotel reservations) that include a listening, vocbaulary exercises and discussion questions. From Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab.

Lit2Go is a free online collection of books, short stories, poems, fairy tales, nursery rhymes and speeches and other things to listen to and read. For books, you can access one chapter at a time. You can view the text for each reading online or download it as a pdf file, and listen online or download it to listen to on an iPod or Mp3 player. Reading levels vary from 1.0 (easiest) to 12.0 (most difficult), and text length varies from a few words (in a nursry rhyme) to full-length books. You can search for things to read by title, author, reading level, key words, and or browse by authors and titles. From Florida Educational Technology Cearing House.

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Music lyrics Find the words to songs you want to listen to at Lyrics Search Engine or SmartLyrics.com

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Business English

The Business English Podcast Listenings at intermediate and advanced level on different aspects of business including meetings, presetnations, telephoning, job interviews, socializing and travel. Each episode includes background information to read before listening (but no tapescript) and pre-listening questions and can be listened to online or downloaded as a podcast.

Business English from the BBC World Service Learning English website. Includes language and advice for getting jobs in English, advice on working with people from other countries, a ten-part Business English course, and a unit on doing business negotiations in English.

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Podcasts

ABC News Podcasts Download or listen online to news podcasts and podcasts of politics and law, entertainment and health and science programs from U.S. broadcaster ABC.

NPR (National Public Radio) 7PM ET News Summary Podcast A five-minute NPR News summary of mostly U.S. news that you can listen to online or download as a podcast. There is no tapescript to read but you can often articles to read on the stories in the podcast at the NPR news website.

OneWorld TV Podcasts on global environmental and humanitarian issues to download.

BBC Learning English podcasts including: news stories, English lessons, and programmes about people, paces and history.

Podcasts from BBC World Service including:

  • English learning programmes such as 6 Minute English - Learn and practise useful English language for everyday situations with the BBC
  • Programmes about different parts of the world such as Africa Today - The latest African news and analysis from the BBC African News and Current Affairs
  • Business programmes such as Business Daily - Examining the big issues facing the global economy
  • Programmes on global issues such as Digital Planet - How digital technology affects our lives around the world.

Listen on iTtunes You can subsribe free to many daily and weekly podcasts that will be sent to your computer if you have iTunes. Some examples:

  • CNN News Update
  • BBC Radio News Pod
  • NW English News - NHK World Radio Japan
  • 6 Minute English - BBC World Service
  • CNN Student News (video)
  • ABC World News (Enhanced video)

Download iTunes 7.00 for Macintosh and Windows for free.

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Websites for learning English

Learning English A website from the BBC World Service including sections on News English, Business English, and Grammar and Vocabulary.

Voice of America Special English Learn American English and Much More - Read, Listen, Learn. Programs with simplified, clear English on a range of (mostly American) topics. They have tapescripts so you can read the story before, as, or after you listen. You can search by subject or program (latest three editions for each program) and the site includes an A-Z of useful vocabulary for understanding the stories and English learning games.

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