REAL Listening

To be quite honest, as an English teacher I can't stand coursebook listenings. They make me cringe. They are also bad for your listening skills according to a recent experiment I did.

I have always disliked the watered-down, slowed-down and above all dreary coursebook listenings. For me they don't reflect real life listening situations. Ok, I know you can't have that kind of interaction in a classroom but you can listen to real English in class!

Here's the experiment: A group of advanced students listen to a recording from the coursebook then answer some dull true or false questions (because that's how you listen in real life, right?!?!). They get most of them correct. The students then listened to an improvised conversation between a group of native speakers talking about what they did on their vacation. Could they understand it? Hell, no. They really struggled. Why? A 10 year diet of coursebook listenings doesn't prepare you for... a real conversation!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/genre/learning/ (English)

http://www.rfi.fr/lffr/statiques/accueil_apprendre.asp# (French)

http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.htm (English) 

http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory/Languages/English-as-a-Second-Language 

Check out the above links and listen to some real English. Don't worry if you don't understand at first, it takes a little time for the ear to adjust. Meanwhile all you have to do is listen, just like you did when you learnt your mother tongue. More good news: you only need do this for 10 minutes or so a day, but make sure you do it every day.