Listening

Listening to English is an important activity that can improve your skills in other areas. Students studying at university need to develop good listening skills in order to make the most of the many lectures and tutorials they attend.

Listen actively by taking notes, trying to answer a question or by motivating yourself to take in the information you are hearing. Do not become frustrated if you do not understand everything. Even native speakers of a language will not remember everything they hear. Concentrate on what you do understand and remember that listening to English will become easier with time.

Listen to songs. There are many enjoyable ways to practise listening. For example, you might like to listen to popular music DC’s or cassette tapes. Many music albums are sold with the words of the songs included in the pack. Lyrics for popular songs may also be found through the Lyrics Search Engine .

Listen to the newspaper being read aloud

Vision Australia Foundation operates a radio station, RPH Print Radio where articles from the daily newspapers are read aloud. This is a useful resource for vision impaired people and it is also very helpful for people learning English as a Second Language. You could make a valuable listening resource by purchasing a newspaper and then recording it being read on air. The Age, the Herald Sun, The Australian and the Australian Financial Review are read at various times of the day. You can go online and view the RPH Print Radio program guide from Vision Australia .

Listen to radio and television programs

You can listen to radio and television programs from the Australian Broadcasting Commission (the ABC) and visit the ABC  web site to listen to some programs online or your mp3 player, and to obtain copies of the transcripts from the programs. ABC Radio and Television programs are an interesting and entertaining way of learning English.

The Monash University English Language Centre hosts an interesting website known as ESL Radio . This site is designed especially for ESL students and includes quizzes and songs in English.You will need to download the free Macromedia Flash Player  to access this site.

Commercial television channels

Television is very helpful for your listening and speaking skills as you will hear Australian accents and the common language spoken by Australians. Some local Australian programs include The Secret Life of Us, Home and Away and Neighbours. (When Neighbours is screened in countries other than Australia, it is likely to be dubbed in the local language.) You can link to more information about Home and Away  and Neighbours . Check Television and Radio Guides in local newpapers or buy a copy of TV Week .

Listen to English language kits

You can buy the kits from specialist English language bookshops or borrow them from libraries.

Here are some recommended kits:

• Coffee Break: a course in understanding authentic Australian casual conversation, by Dorothy Economou published by NSW Adult Migrant Education Service, 1985. (Available at Monash University Library - multiple locations)
• Heinemann Hits is a book and tape kit of popular songs published by Heinemann.
• In Tempo is a pronunciation course using the Australian accent (Available at Monash University Library - multiple locations).
• Listening to communicate in English [kit], is published by the National Textbook Company.
• Person to Person [kit]: communicative speaking and listening skills by Jack C. Richards and David Bycina, published by Oxford University Press, New York,1984 (available at Bentleigh  and in the Media Resources Centre  in the Education Faculty at Monash, Clayton Campus).
• Ship or Sheep is a pronunciation kit (Available at Monash Education Library & Media Resources).
• Telephone skills[kit]: essential telephone English by David A. Hough, published by Heinemann English Language Teaching, Oxford, UK, 1993.

Practise listening and notetaking

Visit the Language and Learning Online Student Resource Centre and complete the listening tutorials.

Listen to Monash lectures online .

Copyright © 2003 Monash University ABN 12 377 614 012 - Caution - Privacy - CRICOS Provider Number: 00008C
Last updated: 02 April 2009 - Maintained by lsweb@lib.monash.edu.au - Accessibility information - Author Julia Ghazarian