Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

This “The Best…” list was initially a difficult one for me to compile. A number of my previous lists, including the ones on reading and conversation, can also be characterized as “listening.”

I finally decided on the following criteria for sites that would appear on this list. They would need need to:

… be free.

… be accessible to English Language Learners.

… let English Language Learners listen to pretty much anything they would either write or anything they could find on the Internet, OR

… have a wide range of listening options that would be combined with comprehension assessments.

Other links that didn’t make this list can also be found on my website under Listening.

I’m not listing these sites in order of preference, as I’ve done with a majority of my previous “The Best…” lists. Instead, I’m just dividing the list into the two categories that I’ve shared in my criteria.

Here are my choices for The Best Listening Sites For English Language Learners:

SITES THAT LET USERS LISTEN TO ANYTHING THEY WRITE OR FIND ON THE INTERNET

YAKIToME lets you copy and paste pretty much anything you want and the convert the text to speech.You can choose the type of voice (it uses ATT technology, which I’ve had a link on my website to for a longtime because it’s so good), the rate of speed (there are numerous settings), and even customize pronunciation for certain words. You choose to see the text when you’re listening to it being spoken. And you can create private groups if you want. Most importantly, it seems to work without any technical difficulties. Plus, it’s free.

Read The Words lets you convert any text - from a document, blog, or website - into audio with your choice from a variety of voices. You can then embed the voice player into your site. English Language Learners can easily copy and paste an essay they’re writing to hear if it sounds “right.” They can complete a story or essay, paste it into a Jottit page, and then embed a Read The Words audio player that will speak what they wrote. The site had some technical glitches when they first began, but it seems like those have been worked out.

Scribd lets you upload anything and then provides audio of the text. It’s particularly useful when students want to write a “talking story” with illustrations, like these student samples. Just this month Scribd eliminated all adult content from their site, which makes it much more feasible for classroom use.

The above three sites all require registration and log-in to use (though they make it easy to do so). These next few don’t allow you to save what you’ve written, or text that you copy-and-paste. And you can only use it for relatively small amounts of text. However, they don’t require any registration at all so you can use their services immediately.

They include ATT, Voz Me, Oddcast, and Cepstral. You’ll find links to them at the top of many of the pages on my website.

SITES THAT HAVE A WIDE-RANGE OF LISTENING OPTIONS COMBINED WITH ASSESSMENTS

This section of sites itself is divided in two — first, I’ll share excellent resources that offer specific listening exercises that are then generally followed by questions to measure comprehension; then, I’ll share links to sites that provide online dictation activities.

Even though I said earlier I wasn’t going to list sites in order of preference, I have to say, as I’ve said before, that I believe Henny Jellema’s Online TPR Exercises are not only the best online listening activities. I believe they are the best online ESL/EFL activities — period. If you have not tried them out, I would strongly encourage you to do so and have your students do the same.

ELLO provides hundreds of listening activities that are well-designed and engaging. Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab does the same — it has great activities, though I just don’t think it’s as user-friendly as ELLO.

English Trailers puts a brilliant idea into practice. It shows tons of trailers to popular movies, and then follows them with various exercises. And, even better, you can set-up a virtual classroom to monitor which ones students have completed. Plus, it’s all free! (English Trailers went off-line in August, 2008, but it might be back soon. )

Cambridge University Press has excellent online listening activities that support its textbooks. These exercises are usually called “What Do You Hear?”. Here are links leading to them:

Interchange “What Do You Hear? — Introductory
Interchange “What Do You Hear? — Book One
Interchange “What Do You Hear? — Book Two
Interchange “What Do You Hear? — Book Three
Touchstone Arcade
Connect “What Do You Hear?” Book One
Connect “What Do You Hear?” Book Two
Connect “What Do You Hear?” Book Three
Connect “What Do You Hear?” Book Four

Now I’d like to list some excellent online dictation sites, where student listen to audio and have to type what they hear:

Listen and Write is a new web tool that I think has a lot of potential for English Language Learners. A user first chooses a text he/she wants to hear read to him/her. Many of the choices are from the Voice of America, and are both high-interest and accessible. Their levels of difficulty are also indicated. Then the story is dictated to you, and you have to type it correctly. You can choose the speed of the reading and how often it’s repeated. When you type, only the correct letters actually show-up on the screen, and you can ask for hints.

English Online has a series of Interactive English Listening Exercises that provide numerous dictation opportunities.

Teacher Joe also has quite a few. I like his site because they seem particularly geared to Beginning and Early Intermediate English Language Learners.

The English Club has a series of simple and effective dictation exercises. They’re well organized, simple, don’t require registration, and have ones for a variety of English levels.

Feedback and other suggestions are always welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS