VOICEbooks

Overview:

Improve listening skills with authentic native speaker audio

Level:

Lower Intermediate to Advanced

Versions:

International English

General English / Listening / VOICEbooks

As teachers, we'd love our students to listen to authentic native speaker intonation, rhythm and accent, but we face the constant challenge of listening abilities varying so widely in a single class. Is it better to speak naturally and risk reinforcing the low self-esteem of the less able, or enunciate so clearly that those vital listening skills just don't improve?

VOICEbooks level the playing field by providing listening exercises that enable each student (individually or in pairs) to work at their own pace, training their ears to create links between sounds and written words, slowing down or speeding up the sound they are listening to and writing what they think they hear.

VOICEbooks contain an audio library of hundreds of hours of original TV and radio recordings, and of celebrities including Julia Roberts, Eminem, Michael Caine and David Beckham. The audio files are played through the VOICEbooks interface which provides various layers of help. (You can slow down the recordings, look words up in a dictionary, get hints and so on.) Learners listen to the extracts as often as they like and simply have to write down what the speakers are saying.

VOICEbooks are based on success rather than on failure, as any correct input from the listener (even just part of a word!) is rewarded. Students at all levels find it highly motivating to listen to real speech from real people. Choose an i+1 level (i.e. just too difficult for them to understand), sit back and watch their listening skills improve.

Titles:

1. Lifestyle
2. News and Politics
3. Sport and Leisure
4. Beginner 1
5. Beginner 2
6. Intermediate 1
7. Intermediate 2
8. Expert 1
9. Expert 2
10. Business 1
11. Business 2