Using internet sources for improving listening skill of B1 learners

1.2.The best typs of internet sources for improving
listening skill of B1 learners
Daily ESL, Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab, and EZSlang are created and maintained by Randall Davis. Reading newspapers and textbooks can be helpful for Academic English, but many students often spend their time reading information that is very difficult and might not be used in day-to-day conversations.
Thus, Daily ESL (www.dailyesl.com) is designed to help learners become familiar with common vocabulary and expressions they can use all the time in many situations. Learners choose a topic, listen and read along with a paragraph, and then discuss the questions with a partner. They can then compare their thoughts to the recorded interview.
The site EZSlang (www.ezslang.com/ ) is designed to help learners (from low-intermediate to advanced) improve their survival skills in many different situations and to make learning slang an easier process for better communication.
Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab (www.esl-lab.com) has short and long listening activities for beginner-level as well as advanced-level students accompanied by pre-, while and post-listening tasks, transcripts, and cultural video clips. Randall Davis states that the main objective of the site is not to test students listening skills; rather, by doing the variety of pre-listening, listening, and post-listening activities, students can discover ways to learn how to develop their listening skills. He believes that listening and speaking skills must be developed together, and working together with other students in groups and discussing the content of the listening activities help learners improve their overall communication skills by focusing on specific tasks.
Ello http://www.elllo.org/. You can find free, well-produced, and clearly-organised content on one site called Ello. Ello includes interviews, videos, games, and more. There is News Centre (with animated newscasts), which can help students learn Academic English and develop test taking skills for standardized listening components of tests such as TOEFL, TOEIC, and IELTS. There are other sections to explore, such as Mixer, Views, Points, and even Songs, and each section has a wide selection of material.
Video Jug http://www.videojug.com/. Video Jug is the world’s most comprehensive library of free factual video content online. Video Jug gives numerous opportunities for learners to practice listening skills and to become actively engaged in the listening process. Learners can practice their listening skills by listening to the interview with Stephen Fry (see Appendix A). There is a tapescript to accompany the listening text.
Podcasts are audio recordings which a user can subscribe to and download to his/her computer or portable listening device such as an MP3 player (Barber, 2007). The closest analogy to a podcast is that of a radio or TV show, but the difference is that you can listen to or watch a podcast on a topic that interests you whenever you want to. A podcast can be on any topic and can include music and video. Video podcasts are also known as Vodcasts or PodClips. Podcasts can be used not only for authentic listening in the classroom but for self-study outside of the classroom as well. According to Dudney and Hockly (2007), recording lectures as podcasts (referred to as course casting) is becoming increasingly common in tertiary education. By doing that, students who miss a class can then download the lecture podcasts for later listening on their computers or mobile devices like an MP3 player. More demanding, but ultimately perhaps more rewarding, is the option of learners actually producing their own podcasts. You can find detailed information related to podcasts from Podcasting Tools (http://www.podcasting-tools.com/blog.htm). According to Barber (2007) making podcasts is simple and you can find guidelines from his book Fifty ways to improve your Business English using the Internet (p. 77-78).
Since it is easy to create podcasts, they are appearing in every area of the World Wide Web. Lewis (2009) draws attention to the fact that “there are good and bad podcasts, and since everything can look so professional, it is hard to know which is which at first glance. Hence, broad searches can be a bit hit and miss” (p. 70). Podcast directories are one place to start looking for podcasts. Learners can click on a category and scroll though a list of podcasts, listening to and subscribing to any that interest them. Students can also find tips for podcast searches on iTunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/). A podcast directory aimed specifically at teachers and learners of English is Englishcaster (http://www.englishcaster.com). ESL podcast sites have been developed for different purposes: vocabulary and grammar topics, idioms and slang, business English, world news and current events, limericks and jokes, songs, and poetry.¹⁰
BBC Podcasts http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts. The BBC, the quintessential international news and media organization, was one of the earliest creators of podcasts. They first offered a limited number of traditional BBC audio programs as podcasts. Since then, the BBC expanded the list of podcasts they offer (covering everything from drama to news and sports) to many more audio podcasts, video trials (an experiment they stopped in 2007), and music-only podcasts (started in November, 2007).
ESL Listening: Podcasts http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Listening/Podcasts/
This is a sub-page of The Internet TESL Journal with different categories of podcasts: for native speakers, newest podcasts by ESL podcasters, listen and repeat podcast for practising intonation, rhythm and intonation, jokes in English podcast, “Learn a song” podcast, and so on.
Learn Songs http://www.manythings.org/songs/. This site features folk songs, campfire songs, and group-singing songs that native English speakers sing. These podcasts are short and designed to be listened to more than once, so learners can listen and sing along as many times as they need to in order to learn the song.
English Feed http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podcasts/7538. English Feed is a weekly podcast including review and listening exercises on important grammar and vocabulary subjects. It is an ideal podcast for beginning to intermediate level students to study basic structures like phrasal verbs, past forms, modals, listening comprehension quizzes, and more. English Feed also includes the transcript, grammar resources, and exercises. ELT Podcast http://www.eltpodcast.com/
ELT Podcast provides basic conversations for EFL and ESL students and classes. ELT Podcast presents a common conversation theme in each episode. The first presentation is at a normal speed, and then at a slower, less natural speed to help with comprehension. The site also provides a transcript of the conversation.
Elementary Podcasts http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/elementary-podcasts. A variety of listening activities (episodes) on different topics (e.g. family, pets, travel problems, clothes, and so on) that learners can do on their computers while they listen. They can also be printed out to do later. 
Professional Podcasts http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/professionals-podcasts. This series of podcasts helps learners to improve their English for their career in the workplace and covers a large number of business and work themes. They are suitable for learners at intermediate to advanced level.
Business English Pod provides free weekly MP3 podcast ESL lessons and audio/e-Book courses for intermediate and advanced business English learners. Each business English podcast lesson is focused on a particular workplace English skill (such as meetings, presentations, telephoning, negotiating, socializing, travel, and conversation) and language function (such as clarifying, disagreeing, questioning, expressing opinions, and persuasion). Video Vocab is a video podcast (vodcast) published by Business English Pod for ESL learners who want to expand and improve their English vocabulary for business (http://www.videovocab.tv/). Each ESL video lesson looks at a group of key English vocabulary words and terms related to a particular business topic. The meaning of the vocabulary is explained with simple definitions and pictures along with an example of how the vocabulary can be used. Current lessons feature vocabulary on the economy, law, project management, accounting and finance, the credit crisis, and Web 2.0 Internet technologies.¹¹