Summer Listening

As the summer holiday begins, a few students have asked me what they can do over the break to improve their English. One good idea is to do some English listening every day. Here are some ideas.

     If you have the Podcasts app (see the previous post), you can subscribe to two good podcasts. First, there is 6 Minute English, which I discussed in a post a couple of months ago. In this programme, two people discuss a recent news story and use it learn some new vocabulary.
   






Second, you can subscribe to English at Work. This programme is a weekly drama about people working in an office called Tip Top Trading.

The programme follows the lives of four main characters and is a good way to study English communication in an English-speaking office. If you go to the BBC learning English website, you can also find the transcript for each episode. However, please remember, it is better to listen first and read later.

     Finally, also at the BBC Learning English website, you can find Words in the News. Here you can find a simplified BBC news story every few days. You can listen to the story and read it. Any difficult vocabulary is explained at the bottom of the page. For students who want a more challenging listening or reading exercise, you can follow the 'Related BBC links' link to find a more complete version of the news story.

English Books for Intermediate/Advanced Level Students

Many intermediate/advanced level students would like the challenge and satisfaction of reading English novels written for native speakers of English but do not know where to start. Therefore, I have made a list of books that I think 1) you will enjoy 2) should not be too difficult to read. Most of the books could be best described as 'young adult literature' (12 -18 years old).

Of course, some books will be a bit challenging because you are reading books that are a little beyond your current linguistic competence. However, I have chosen books that other students have enjoyed and you will benefit from lots of English reading input.

Here is the list, including publisher and author:



Holes (Bloomsbury) - Louis Sachar


The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas Definitions) - John Boyne

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night (Vintage) - Mark Haddon

The Hunger Games (Scholastic) - Suzanne Collins

Twilight (Atom) - Stephenie Meyer

Northern Lights (Scholastic) - Philip Pullman

The Diary of a Young Girl (Puffin) - Anne Frank

The Graduate (Penguin) - Charles Webb

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Puffin) - Roald Dahl

Danny Champion of the World (Puffin) - Roald Dahl

I Know What You Did Last Summer (Atom) - Lois Duncan

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Simon & Schuster) - Stephen Chbosky

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Puffin) - Jeff Kinney

Mates, Dates and Sole Survivors (Piccadilly Press) - Cathy Hopkins

Crocodile Tears (Walker) - Anthony Horowitz

Survival (Red Fox) - Chris Ryan


Before you buy any of these books, it is a good idea to look at them at an online shop like Amazon. You can click on the book and read the first few pages to find out what it's like. This will help you to decide how interesting the book might be and how easy or difficult it might be for you to read.

I really hope that enjoy these books and please let me know how you get on.