Extras

Web-based listening exercises
Try some of these Web-based exercises used as English listening assignments at Taiwan University.

BBC News: Interview with Ray Charles

BBC News: Update on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (video)

BBC: Vatican 'may relax condoms rule'

BBC News: Atrocities uncovered in Darfur (video)

BBC News: Pinter and Wesker on the US-Iraq situation

BBC News: Best friend donates kidney

BBC News: Elephants learn by sound mimicry

BBC News: Liberia's 'Iron Lady' claims win

BBC News: Tsvangirai leaves hospital

BBC: Low-caste Hindus hold mass conversions

BBC News: UN debut for $100 laptop for poor

BBC: British man attempts to walk around the world

BBC video: Fire winds ease over California

BBC: Musharraf imposes emergency rule

Historychannel.com: Statement by Richard Jewell

Hollywood.com: Michelle Pfeiffer on "I am Sam"(designed by Sharon Chang)

National Public Radio: Day to Day: Five Years After Columbine (designed by Alice Chou)

National Public Radio: Gunman Planned Long Siege at Amish School

National Public Radio: Yushchenko Was Poisoned, Austrian Doctors Say

National Public Radio: Bush Attends V-E Day Ceremonies in Moscow

National Public Radio: A Teen-Aged Marine Falls in Iraq

National Public Radio: Orang Metropolis Uncovered

National Public Radio: When Walking Fails

National Public Radio: Spelling Bee

National Public Radio: High School's 'Quiet Kids'

National Public Radio Morning Edition: Recycling Computers

National Public Radio: Taiwan Aims to be 'Zero Waste' Society by 2020

National Public Radio: A Nation in Debt

National Public Radio: Whistling to Communicate in Alaska

National Public Radio: A Chat with 'Weird Al' Yankovic

National Public Radio: More 'PostSecrets' Revealed, in Book Form

National Public Radio: 'Dear Elders' Dispense Advice Online

National Public Radio: Interview with Deborah Tannen on her book
You're Wearing That?

National Public Radio: Abigail Washburn: Chinese Lyrics, American Roots

National Public Radio: A Nation in Debt

National Public Radio: Two Marathons a Day in the Sahara

National Public Radio Music: France Says Vive Edith Piaf, One More Time

National Public Radio: Stop reading and start writing

NPR/Youth Radio: Struggling to Overcome Anorexia

NPR: Driveway Moments: India Adds Spice to Globalization

NPR: Driveway Moments: Election Ad Voiceovers

NPR: A Blind Date That Turned Into 60 Years

American Public Media: Marketplace Money
"Day in the Work Life": Interview with Leslie Slifkin, hairstylist

American Public Media: Marketplace Money
"Day in the Work Life": Interview with Michael Roman, lawyer

American Public Media: RadioWorks
Audio Diary of Korean Adoptee Jane Trenka

American Public Media: Future Tense
Guy Kawasaki on how to write better electronic mail

Minnesota Public Radio: Rachel's School Diary

Minnesota Public Radio: Coach Said Not To

Minnesota Public Radio: Indian Radio

Minnesota Public Radio: Inspiring boys to read

Minnesota Public Radio: Life after prison

Minnesota Public Radio: Garbage glaciers

Minnesota Public Radio: Black manes rule among lions in the Serengeti

Minnesota Public Radio: Weight loss surgery: the last resort?

Minnesota Public Radio: Neighborhood friction is a sign of the times

Minnesota Public Radio: Shakespeare Songs

Wisconsin Public Radio: Mom & Dad Growing Old: "Stuff"

Chicago Public Radio: Embroidery Felon

Chicago Public Radio: This American Life: Tell It to the Void (I) (II)

Chicago Public Radio: This American Life: Testosterone

KPCC: Interview with voice-over cleanup actor Mark Sussman

Voice of America Webcast: Foreign language teaching in the U.S. and Yao Ming

CBS video report: The Early Show: Reporter's Cancer Video Diary (video)

CBS News Video: Bagpipe Student Drowns Out Critics

"ABC News Shuffle" podcast: Daily realities of Iraq

ABC News Good Morning America podcast: Maligned customers suing Walgreens

ABC News: Santa Barbara's Mobile Homeless

NBC Nightly News: Bush Fake News Blitz (video)

CNN International: Captain Underpants Ban

CNN: Larry King Live: Positive Thinking, Part I  II

Fox News: Excerpt from Senator John McCain's Concession Speech

Fox News podcast: A Few Moments with Jewel

CBC: Rats

CBC: Autism – The Long Wait

CBC: Quirks and Quarks with Bob McDonald: Seeing with Sound

Technologies for the Blind (videos)

ABC NSW: Cockroaches – friend or foe?

ABC: How To Find a Husband after Thirty-five

New York Times: Life After Rehab

New York Times: From Ladles of Molten Metal

New York Times Opinion: Acid Attacks

New York Times video: Vows: Andrew and David

New York Times video: Women at Arms

New York Times video: When No One's Looking, Part 2

TED Talks: Doris Kearns Goodwin: Learning from past presidents in moments of crisis

YouTube video: Joined for Life: Abby and Brittany Turn 16

YouTube: 20/20: The Woman Who Could Not Forget

Profiles with Tara: Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing (I) (II)

Profiles with Tara: Elder rage: (I) (II)

Profiles with Tara: Abusive men: (I) (II)

The Infinite Mind: Cheating

National Geographic Presents: Europe's Fascination with Native Americans

NationalGeographic.com: City of the Dead: Holt Cemetery, New Orleans

Mayo Clinic (I): Work on wheels with Thomas Holtackers (video)

Mayo Clinic (II): Capsule Endoscopy and All About an Allergy Test (video)

A Moment of Science II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI

Scientific American's 60-Second Science podcasts

New Scientist.com podcast: Anonymous sperm donors exposed

The Voices of Innovation: Artificial hand and Zipper

Seasonal Strategies with Robert Brodman, PhD

Mars Exploration Rover Mission: First Person - Ayanna Howard (video)

Oprah Winfrey's After the Show: Incredible Stories of Survival, Part Two (video)

Oprah Winfrey: Randy Pausch reprises his "Last Lecture"

VideoJug: Life Explained on Film: How To Write A CV

VideoJug: How to Remember People's Names

Steve Chandler: 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself: Change Your Life Forever
(tape available in AV library)

Cosmopolitan's Ask Him Anything Podcasts

The Larry Elder Show: Interview with Vili Fualaau

PBS Kids: It's My Life (videos)

ChannelOne.com: Living with alcoholism (video)

ChannelOne.com: French riots (video)

The Joy of Baking: Making Scones (video)

Taunton Press: Make a 10-inch Berry Tart (video)

The New York Times: Dips and spreads: Baba Ghanouj (video)

The New York Times: Seafood Salad (video)

The New York Times: Not Your Grandmother's Pancake: Pa jun (video)

The New York Times: West African Peanut Soup

Epicurious: Rolled omelet (video)

Cooking.com cooking video: How to make basic stuffing (video)

Startcooking.com: Mixed Bean and Vegetable Soup

Gunsmoke: Indian Baby (I) (II)

Gunsmoke: Kitty (I) (II)

Gunsmoke: The Liar from Blackhawk (I) (II)

Gunsmoke: Marryin' Bertha (I) (II)

Gunsmoke: Home Surgery (I) (II)

Dragnet: The Big Escape (I) (II)

The Nine Billion Names of God I II
radio drama based on the 1967 science fiction story by Arthur C. Clarke
(tape available in AV library)

I Love Lucy: Breaking the Lease

Monologue by Ellen DeGeneres (videos)

Louis CK (Szekely): Everything's amazing, nobody's happy

YouTube: English Problems

College Humor: Awkward Rap

Satirical song on YouTube: "Jerry Falwell's God" by Roy Zimmerman (I) (II)

YouTube: Tom Lehrer: National Brotherhood Week/When You Are Old and Gray

Country-pop song: "Black Cadillac" by Rosanne Cash

Country-Western-Rap song: I Wanna Talk About Me

Popular song: "Desperado" by the Eagles

Popular Song: "Laurie" by Dickey Lee

Popular song: "The Angel" by Buffy Sainte-Marie

Popular Song: "Insensitive" by Jann Arden

Popular song: "Between" by Vienna Teng

Popular song: "Putting Things Away" by Amanda McBroom

Popular song: "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens

Popular song: "W*O*L*D" by Harry Chapin

Popular song: "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie

Popular song: It's a Mad World

AL-TV: Weird Al vs. Eminem

YouTube: Neo Futurists: Dialogue play from Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind

Movie: Cloze exercise: When Harry Met Sally I II

Movie: Corrected transcriptions: Kramer vs. Kramer

Movie: Corrected transcriptions: You've Got Mail (.doc)

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Audio, video and text resources

Metasites and lists of links

StumbleUpon!
Discover New Sites
Channel surf the internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar
to find great websites, videos, photos and more based
on your interests. StumbleUpon learns what you like
and makes better recommendations.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
Incredible collections of links to all sorts of learning resources in the arts, business, education, the humanities, mathematics, science and technology, and the social sciences
http://www.merlot.org/Home.po

TVEyes
TVEyes Video Search lets you search the Internet for TV clips
http://tveyes.com/

Singingfish offers audio/video search services
that help people easily find mp3s, movie trailers, sports highlights,
newscasts, and other streaming files
http://www.singingfish.com/

Yahoo! Video Search
http://video.search.yahoo.com/

Audio, Video & Multimedia Resources on the Web: Finding Aids
http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/audioandmore.htm

World English: English Language Activities, Exercises and Tests
http://www.world-english.org/

E. L. Easton: Materials for Teaching and Learning
http://eleaston.com/

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab
http://www.esl-lab.com/

ESL: Listening A sub-page of The Internet TESL Journal's TESL/TEFL/TESOL/ESL/EFL/ESOL Links
http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Listening/

Resources for English as a Second Language
http://www.usingenglish.com/

Listening - Sites for Comprehension: Guide picks
http://esl.about.com/cs/listeningresource/

Internet English Resources
http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/student_internet_res.html

Using English for Academic Purposes
School of Combined Studies, University of Hertfordshire
Listening comprehension & note-taking: Exercises
http://www.uefap.co.uk/listen/listfram.htm

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News and News podcasts

BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
BBC podcasts
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/downloadtrial/#programmes
BBC World Today Select podcast
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/worldtoday/news/story/2006/03/060320_podcast.shtml

EuroNews with videos
http://www.euronews.net/

NPR
http://www.npr.org/
NPR podcasts
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php

MPR
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/
MPR podcasts
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/about/site/podcasts/

New York Times Podcasts
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/multimedia/podcasts.html
Book review podcast archive
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/books-podcast-archive.html?8bu&emc=bu
Video on New York Times: Movie Minutes, David Pogue,
Business, Science, Dining & Wine, Arts, more
http://video.on.nytimes.com/

Los Angeles Times Podcasts
http://www.latimes.com/broadband/la-podcasting,0,3459559.htmlstory

Washington Post Podcasts
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/podcastfront.htm

Time magazine Podcasts
http://www.time.com/time/podcasts/

Newsweek Podcasts
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7078547/site/newsweek/

The Economist Podcast
http://www.economist.com/index.html

ABC
http://abcnews.go.com/
ABC podcasts
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Podcasting/

CBS
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/home/main100.shtml

NBC
http://www.nbc.com/
http://www.nbc.com/News_&_Sports/

CNN
http://www.cnn.com/
CNN podcasts
http://www.cnn.com/services/podcasting/

Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/

Cosmopolitan Ask-me-anything podcast
http://feeds.feedburner.com/CosmopolitansAskHimAnything

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TV, video, comedy
Oprah. com: The official Web site
http://www.oprah.com/
After the Show
http://www.oprah.com/tows/after/tows_after_all.jhtml

Oxygen Homepage TV clips
http://www.oxygen.com/

VideoJug: Life Explained on Film
http://www.videojug.com/

The Larry Elder Show Archives
http://larryelder.warnerbros.com/recapArchive.html

G4TV.com (with video highlights)
http://www.g4tv.com/shows/index.html

TVLand: Video gallery Celebrity interviews
http://www.tvland.com/caughtoncam/videos.jhtml
TV Shows
http://www.tvland.com/shows/

Comedy Central Video clips
http://www.comedycentral.com/
Jon Stewart's Daily Show Archives
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/videos/stephen_colbert/index.jhtml

CBS: The Late Show with David Letterman Audio clips
http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/dave_tv/ls_dtv_big_show_highlights.shtml

the ellen degeneres show Daily monologue, video clips
http://ellen.warnerbros.com/galleries/video/index.html?=mono/daily
Index:
http://ellen.warnerbros.com/galleries/video.html

The Jack Paar Collection: Sample videos
http://www.shoutfactory.com/selection/107/popqt/The_Jack_Paar_Collection.html

PBS (Public Broadcasting Service)
http://www.pbs.org/
PBS Online NewsHour Videos
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/video/index.html
PBS: Tavis Smiley: Archives: Interviews
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/
PBS Kids: It's My Life Videos (Embarrassing Moments, Gossip & Rumors, Time Management...)
http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/video/index.html

Channel One: K-12 programming: Lots of links
http://www.channelone.com/video/

Online Court TV
http://www.courttv.com/video/

C-Span streaming video: Political reporting, Book TV, many links to other C-span services
http://www.c-span.org/watch/cspan_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

Bloomberg Television: Finance
http://www.bloomberg.com/tv/index.html

YouTube videos
http://www.youtube.com/

P.O.V. Online Short Film Festival: Archive
http://www.pbs.org/pov/filmarchive.php

Google video search (beta)
http://video.google.com/

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Movies
English-trailers.com
ESL exercises for movie trailers
http://www.english-trailers.com/

Warner Brothers Movie trailers
http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/all/link/external.jsp?url=http://trailers.warnerbros.com/web/index.jsp&frompage=sitemap Television
http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/main/television/television.jsp?frompage=sitemap

Apple: Fox Searchlight QuickTime movie trailers
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/

Apple movie trailers
http://www.apple.com/trailers/

Hollywood.com Movie trailers, reviews, more
http://www.hollywood.com/

Delta Campus Moviefest Student-made movies
http://www.campusmoviefest.com/

Independent Lens: The first annual Online Shorts Festival
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/insideindies/shortsfest/index.html

How "Star Wars" Was Made
http://www.starwars.com/episode-i/bts/me1/archive.html

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Science and academics
Nationalgeographic.com: Pulse of the Planet
Feature stories on culture and nature from around the world
in audio and video (RealOne/WinMedia)
http://pulseplanet.nationalgeographic.com/

National Geographic Presents
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/highspeed/news.html
Program Previews
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/programs/index.html
Inside 9/11: Video interview archive
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/inside911/

PBS: Nature: Video archives
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/database.html
PBS: Wired Science
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/

NOVA: Science Now
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/archive/q050125.html
Podcasts: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/rss/

Free Science and Video Lectures Online!
http://freescienceonline.blogspot.com/

The Science Café
The University of California at San Francisco
http://www.ucsf.edu/sciencecafe/index.html

Cornell University: CyberTower: Study Rooms
http://cybertower.cornell.edu/index.html

MIT podcast: Zigzag
http://web.mit.edu/zigzag/

Open Culture: University Podcast Collection
http://www.oculture.com/weblog/2006/10/free_university_1.html

free university lectures
http://lecturefox.com/

New Scientist Podcast
http://www.newscientist.com/podcast.ns

Nature Podcast
http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/index.html

Seed MagazinePodcast
http://seedmagazine.com/podcasts/

Science Friday Podcast
http://www.sciencefriday.com/audio/

Naked Scientists: BBC/Cambridge University Online Science Radio Archive
Now with podcasts
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/shows/Archive.htm

BBC: Click Online
The BBC's flagship technology lifestyle show
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/default.stm

The Infinite Mind: A deeper look at cheating, domestic
violence, mental health, much more
http://www.theinfinitemind.com/mindprgm.htm

A Moment of Science: Audio
http://amos.indiana.edu/library/audio.html

Everyday Science Radio Series: See audio archives
http://www.everydayscience.org/index2.html

The Engines of Our Ingenuity: Audio with text; written and hosted by John Lienhard
http://www.uh.edu/engines/engines.htm

NPR: Sounds Like Science: Archives
http://www.npr.org/programs/science/archives/

NPR: Talk of the Nation: Science Friday with Ira Flatow
http://www.npr.org/programs/scifri/

Science Interchange/National Audobon Society: Birds, evolution and farming (90 seconds each)
http://www.earthnewsradio.org/naspage.htm

Berkeley Grogs: Audio Archives
http://www.archive.org/audio/audiolisting-browse.php?cat=981

Science@NASA Podcasts
http://science.nasa.gov/podcast.htm

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Mars Exploration Rover Mission Videos
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/video/

NASA’s Destination Tomorrow: 30-minute videos on NASA research programs; on the Apple site
http://ali.apple.com/ali_sites/ali/exhibits/1000848/
http://ali.apple.com/ali_sites/ali/exhibits/1001454/

Arctic Science Journeys (Alaska)
http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/MoreASJ.html

Sports: Oakley Video Vault: See the world through the eyes of Oakley athletes
http://oakley.com/about/video_vault/?id=apple

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Culture and history

TEDTALKS
Technology Entertainment Design
Hosting audio and video talks by some of the world's
most fascinating people: Trusted voices and
convention-breaking mavericks, icons and geniuses
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/

Favorite Poem Project Video collection
Hear and see ordinary people read their favorite poems and tell their life stories
http://www.favoritepoem.org/index.html

Lectures on: What to listen for in music with Dr. Michael Broyles
http://town.hall.org/radio/Kennedy/Broyles/

Merriam-Webster's Word for the Wise
http://www.m-w.com/wftw/wftw.htm

BBC Four: Documentaries
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/

Conversations with History: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
In these more than 300 lively and unedited interviews, distinguished men and women
from all over the world talk about their lives and their work.Guests include
diplomats, statesmen, and soldiers; economists and political analysts; scientists
and historians; writers and foreign correspondents; activists and artists.
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/alpha.htm

WHST- Spoken History (registration required)
http://www.live365.com/stations/geomacdow

Talking History: Aural History Productions
http://www.talkinghistory.org/index.html

Community Language Collection: Oral History recordings
http://www.uncc.edu/english/clc/index1.html

The Library of Congress Recorded Sound Reference Center
American Memory Collections sound recordings
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/audio.html

"The Negro and the American Promise" Video interviews
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/mlk/sfeature/sf_video.html

Tejano Voices Interviewees
http://libraries.uta.edu/tejanovoices/gallery.asp

Lakota Winter Counts
http://wintercounts.si.edu/index.html

Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies Video excerpts
http://www.library.yale.edu/testimonies/excerpts/index.htm

A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
http://www.fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/movies.htm

The Open Video Project: This site offers nearly 2000 free videos online
"The purpose of the Open Video Project is to collect and make available a repository of digitized video content for the digital video, multimedia retrieval, digital library, and other research communities."
http://www.open-video.org/

Creative Commons: Common content
Images, Movies, Audio, Text, Web sites
http://commoncontent.org/

AudioTreasure: Download the Bible in mp3 for free
Links to Bible audio resources in many languages
http://www.audiotreasure.com/

Buddha Net Audio Meditation instruction
http://www.buddhanet.net/audio-meditation.htm

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Selected radio stations for English listening practice
National Public Radio: All Things Considered, Morning Edition
http://www.npr.org/
National Public Radio: StoryCorps: Recording America
Since 2003, thousands have taken part in the StoryCorps oral history project, describing their lives and history.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4516989

The BBC World Service
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/index.shtml
BBC: Learning English
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/index.shtml

Voice of America Webcasts
http://voa-7.chntva1-dc1.genuity.net/Webcasts/index.cfm
VOA Podcasts
http://www.voanews.com/english/podcasts.cfm

VOA's Radio Free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/front/

VOA's New American Voices: Immigrants tell VOA their stories
http://www.voanews.com/NewAmericanVoices/index.cfm

Minnesota Public Radio (MPR)
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/
MPR: Real Stories
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/realstories/
MPR: StoryCorps: In downtown Minneapolis, people are
stepping into a 26-foot trailer to tell each other about their lives.
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/2005/06/storycorps/
MPR: Human interest stories
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/human_interest/

American Public Media: Marketplace Money: A Day in the Work Life: Short interviews
http://marketplacemoney.publicradio.org/collections/special/2004/day_in_the_work_life/

American Public Media: American RadioWorks
Documentaries: Home
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/index.html
Podcasts
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/podcast.html

WPKN News and Public Affairs Programming
http://www.wpkn.org/wpkn/news/

FAIR: CounterSpin The News Behind the Headlines
http://www.fair.org/counterspin/index.htmll

World Radio Network (WRN): OnDemand Audio
http://www.wrn.org/ondemand/

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.cbc.ca/

Radio Canada International
http://www.rcinet.ca/

Radio One Ireland
http://www.rte.ie/

Scotland FM
http://www.radioscotland.com/

Wales Radio International
http://wri.cymru.net/

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.abc.net.au/default.htm

Radio New Zealand International
http://www.rnzi.com/

Sunset Radio South Africa
http://216.247.79.50/nations/za/za01a.html

Latin lives! Hear it on the radio from Finland:
http://www.yle.fi/fbc/latini/summary.html

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Radio and other audio interviews, features, talk radio
BBC full index
http://www.bbc.co.uk/a-z/

BBC Four: Audio interviews
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/

BBC Four: Women's Hour Great interviews
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/
Listen Again Link to archives of previous week at bottom of each page
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/listenagain/

BBC: The Sound of Life
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/soundoflife.shtml

BBC Video Nation Archive: Ordinary Brits talk on all kinds of topics
http://www.bbc.co.uk/videonation/archive/
Video Suffolk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/videonation/archive2.shtml
The Voices recordings
Listen in to the diverse voices of the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man – from Shetland to Penzance
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/index.shtml
Collect Britain: English accents and dialects
http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/

Radio RTÉ, Ireland Archives
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/archive/

Talk to Tara: Audio interviews with authors of good books
http://talktotara.com/

The Washington Post: Audio and video archive
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/newsvideo.htm

The New York Times: Audio, video, slide shows
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/multimedia/index.html

PublicRadioFan.com: Public radio listings from around the world
http://www.publicradiofan.com/

Public Radio International: Listener's Center
http://www.pri.org/PublicSite/listeners/index.html

Public radio: Music and nature: Interviews; other links
http://musicandnature.publicradio.org/interviews/

Radio Fresh Air: Interviews
http://freshair.npr.org/guest_info_fa.jhtml?name=index

WBUR in Boston: Good interviews
http://www.wbur.org/

Wisconsin Public Radio
http://www.wpr.org/

Chicago Public Radio
http://www.wbez.org/
Chicago Public Radio: This American Life
http://www.thislife.org/
Chicago Public Radio: Third Coast International Audio Festival
http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/pages/archive.html

WFPL 89.3 Louisville, Kentucky
State of Affairs: Audio archive
http://216.24.56.185:8080/WFPL%27s%20State%20of%20Affairs/

Focal Point: An independently produced talk radio program on WEBR Fairfax, Virginia; great interviews
http://www.fpradio.com/index.html

WHYY 91FM: Been There/Done That
Interviews with Marty Goldensohn (Philadelphia and Wilmington)
http://www.whyy.org/91FM/btdt/index.html

CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
Richardson's Roundup with Bill Richardson
http://www.cbc.ca/roundup/interviews/

ABC Broadband (Australia)
http://www.abc.net.au/broadband/

The WGN Radio Online Audio Archives, Chicago Talk show archives
http://wgnradio.com/archives/index.htm

i.e. America Radio: Liberal Talk Radio (registration required)
http://www.ieamericaradio.com/
http://www.live365.com/stations/ieamerica

Democracy Now! Audio archives
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype:audio%20AND%20collection:democracy_now&sort=%2Fmetadata%2Fdate
Naropa Audio Archives
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype:audio%20AND%20collection:naropa&sort=%2Fmetadata%2Ftitle

Other Minds: Composers, music, musicians Audio archives
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype:audio%20AND%20collection:other_minds&sort=-%2Fmetadata%2Fpublicdate

Conference Proceedings Audio archives
http://www.archive.org/audio/audiolisting-browse.php?collection=conference_proceedings&cat=404

Voice of America: Wordmaster
Text and audio reports on language-related topics
http://www.manythings.org/voa/wm/index.html

NHK (Japan) Online
http://www.nhk.or.jp/rj/index_j.html

A Musician's Life
Learn about musicians' lives first-hand
http://www.xponentialmusic.org/interviews_performances/musicianslife.php

top      home


Books and stories

Audio Book Podcast Collection
http://www.oculture.com/weblog/2006/10/audio_book_podc.html

Oneword Radio
Serializations of bestselling books, from Jane Austen
to Nick Hornby, read by the greatest actors
http://www.oneword.co.uk/

WRBH Reading Radio, New Orleans: Originally intended for the visually impaired, but great for everybody
http://www.i-55.com/wrbhlive/wrbh.asx

New York Times: Author Interviews and Readings
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/books-audio-archive.html

Book Radio: Interviews and readings
http://www.bookradio.com/

BBC afternoon story
http://cgi.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/afternoon_reading.shtml

Audio Books for Free
http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/screen_main.asp

simply audiobooks
Some free downloads
http://www.simplyaudiobooks.com/Free_Audiobooks/dp/202/

Free Classic Audio Books
Digital Narration for the 21st Century
http://www.freeclassicaudiobooks.com/

LibriVox: free audiobooks
"Acoustical liberation of books in the public domain"
http://librivox.org/newcatalog/

Audio Archive
Audio and MP3 library with over two hundred thousand
free digital recordings ranging from alternative news
programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio
shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music
uploaded by our users. Many of these audios and MP3s
are available for free download.
http://www.archive.org/details/audio

Logos Wordtheque
Incredible multilingual library of literary texts, some with audio
http://www.wordtheque.com/owa-wt/new_wordtheque.main?lang=en&source=search

Logos Multilingual Children's Library
http://www.wordtheque.com/pls/wordtc/new_wordtheque.main_bimbi?lang=en

Storyteller.net: Audio children's stories
http://storyteller.net/stories/audio

USA Audio Books
http://www.audiobookradio.net/listen.asx

Project Gutenberg audio books
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/1

AudioBooksCorner.com
http://www.audiobookscorner.com/list.aspx?catId=1133

Escape pod
The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine
http://escapepod.org/

Vorleser.net: Literatur hören
German audio books
http://www.vorleser.net/

top      home


Old-time radio drama and misc. radio
Audio, News, and Info Directory: OldtimeRadioTheater
Live and On-Demand Old Time Radio Shows
http://www.billsparks.org/OldtimeRadioTheater/Live_and_On-Demand_Old_Time_Radio_Shows/

Free Old time Radio Shows
http://www.radiolovers.com/allshows.html

OTR.Network Library
A free resource for Old Time Radio (OTR)
http://www.otr.net/

The Mercury Theatre on the Air
http://www.unknown.nu/mercury/

Old Time Radio Web Ring: Huge listing of online radio sites
http://f.webring.com/hub?sid=&ring=otr&id=&list

Gunsmoke online
http://cayman.globat.com/~trademarksnet.com/GUNSMOKE/GunsmokeTGAW/Marks-Stuff/RadioPlays/Radio.htm

The Radio Trip Audio comedy clips; links to other features
http://www.theradiotrip.com/features/

top      home


Cooking videos

Cooking. com: Cooking videos
http://www.cooking.com/techniques/vidtech_toc.asp

Epicurious: Cooking technique videos (Click on Learn > Technique Videos)
http://eat.epicurious.com/learn/video/index.ssf?/learn/video/main.html

OptimumOnline Cooking videos
http://www.optonline.net/Living/AllFoodIndex

FoodNetwork.com: Cooking technique videos
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/ck_demos/

Fine Cooking Online: Cooking videos
http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/pages/fc_feat_videos.asp

PBS Julia Child: Lessons with Master Chefs: Cooking videos
http://www.pbs.org/juliachild/

VideoJug: Recipes
http://www.videojug.com/tag/food-recipes

Kylie Kwong: Cooking with Heart and Soul (Australian)
http://www.abc.net.au/kyliekwong/

joyofbaking.com: Online Baking School
http://www.joyofbaking.com/cookingschool.html

The Los Angeles Times: Quick Fix meal videos
Prepare a delicious meal in just 30 minutes
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/quickfix/la-quickfix-package.special#

The Washington Post: Food 101
Choose a video from the pull-down menu
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/food/

The New York Times: Cooking with the Times archive
Choose an article and link to accompanying videos
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/dining/cooking/cooking-archives.html

top      home

Text resources

Delanceyplace
Thought-provoking excerpts from outstanding books
http://www.delanceyplace.com/
http://delanceyplace.blogspot.com/

GAgirl.com Stories
http://www.gagirl.com/stories/encouragement.html

awesomestories.com: Texts on Flicks, Famous Trials, History, Biography, Religion, Inspiration, Disasters, LawBuzz
http://www.awesomestories.com/static/awesome_middle.html

English-Zone.Com: Graded ESL texts
http://english-zone.com/reading/index.html
http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/reading.html

Aesop's Fables: Online Collection - Selected Fables
http://www.aesopfables.com/aesopsel.html

Folk Stories of Taiwan
http://www.taiwandc.org/folk.htm

Zen Stories to Tell Your Neighbors
http://www.rider.edu/%7Esuler/zenstory/zenstory.html

Zen Stories in Chinese
http://www.ctworld.org.tw/sutra_stories/ind_01.htm

Find Articles: Huge collection of articles from many different sources, with search engine
http://www.findarticles.com/

ProPlay: Stage plays on the Web
Note that the plays cannot be copied, printed out, or staged without permission.
http://www.singlelane.com/proplay/

The Dramatic Exchange: Lots of downloadable plays
Permission required to stage the plays.
http://www.dramex.org/index.shtml

Small-Cast One-Act Guide Online
Index of one-act plays for four or fewer actors
http://www.loc.gov/nls/other/sayhow.html

Comic Monologues
"A symposium of jocular monologues & whimsical poetry"
http://www.monologues.co.uk/index.htm

The Movie Spoiler: The Most Fun You Can Have at the Movies Without Being There
http://www.themoviespoiler.com/

Post your creative writing to the New York Times site
http://forums.nytimes.com/top/opinion/readersopinions/forums/books/creativewriting/index.html

National Geographic XPeditions
Thousands of teaching ideas, tools, and interactive adventures
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/

E-texts

top      home


Internet radio and TV portal sites

     Tune in to Internet radio and TV stations around the world; choose 'talk' as a category (or whatever else you're in the mood for) and launch a search. You'll need to download and install RealOne from http://www.real.com/ or other player, if you don't already have one.

Comfm: 1000% Web Radios (large selection)
http://www.comfm.com/live/radio/

Multilingual Television Broadcasts (also: International Radio and Newspapers)
http://broadcast-live.com/television/multilingual.html

fjufirefox: Internet TV
http://fjufirefox.blogspot.com/2007/03/ref-httppeterskyhands.html

JournalismNet: Find radio stations by country
http://www.journalismnet.com/radio/country.htm

Live 365.com Internet radio stations (some free, some for pay)
http://www.live365.com/index.live

brs web-radio
http://www.web-radio.com/

WarpRadio: Radio station portal site; large selection
http://www.warpradio.com/IEindex.asp

StreamAudio.com: Large choice of US talk radio stations
(other programming available too)
http://www.streamaudio.com/radiostations/list.asp?type=format&criteria=News/Talk

Radio Tower.com: The Internet Radio Receiver
http://www.radiotower.com/

TV4all: Internet TV portal site
http://tv4all.com/portal.htm

Mediahopper online TV
http://mediahopper.com/ns3.htm

Talk2k.com: Internet Talk Radio
http://www.talk2k.com/index.htm

PublicRadioFan.com: Public radio listings from around the world
http://www.publicradiofan.com/

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Speeches and scripts

      Preparing for a speech contest? There are lots and lots of online collections of famous (and not so famous) speeches, often with audio files, that you can practice with. Use the 'pause' button on the media player to stop the speech after each short phrase, and imitate the speaker as closely as you can. This will help both your pronunciation and rhythm, not to mention things like structure and vocabulary. There are also online sources of play and movie scripts, and audio clips from movies, all of which are great for oral practice.

First, some hints on how to prepare for a speech:

MayoClinic.com: How can I overcome my fear of public speaking?
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fear-of-public-speaking/AN01979

Online Speech Bank
     In addition to transcripts and audio files of great speeches, this site also offers 200+ brief audio (mp3) clips illustrating 38 different figures of speech. Most of these figures were constructed, identified, and classified by Greek and Roman teachers of rhetoric in the Classical period. For each rhetorical device, definitions and examples, written and audio, are provided. Audio examples are taken from public speeches and sermons, movies, songs, lectures, oral interpretations of literature, and other media events.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speechbank.htm

George Mason University's Nonfiction Universe: Speeches
http://mason.gmu.edu/~jhenry/nu/speeches.html

HistoryChannel.com: Speech Archives
Hear the Words that Changed the World
http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/

Online Audio and Video Recordings: UC Berkeley Lectures and Events
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/audiofiles.html

Great Speeches
http://www.chicago-law.net/speeches/speech.html

Presidential Recordings Archive
http://www.archive.org/audio/collection.php?collection=presidential_recordings

Gifts of Speech: A site dedicated to preserving and creating access to speeches by influential contemporary women from around the world
http://gos.sbc.edu/what.html

Theatrehistory.com's Script Archive: includes full-length plays, one-act plays, 10-minute plays, and monologues
http://www.theatrehistory.com/plays/monologues.html

Drew's Script-O-Rama: Film and TV scripts
http://www.script-o-rama.com/oldindex.shtml

Funwavs.com: Movie Quotes, Movie Sounds and Wavs
Recordings of lines from movies for speech and acting practice
http://funwavs.com/

top      home

Music

Grooveshark
Find any song you're looking for
http://listen.grooveshark.com/

Deezer: Music on demand without download
The first free music on demand website
Come and discover more than 150,000 tracks
http://www.deezer.com/

Songza
Music search engine and Internet jukebox
Songza lets you listen to any song or band.
http://songza.com/

Pandora
Individually-tailored music streamed to your pc
(no longer available outside the US, but try the podcasts – they're great!)
http://www.pandora.com/

Live Music Archive
http://www.archive.org/details/etree

Classical Lost and Found (CLOFO)
Forgotten music by great composers
and great music by forgotten composers
http://www.clofo.com/

Unknown Composers
Classical music that for whatever reason isn't often heard, but deserves to be.
http://www.kith.org/jimmosk/

Download.com: Free music downloads
http://music.download.com/2001-1_32-0.html

GemRecords.com: Links to MP3 downloads, homepages
in all musical genres; lots of world music
http://gemrecords.com/

MPERIA: "Your home for independent music"
http://www.mperia.com/

The Classical Music Archives (free registration required)
http://www.classicalarchives.com/

Radio B.A.C.H 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
http://www.platforma.pl/bach/eng/index.phtml

Musica Viva: Free sheet music downloads and more
http://www.musicaviva.com/

Sheet Music Online.net
Sheet music downloads, MIDI
http://sheetmusiconline.net/archive.php

Ricci Adams' Musictheory.net
http://www.musictheory.net/index.html

WNYC New York Public Radio: New Sounds Archive
All kinds of new CDs
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/newsounds/episodes/2007/07

MPR: St. Paul Sunday with Bill McGlaughlin
Interesting, distinctive music
http://saintpaulsunday.publicradio.org/

MPR: Minnesota Orchestra with Brian Newhouse
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/programs/minnesota_orchestra/

MPR: Harmonia with Angela Mariani
Early music
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/programs/harmonia/

MPR: Pipedreams with Michael Barone
Organs and organ music
http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/

MPR: Open Air with Bill Morelock
Longer works for orchestra and chorus, with introductions
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/programs/open_air/

MPR: New Classical Tracks with Julie Amacher
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/programs/classical_music_amacher/

MPR: The Opera with Bill Morelock
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/programs/opera/

Gallery of Odd Music
http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/index.html

Toby Lightman
http://flash.atlrec.com/tobylightman/quicktime

Guster on Ice
http://www.kikkerfest.com/2004-05-07/

Melissa Auf der Maur
http://aufdermaur.com/video.html

Tim McGraw: Live Like You Were Dying
http://www.bamah.com/timmcgraw/llywd/quicktime/TimMcGraw_LiveLikeYouWereDying_240x180_100.mov

Bebo & Cigala: Lágrimas Negras
http://www.beboandcigala.com/quicktime/

Adem: Ringing in my Ear
http://www.video-c.co.uk/default.asp?microsite=adem001#

Music in Australia
http://www.musicaustralia.org/

Atlas of Plucked Instruments
http://www.atlasofpluckedinstruments.com/

Songtitle.Info: Music from TV Commercials
http://www.songtitle.info/

FindSounds: Search the Web for Sounds
http://www.findsounds.com/types.html

New York City siren sounds
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/nyregion/15siren_sounds.html

Animal Recordings from the Macaulay Library, Cornell
Formerly Library of Natural Sounds
http://www.animalbehaviorarchive.org/loginPublic.do

UbuWeb: Visual, Concrete + Sound Poetry
Free MP3 files of unusual vocalizations from around the world
http://www.ubu.com/

top      home

Newspapers and magazines

     Read the New York Times online:
     
http://www.nyt.com/

     You will need to register, but it's free! Sign up for a free daily e-mail digest of news headlines at the site; all you'll have to do is click on the e-mail links to read the stories you're interested in.

The New Yorker magazine
http://www.newyorker.com/

Other good newspapers to try:
The Washington Post (US)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

The Los Angeles Times (US)
http://www.latimes.com/

Guardian Unlimited (UK)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/

The Telegraph (UK)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Independent (UK)
http://www.independent.co.uk/

Tabloids:
The Daily News (NY, US)
http://www.nydailynews.com/

The Daily Mirror (UK)
http://www.mirror.co.uk/

     Many other newspapers are accessible via:

http://www.newspapers.com
     

     Lots of links to newspapers; link names in Chinese:
http://www.cuteway.net/link.html

If you don't know where to start, try the 'Top Ten'.

     More newspapers here:

http://broadcast-live.com/television/multilingual.html

     Links to Chinese and other newspapers here:
http://www.npf.org.tw/resource-02.htm

     Find online newspapers and magazines from around the world at Metagrid:

http://www.metagrid.com/

top      home

Language exchanges, penpals and e-mail discussion lists

    
Livemocha:
The Social Way to Learn a Language: Connect with native speakers around the world, improve at your own pace with free online lessons
Learn languages, give and get language help online. Recommended!
http://www.livemocha.com/

 xLingo.com: Free online language exchange network
http://www.xlingo.com/

      italki: Language exchange and language learning community: study a language and make friends around the world.
http://www.italki.com/

     Mylanguageexchange.com: Start a language exchange over the Internet in just about any language here (fee charged): http://www.mylanguageexchange.com

     palabea: an international platform for language learning Learn Languages Discover other cultures and share your Knowledge in the palabea community
http://www.palabea.com/

    Myhappyplanet: Learn a language. Make friends. Have fun.
     http://myhappyplanet.com/

     China-West Exchange: Exchange Mandarin, Cantonese and English: http://www.chinawestexchange.com/

     Make friends, practice your English, ask questions about English over the BBC message boards:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/h2/h2.cgi?board=learningenglish
Index: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/youmeus/index.shtml

     The Chinese OWL (Online Writing Lab): Provides comprehensive on-line writing services and learning curricula for Chinese speaking authors of English manuscripts.
http://www.cc.nctu.edu.tw/~tedknoy/html/lla_eng.html

   The OWL (Online Writing Lab) at Purdue: Offers online handouts covering writing, research, grammar, and MLA and APA style.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

    Writing to a penpal is a good way to improve your English (or other languages) and meet some of your social needs – but what's a good way to meet a penpal? Join an e-mail discussion list, based on your own interests! How to find the right list for you? Do a Google search by topic. Try inputting 'e-mail list [subject you are interested in]'.

     Here is one resource for e-mail discussion lists:
http://www.edwebproject.org/lists.html

    Here are some practical language learning ideas and links.

     Still can't find anyone to talk to in English? Try ELIZA:
http://www.manifestation.com/neurotoys/eliza.php3

     Or go ask ALICE:
http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=f5d922d97e345aa1

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Words of the Day

     Click below to read:
     A Word a Day by Anu Garg

AskOxford.com (English and other European languages)

The Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Day (with dates)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Your Dictionary Word of the Day

NCES's Word of the Day

Excite Word of the Day

Bloomsbury Word of the Day

Mywordaday (designed for SAT prep)

FictionAddiction.net Word of the Day (easier)

Bill Buckley's Word of the Day (short quiz)

Feed the hungry as you improve your vocabulary
http://www.freerice.com/

Travlang's Word of the Day
(in many languages, some with sound files)

Transparent.com Word of the Day:
Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese

Das Wort des Tages

Mot du Jour

Native American Word of the Day
Learn words in Tlingit, Yupik, Jicarilla Apache, Athabascan, Navajo,
Tsimpsean, Potawatomi, Ojibway, Mitchif, Inupiaq, Aleut, and Siberian Yupik

Ojibwe Word for the Day

Hawaiian Word of the Day
KITV Hawaiian Word of the Day

Stedman's Medical Word of the Day

Today's Indo-European language and root

The Word Spy

Generate a random name
http://www.behindthename.com/random/

top      home


Pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar

English Pronunciation Tip of the Day (British English, but most tips apply to most varieties of English)
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/johnm/eptotd/tiphome.htm

Oxford University Press: Pronunciation (Flash exercises)
http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/englishfile/elementary/c_pronunciation/

BBC Learning English - Pronunciation tips
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/pron/index.shtml

Eva Easton: Authentic American Pronunciation
http://evaeaston.com/pr/home.html
Teaching Pronunciation
http://evaeaston.com/pr/links.html

American English Pronunciation Practice (requires Flash Player)
http://www.manythings.org/pp/

Phonetic Flash - practice IPA symbols
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/johnm/flash/flashin.htm

Sounds English Discussion Forum: Pronunciation discussion board
http://pub34.ezboard.com/bsoundsenglish

Pronunciation Web Resources
http://www.sunburstmedia.com/PronWeb.html

Writing the IPA/KK pronunciation symbols in ASCII
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/IPA/ascii-ipa.pdf

Fonetiks.org Online pronunciation guide
(many different varieties of English and other languages)
http://www.fonetiks.org/

Voice of America guide to the pronunciation of foreign names (with audio files)
http://ibb7.ibb.gov/pronunciations/

Thought groups and chunking
http://grove.ufl.edu/~klilj/pron/tg/

International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA)
A repository of primary source recordings
for actors and other artists in the performing arts
from the Department of Theatre and Film, University Of Kansas
http://www.ku.edu/~idea/

English vocabulary list by frequency (.pdf)
http://k1.ioe.ac.uk/schools/phd/LLRC/voc_list_freq.pdf

The Longman defining vocabulary
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kbarker/working_notes/ldoce-vocab.html

Susan C. Anthony's classified English vocabulary lists
http://www.susancanthony.com/Resources/ESL/4vocab.html

Photo dictionary with sound files of classified vocabulary
http://www.eflnet.com/vocab/index.php

Online grammar guides (GMU)
http://writingcenter.gmu.edu/esl/gram_punct.html

Guide to grammar and writing
http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm

Internet Grammar of English
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/intro/intro.htm

The HyperText Book Modern English Grammar, English 126
by Daniel Kies, Department of English, College of DuPage
http://papyr.com/hypertextbooks/engl_126/book126.htm

An Encyclopedia of English Grammar and Word Grammar
by Richard Hudson
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/enc-gen.htm

Judy Vorfeld's Webgrammar: Editing, Writing, Webmastering & Web Development
http://www.webgrammar.com/

Common Errors in English
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html

Learn English grammar through daily e-mail lessons
http://www.dailygrammar.com/

Guide to Punctuation by Larry Trask
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/local/doc/punctuation/node00.html

Logos Multilingual Verba Universal Conjugator
http://www.verba.org/owa-v/verba_dba.verba_main.create_page?lang=en

top      home

Ghost stories

The Shadowlands: Ghosts and hauntings Over 6500 "true" ghost stories
http://theshadowlands.net/ghost/

The Moonlit Road: Ghost stories from the US South; some audio files
http://www.themoonlitroad.com/welcome001.asp

Halloween Ghost Stories
http://www.halloweenghoststories.com/

"True" Ghost Stories
http://www.ghosts.org/stories/stories.html

Victorian Ghost Stories
http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/ghost-stories.html

top      home

Word play

Playtime: Phonotactic Games
Wheel of Fortune, Jumble and other word games
http://ccms.ntu.edu.tw/~karchung/intro%20page%2024.htm

Word Play: Sites that feature fun with words
http://www.wolinskyweb.net/word.htm

A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia
http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words.html

Brian M. Murphy's Big list of clichés and other fun but stupid things to say
http://www.vistacraft.com/bbowman/embedded/health/cliche.htm

Helenisms (mixed metaphors)
http://bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/helenism.htm

Jingle-jangles: Echoic words
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/echoword/echodata.html

Phonosemantics and Linguistic Iconism Web Sites
http://www.conknet.com/~mmagnus/Links.html

English word linking game (接龍)
http://prairiehome.org/activities/19951231_comedy/

APRONYMS: Apt Phrases, Redolent Of Novel Yet Meaningful Sense
http://apronyms.com/

Oxymora: The list (Anarchy rules!)
http://www.oxymoronica.com/oxymoralist.shtml

Cockney rhyming slang
http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/articles/cockney-rhyming-slang.htm
http://www.phespirit.info/cockney/
http://www.krysstal.com/cockney.html
http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/
http://www.aldertons.com/
http://www.londonslang.com/

The Eggcorn Database
Common misspellings and misunderstandings
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/

top      home

Party games

The Party Games Ideas Resource Page
http://freespace.virgin.net/ken.tew/party/list.html

Party Game Central
http://www.partygamecentral.com/

Bluepineapple.com Party Games
http://www.bluepineapple.com/partygames/

Victorian Parlor Games
http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/parlour-games.html
http://www.judgeslodging.org.uk/education/Pages/parlour_games.html
http://www.funjoint.com/parlour.htm

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Free online comics

     Comics are a great way to learn about everyday American culture and how people really speak. And don't forget Dear Abby and Dear Annie!

Ucomics
http://www.ucomics.com/comics/

Comicspage.com
http://www.comicspage.com/index.htm

King Features Syndicate comics
http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/comics.htm

Comics.com
http://www.comics.com/

Washington Post comic page
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/style/comics/

The Calvin and Hobbes Searchable Database
http://www.transmogrifier.org/ch/comics/search.cgi

Al's Dilbert Page – a whole career of Dilbert
http://pag.csail.mit.edu/~adonovan/dilbert/

Shoecabbage
http://www.ucomics.com/shoecabbage/

Dear Abby
http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/

Dear Annie
http://u.sgvtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,213%257E24328%257E,00.html

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Pretty good jokes

Pretty good jokes from MPR's A Prairie Home Companion
http://www.publicradio.org/applications/formbuilder/projects/joke_machine/joke_page.php

AhaJokes.com
http://www.ahajokes.com/

New Funny Clean Jokes Every Day
http://funnycleanjokes.com/cgi-bin/webdata_joke_db.pl?cgifunction=Search

Radical-Jokes.com
http://www.radical-jokes.com/

Kim's Chuckle-A-Day Archives by Date
http://www.geocities.com/~chuckleaday/dates.html

Humor links: clean jokes
http://www.humorlinks.com/cgi-bin/sites/page.cgi?g=Jokes___Joking%2FClean_Jokes%2Findex.html&d=1

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The Dozens: Yo Momma jokes

     One kind of 'signifying', or African-American ritual insults; also called 'snaps'. Just how fat/stupid/ugly/old/poor/dark/dirty/nasty/lazy can you make someone's mother sound? another intro

http://www.geocities.com/featherpoint/index.htm
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~jwb7w/mom/home.html
http://www.pimpdaddy.com/yomama-default.shtml
http://www.duckshit.com/yo-mama-jokes/
http://www.maineiac.com/yomomma.html

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Knock-knock jokes

      Get a real taste of how English speakers have fun with words and sounds! Knock-knock jokes make puns on words with similar sounds or sometimes just a similar rhythm. How many of these do you 'get'? Which ones do you think are funny?

The A-Z of Knock Knock Jokes
http://www.scatty.com/jokes/knock/

Amazing Humor Funny Knock Knock Jokes
http://www.amazinghumor.com/jokes/knockknockjokes/

Aha jokes: Knock-knock jokes
http://www.ahajokes.com/knock_knock_jokes.html

The Maineiac site of jokes and games: Knock-knock jokes
http://www.maineiac.com/knock.html

111 Knock Knock Jokes!
http://www.azkidsnet.com/JSknockjoke.htm

The Children's Stomping Ground: Knock-knock jokes
http://www.oink.demon.co.uk/fun/knock.htm

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Tongue twisters and palindromes

     Good for developing verbal agility and practicing vowel contrasts.

Tongue Twisters for the ESL/EFL Classroom (A good place to start)
http://members.tripod.com/~ESL4Kids/tongue.html

The Tongue Twister Database (You will find lots of the better known ones here)
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8136/tonguetwisters.html

1st International Collection of Tongue Twisters (many languages)
http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/

Zungenbrecher: German tongue twisters
http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au/la/lote/german/materials/zbrecher.htm

A huge list of palindromes: Palindromelist.com
http://www.palindromelist.com/

Ernie's Favorite Palindromes: Palindromes in many languages (including Chinese)
http://complex.gmu.edu/neural/personnel/ernie/witty/palindromes.html

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Spoonerisms

     Spoonerisms involve an unintended exchange of sounds in two or more different words, often with humorous results.

What is a Spoonerism?
http://www.fun-with-words.com/spoon_explain.html

Spooner's Spoonerisms
http://www.fun-with-words.com/spoon_example.html

Reverend Spooner's Tips of the Slung
http://www.generationterrorists.com/quotes/spoonerisms.html

More Spoonerisms
http://home.planet.nl/~blade068/languagefun/spooner.htm

Quirkz.com: Complete Spoonerism List (193 spoonerisms)
http://www.quirkz.com/verbal/spoon_all.shtml

They've got them in German, too:
http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~tomato/spooners.php3

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Mondegreens: Misheard lyrics

     Native speakers sometimes get it wrong too!

Phantom phrases, a.k.a Mondegreens (LINGUIST)
Query Summary

Mondegreen sites
A Collection of Humorous Mondegreens
http://www.uh.edu/~mbarber/mondegreens.html

World Wide Words: Creative mishearings of lyrics
http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/monde.htm

Mondegreens: A short guide
http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/writing/Resources/essays/mondegreens.html

Center for the Humane Study of Mondegreens
http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/mondegreens.shtml

Am I right misheard lyrics
http://www.amiright.com/misheard/artist/index.shtml

Brain Candy: Mangled lyrics, misunderstood words
http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/wrlyric.html

Pop song Mondegreens
http://duranduran.homeip.net/cics/mondegreens.html

Metal Mondegreens
http://www.geocities.com/metalmondegreens/

Bob Dylan Mondegreens
http://www.punkhart.com/dylan/lyrics/mondegreens.html

Neil Young Song Mondegreens
http://hyperrust.org/Lyrics/Mondegreens.html

Middle-Eastern Music Mondegreens
http://www.beledy.net/phoenix/mondes.htm

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Limericks

     Limericks are another great form of English humor, and are good for practicing rhythm in speech. Some of them are clean!

The origins of the limerick:
http://edwardlear.tripod.com/limerick/deex.html

Simple instructions on how to write a limerick:
http://knox.link75.org/bcs/Publish%20C/bcspoetry/limerick.html

Collections of limericks:

OEDILF: The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form
We recently topped FORTY-ONE THOUSAND limericks, and more are pouring in every day.
http://www.oedilf.com/db/Lim.php

Also:
http://people.freenet.de/sylviah/limericks.html
http://www.edrc.uct.ac.za/~mj/limericks.html
http://limericks.org/pentatette/myths.htm
(Note the 'accidental' 13th century limerick in Latin)

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Poetry

Poetry handouts:
First poetry handout     Fall 1997 (.doc)     Spring 1998 (.doc)
Fall 1998 (.doc)    Spring 1999 (.doc)     Fall 1999 (.doc)     Spring 2000 (.doc)     
Fall 2000 (.doc)     Spring 2001 (.doc)    Fall 2001     Spring 2002
Fall 2002    Spring 2003   Fall 2003   Spring 2004    Fall 2004      Spring 2005     Fall 2005     Spring 2006
Fall 2006   Spring 2007   Fall 2007     Fall 2008   Spring 2009

Original poems by Oral Training II students:
Spring 2002     Spring 2003     Spring 2004     Spring 2005     Spring 2006

Click here for the About Poetry: English Prosody Plus Selected Literary Terms handout.
(Refer to this for definitions of terms like iambic, doggerel, and synaesthesia).

Also see: A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples:
http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/rhetoric.html

Glossary of Linguistics and Rhetoric:
http://rinkworks.com/words/linguistics.shtml

Here are some poetry sites

Poetry Through the Ages
Map a course through the evolution of poetry
Learn about poetic forms and create your own poetry
Discover more about poetry from ancient to modern times
http://www.webexhibits.org/poetry/

How to scan a poem:
http://server.riverdale.k12.or.us/~bblack/meter.html
http://www.stedwards.edu/hum/klawitter/poetics/scansion.html
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/users/m/morillo/public/prosody1.htm
http://englishwww.humnet.ucla.edu/ta/hyperteach/PDFs/read_poem2.pdf

An analysis of Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" for form and content
http://www.millikin.edu/aci/crow/basics/frost1.html

Questions to Ask of Any Poem
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/writingcenter/handouts/poetry.html
     
Reading poetry: A checklist of things to consider (pdf)
http://writingcenter.gmu.edu/resources/handouts/readingpoetry.pdf
The above two handouts are from the Writing Center of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia

SearchPoetry.com Poetry Search Engine
http://www.searchpoetry.com/

Poem of the Week (you can subscribe to this list)
http://www.potw.org/

Subscribe to MPR's The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor
features a poem a day with link to audio reading
http://almanac.mpr.org/

The Internet Poetry Address Book: Addresses and links to over 3000 poems by 20th century authors
http://www.vulgarian.net/ipa/20th/index.htm

神經囍囍 by Shue-Jen Hwang 黃學仁: Some English poems in Chinese translation
http://neuro.ohbi.net/study.htm#english_poem

About Poetry (lots of poetry-related links)
http://poetry.about.com/
     
Wired for books: poetry online (audio)
http://wiredforbooks.org/poetry/

Hear poems read aloud:
http://www.poets.org/booth/booth.cfm

eaglesweb.com: Poetry for the ear in the tradition of blind Homer (audio)
http://www.eaglesweb.com/poets.htm

Favorite Poem Project: Video collection
Hear and see ordinary people read their favorite poems and tell their life stories
http://www.favoritepoem.org/index.html

Audio Poetry Archives & Anthologies: Guide picks
http://poetry.about.com/msubaud.htm

The Internet Poetry Archive: Phillip Levine, Seamus Heaney, Czeslaw Milosz, Robert Pinsky, Yusef Komunyakaa, Margaret Walker, Richard Wilbur, with audio
http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/milosz/

An Audible Anthology: Poems from The Atlantic Monthly read aloud
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/poetry/antholog/aaindx.htm

Book of Voices: An e-poet's new media library of poetry in spoken word, performance, and text
http://voices.e-poets.net/index.shtml

Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/p180-list.html

Old Poetry: "We are the premier interactive community exploring the old poets."
http://oldpoetry.com/Poetry

Bartleby
http://www.bartleby.com/verse/

Plagiarist.com Poetry Archive
http://www.plagiarist.com/poetry/

The Literature Network
http://www.online-literature.com/

Poetry Exhibits
http://www.poets.org/poets/

University of Toronto
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/indexauthors.html#C

The Poetry Archives
Random poem function
http://www.emule.com/poetry/?page=author_list

Modern American Poetry
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets.htm

Classical Poetry Treasure Chest
http://jollyroger.com/classicalpoetry/

Bibliomania: Poetry
http://www.bibliomania.com/0/2/332/2446/frameset.html

Voices From the Gaps: Women Writers of Color
(University of Minnesota)
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/

The Eserver Poetry Collection
http://eserver.org/poetry/

The Complete Poems: Emily Dickinson
http://www.bartleby.com/people/DickinsoE.html

The Poetry of Emily Dickinson read by Laura Lee Parrotti In RealAudio
http://wiredforbooks.org/poetry/laura_lee_parrotti.htm

The Emily Dickinson random epigram machine
http://www.logopoeia.com/ed/

Robert Frost: America's Poet
http://www.ketzle.com/frost/

The Walt Whitman Archive
http://www.whitmanarchive.org/

A Complete Collection of Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/stevenson/stevenson.html
Also: http://ssl.pro-net.co.uk/home/catalyst/RF/poem1.html

W. B. Yeats: The Collected Poems
http://www.csun.edu/~hceng029/yeats/collectedpoems.html

Poetry Exhibits: E. E. Cummings
http://www.poets.org/viewall.php/varType/poems/prmOrderBy/

Dylan Thomas: Primary Texts
http://www.upei.ca/~english/202/modern/thomas.html

The Life and Work of Dylan Thomas
Under Milk Wood: with embedded audio, performed by Richard Burton
http://www.undermilkwood.net/prose_umw1.html

Sonnets and Canzone of Petrarch (Italian-English bilingual)
http://www.degrandis.com/d3/petsonn.htm

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot
http://users.htcomp.net/weis/practicalcats.html

Poetry of T. S. Eliot
http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/t_s_eliot/t_s_eliot_contents.htm

NYT book review: 'Nine Horses': A Plainspoken Poet's Observations of the Ordinary
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/20/books/review/20SALTERT.html?8bu

NYT Audio: Poet Laureate Billy Collins reads selections from "Nine Horses"
http://www.nytimes.com/audiopages/2002/10/20/books/audio-collins.html?8bu

Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Complete Poetical Works
http://www.bartleby.com/139/

Reading of "Shelley" by poet Galway Kinnell: An exploration of art and morality
http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/news/features/2005/11/14_extra_kinnellpoem

Shel's Books: Flash presentations of Shel Silverstein poems – very cute!
http://www.shelsilverstein.com/html/books.asp

From the Ends to the Beginning: A bilingual anthology of Russian verse
(side-by-side Russian/English texts; some audio files)
http://max.mmlc.northwestern.edu/~mdenner/Demo/endtobegin.htm