But I want to encourage you to use podcasts. A podcast is basically an audio file that you can download to your phone, computer, tablet or MP3 player and listen whenever you like. The benefits of listening to podcasts are enormous:
- you can do it on the go, when you do the ironing, travel on a train, walk on the beach, etc.
- you are exposed to real language
- you can select the level of a podcast (some websites offer podcasts from elementary to advanced levels)
- you can select topics of your podcast according to your interests (at a cafe, at the train station, etc.)
- you have some exercises that go with the podcast to help you understand the content of it
- each podcast is usually accompanied by a transcript so you can listen and read at the same time
- you don't need English friends to practise with
- it's FREE
Remember that listening is very powerful. It's a natural method of learning a language. This is how kids learn their first language and, as you might have noticed, after a couple of years they are pretty fluent in their speech, so it works! You not only listen and learn new vocabulary, but you also get accustomed to the accent and intonation of the English language. This is how you immerse yourself with the language and this is how you can make progress. So, below I've put a couple of links to websites that offer podcasts. The main one is of course the British Council website, but there are others as well. If you do a research of your own into other podcasts available, you might find that some websites will want to charge you for their material but you don't need to use them, a lot of high quality podcasts are available for free. Enjoy listening!
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