Real English Listening

Short, unscripted audio files for EFL / ESL Teachers

Meeting - choosing a name

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About

Description: A company meeting. Participants brainstorm ideas for a company name.

Number of Speakers: Various

Text Type: Meeting

Source: The Apprentice (UK)

 

Language Areas

Lexis: inspirational nouns, "Let's..", "What about...", "Something along the lines of..."

Functions: making suggestions, agreeing, disagreeing, emphasising, persuading

 

Suggested Tasks

To develop listening strategies:

1. How many names are suggested?

2. What are they?

Language Focus:

What expression are used to...

...elicit and encourage new ideas?

...make suggestions?

...accept / reject suggestions?

Task based

It makes sense that students replicate a brain storming session - perhaos choosing a name for a new product. One option would be to set up a real brainstorming session before listening. Then have students follow this up by listening to the recording and highlighting some of the language features. Then repeat the student brainstorming session.

Cooking to Pull Women

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About

Description: While cooking, two men talk about why they cook and why one of them remains single. Interesting because two topics (women and the meal currently being cooked) are talked about simultaneously.

Number of Speakers: 2

Text Type: Conversation

Source: Ramsay's F-Word (UK)

Language Areas

Lexis: cooking, dating, idioms: "to put up with" (tolerate)

Grammar: conditionals, questions using non-standard (i.e. affirmative) word order,

Functions: giving excuses, downplaying a position, asserting a point of view, implying

 

 

Why I Should Lead the Team

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About

Description: A man explains why he should be given the role of team leader on a project which requires the team to set up a photography business at a shopping mall.

Number of Speakers: Various, but mainly one

Text Type: Meeting

Source: The Apprentice (UK)

Language Areas

Lexis: photography, leadership, project management, idiomatic expression: "to be at the sharp end", "balls in the chopper"

Grammar: conditionals, present simple, future forms for predictions

Functions: asking for and giving reasons, expressing concerns, persuading, eliciting information, highlighting advantages, expressing facts

Customer Complaint

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About

Description: Staff at Sainsbury's discuss a returned product.

Number of Speakers: 3

Text Type: Conversation

Source: I'm Running Sainsbury's (UK)

Language Areas

Lexis: food, hygiene, company policy, "to take something on face value", to turn up (arrive)

Grammar: conditionals, modal perfect,  signposting expressions

Functions: explaining company policy and procedures, speculating

 

Suggested Tasks

To develop listening strategies (listening for specific information)

Set the context by getting students to suggest reasons why they'd send food back to a shop or restaurant.

1. What product is being discussed?

2. Why did the customer send it back?

3. How many similar cases are needed for a product recall?

4. What reason is given for the problem?

 

 

Choosing Wine for a Meal

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About

Description: A sommelier talks to a chef about choosing a good wine

Number of Speakers: 2

Text Type: Conversation

Source: The F-Word (UK)

Language Areas

Lexis: flavours,  tastes, smells, idiomatic use of "I mean", "kind of", "get",

Phonology: weak forms  "wanna" 

Grammar: present simple

Functions: suggesting, describing

Beef Wellington

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About 

Description: Diners compare two plates different plates of beef wellington.

Number of Speakers: Various

Text Type: Conversation

Source: The F-Word (UK)

Language Areas

Lexis: food, flavours, tastes, smells,

Functions:  expressing opinions, expressing likes and dislikes, praising, criticising

Grammar: modals (can), present simple, so / very 

Ewan McGregor on Scotland

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About
Description: Ewan McGregor talks about why he loves riding a motorbike in his home country, Scotland.

Number of Speakers: 1

 

Language Areas

Lexis: family, driving / roads

Functions:  talking about something you enjoy, describing, emphasising a point

Grammar: discourse markers for sequencing, superlatives and other emphatic forms

Watch Your Back!

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About
Description: A man who has recently moved to a new neighborhood asks a local "guide" for some advice.

Text Type: Conversation

Number of Speakers: 1

Source: The Secret Millionaire (USA)

 
Language Areas

Lexis: Personal information

Functions: Giving advice

Grammar: Imperatives, giving / asking for information

Age Discrimination in the Labour Market

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About

Description: 3 people talk about discrimination they have encountered while looking for jobs and, in particular, the kind of language used against them.

Number of Speakers: 3, monologue style

Text Type: Reporting

Source: Taken form the Channel 4 (UK) Dispatches series,

Language Areas

Lexis: jobs, personal characteristics

Grammar: too + adjective

Missed Flight

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About

Description: A man misses a connecting flight and complains about it to check in staff.

Number of participants: 3 (mainly 2)

Text Type: Spoken complaint

Language

Functions: complaining, defending actions, resolving conflict, apologising

Lexis: airports, flights

Grammar: emphatic verb forms, conditionals, past simple