Jango

This is a great site which plays all your favourite music. You create different stations by selecting bands you want to listen to . There's also links for you to check the lyrics (so you can practice your English as well). Here's my station:

www.Jango.com - Internet Radio

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Research Channel

Today's link is called The Research Channel. If you need practice of listening to academic English then this is a good place to start. From the start page make sure you select a subject area which is relevant and interesting for you. At the top you will see that you can select subject areas such as Business and Economics or Science.

Once you find a video which interests you, think about what you are going to do. Remember that the best way to learn is to be active - that means do something! If you sit back, relax and chill out then you will obviously be asleep by the first minute. Remember this is Academic English! Obviously the best thing to do is to practice taking notes, but keep them structured and organised. A good way to see if your notes are any good is to look at them the next day and see if they make any sense. If you have nothing but doodles, you might want to rethink your strategy.

Vocabulary

This site doesn't look very exciting but it's a very effective way to check your vocabulary level. Start with Version A at the 1000 level. Remember your aim is to get a high score at the University Word List level.

And here's something for Apple fans:

Mapple - The Simpsons
Uploaded by aarplane

Referencing and Bibliographies

As you are now finishing your Writing Project, here's a reminder of how to properly reference your work. These are the guidelines set out by the University of Leicester, so it's a good idea to follow them carefully. Click here and enter your Leicester Log In details.

UK International Student

This site is called UK International Student. There is useful everyday stuff, like how to get good prices on international phone calls, as well as a discussion forum and blogs.

The News (but better)

Here's a link for CNN Student News. It features all the main stories of the day, but also has extra features such as a transcript. Try watching the news stories without the transcript first. Then if you're not sure of a word or phrase, you can use the transcript to check.

Once you've watched an episode there are 'Top 10 Questions' for the day and a news quiz at the end of the week.

Welcome to Leicester (again)

Dialang

"DIALANG offers carefully designed and validated tests of different language skills, together with a range of feedback and expert advice on how to improve your skills.

DIALANG also offers scientifically validated self-assessment activities, because it is now widely recognized that being able to judge your own language proficiency is an important part of learning a language.

DIALANG does not issue certificates. It allows you to find out what level you are at and where your strengths and weaknesses are, so that you can decide how best to develop your mastery of a language.

DIALANG will help you to take control of your language learning and it will increase your awareness both of what you can do at the moment, and of what it means to know a language.

DIALANG has been developed by more than 20 major European institutions, with the backing of the European Commission.

DIALANG is the first major language assessment system to be based on the Council of Europe's "Common European Framework of reference", which has become established throughout Europe as the most widely recognized frame of reference in the field of language learning. "

NOTE: In order to use the DIALANG test, you will need to download a programme.