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.

iPlayer

The BBC iPlayer allows you too watch or listen to anything that has been on the BBC over the last week. If you like you can download the programmes so you can watch them again. It's free and has something for everyone.

Here are some of the programmes which are running at the moment.

Survivors

"Britain is in the grip of a deadly flu virus, which is now spreading throughout the world. When people start dying in their millions, a handful of survivors are left struggling to stay alive as society crumbles around them. Abby Grant is a housewife and mother who begins the desperate search for her son. On her journey she meets a variety of people whom fate has spared. The new world could be a dangerous place, and their only hope is to stick together."

Top Gear

"Motoring news and views from the usual team. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are challenged to drive from the heart of Switzerland to the North Western coast of England on just one tank of fuel. As an incentive, the first one to arrive gets to turn on the Blackpool Illuminations. Back at the track, James tackles his first ever power test in the amazing Pagani Zonda F Roadster and, after years of waiting, The Stig finally gets to set a lap time in the remarkable Bugatti Veyron."

That Mitchell and Webb Look

"Off-beat comedy sketch show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Features a car boot sale where you can buy a wardrobe that's also a gateway to Narnia; a laboratory full of lethal poisons where a practical joker cheers everyone up; and an explanation of what happened to all the avocado bathroom suites."

Newspapers

As you will have noticed there are lots of different newspapers here in Britain. And all of them are available to read online. There are national newspapers and local newspapers. The national newspapers can be serious (known as broadsheets) and not so serious (known as tabloids).

Here are some examples of national newspapers. Can you tell which are the tabloids?

The Sun





The Daily Mail



The Independent




Local newspapers can also be interesting. They obviously contain news about what's going on locally.

The Leicester Mercury

...for Chinese learners of English

The British Council has a special website just for Chinese learners of English. There's a good variety of resources including listening. Also there's a lot of useful IELTS practice which is good for improving your Academic English.

At the bottom of the page there are some quite good "How to..." videos.

Soap Operas

Watching soap operas can help improve listening skills, build your 'everyday English' vocabulary and give you an insight into British culture.

A soap opera is a TV or radio programme which just keeps going and going and ... In fact, Coronation Street is over 40 years old.

The most popular soap operas in the UK are Coronation Street (ITV), Eastenders (BBC1), Emerdale (ITV) and Hollyoaks (C4).

Eastenders is a good one to follow because you can watch episodes online. The storyline is famous for always being miserable but it is easy to follow.

Karaoke

Like singing? Want to improve you English. Why not try Karaoke Party? If you register it will even score your singing!

Researching

In order to get the most out of the library make sure you check the library catalogue online first.

Another useful way to search for acadmic books and articles is Google Scholar.

Study Skills and Academic English

There are loads of sites out there to help with university study skills. Some of them are better than others, so why not start with Uuniversity of Leicester's very own Student Learning Centre?

You will need your university log in details. Once you are in you will find the link to resources in the best place to start. In here you can find resources not just for writng and presentations but also for IT skills such as getting more out of MS Office.

Of course other universties have equally good websites to help their students. One of the best is Using English for Academic Purposes from the University of Hertfordshire. This has lots of advice, practice exercises and tests. Have a look here, if you want to practice your note taking from reading or from listening.

And then there are also sites which are based in other countries. Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Centre for Independent Language Learning is interesting because it has audio and video to help you practice.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a probably the world's most famous online encyclopedia. Wikipedia is interesting because it is written and edited by volunteers. Wikipedia is a great website for helping to practice your English reading skills. One idea is to use the random article button on the side bar.

Some people have questioned whether you can trust Wikipedia. Here's an article on this subject called Wikipedia and the Meaning of Truth.

Vocabulary

Here are some ideas for praciticing and developing your vocabulary. First of all you should get yourself a good Advanced Learner's Dictionary. The dictionaries from Oxford, Cambridge, Macmillan and Collins are all good. The reason you should use an Advanced Learner's Dictionary is because they contain so much more information about each word or phrase.

If you just have a few minutes to spare the vocabulary quizzes on the BBC are a good way to learn everyday and idiomatic language. There are loads to do and they are organised by topics.

If you are interested in the meaning and origins of English phrases and idioms then this is worth checking out. For example do you know where OK comes from?

And finally here's a different way to see the vocabulary of a text or website. Paste in some text or just a website and Wordle creates a word cloud. Here's a word cloud for this blog. The word which appear a lot are the big ones.

Some Other Blogs I Recommend...

Here's the first one you should have a look at - it's Sky's blog. Apart from having a cool name, Sky has a cool looking blog!

Another one is by a young Chinese rapper. Find out who it is - here! And here's one from a guy called Ricky - why not have a look and leave him a comment? Check out Adrain who is happy to be home! Pamela tells us about herself and her family here. Shirley has just started her blog here.

These are two of my favourites - one is by Kevin and he tells us about one of his friends from home. In the other, David tells us about someone you might know!

This one has just been started. We're just waiting for Bill to make his first post.

Practising Pronunciation

So that's the start of term. Everyone seems excited to get started and it's good to see that the umbrella sellers are doing good business!






Here are some suggestions for practising pronunciation. I'll start with the pronunciation part of the BBC website. There are lots of videos, quizzes, activities and downloads.

Similar to this is Phonetics Focus. This is a good site for helping you to learn the phonemic alphabet. It has lots of games to practice the sounds. Also, there is a function for recording your own voice so you can compare it. A good feature of this is the entry and exit tests. Take the entry test before you start, and then when you finish. It measures how much you learn!

Welcome to Everyone at the Leicester International Study Centre

Hi - I'm Dan and this blog is for anyone interested in using computers and the internet to practice their English.

I hope you find some of the ideas and links useful. Let me know what you think and feel free to send in suggestions.

First of all, I'll tell you a bit about me. As you know (I hope!), I'm an English teacher. It's a really cool job because you get to meet people from all over the world.

Before I started working at Leicester, I was in Tripoli in Libya. I had a great year helping to set up a new college. It's a really beautiful country (though the desert gets a bit boring) and the people are really friendly.


This is my friend Tarik. We went to see Libya and Ghana in a World Cup Qualifying match. Amazingly Libya won 1-0. As you can see Tarik was getting very nervous in the last 5 minutes!








This is Bashir, one of my old students. He's the first one to dive. This was on a trip to Brighton. I don't recommend trying this!



Finally I'd like to recommend a website for improving your English. You probably know this one already... it's the BBC Learning English website. There's loads to explore on this one. If you don't know it have a look around and then let me know what you think.
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