Audio Guide

Sites that use audio for langauge learning

ELLO (English Listening Lesson Library Online) Lots of listening activities
http://www.elllo.org/

Example: http://www.elllo.org/english/1001/1019-Ron-Hawaii.htm

English Central - Uses video & audio for pronunciation and vocabulary instruction
Example: http://www.englishcentral.com/video/10240/steve-jobs-what-is-truly-important


Breaking News English - news stories with lots of language activities

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

Example: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1003/100315-poaching.html

ESL Lab - Many listening activities

http://www.esl-lab.com

Example Lesson: http://www.esl-lab.com/expense/expenserd1.htm+

Lyrics Training - Using songs to practice language skills

http://www.lyricstraining.com

Example: http://www.lyricstraining.com/game72.htm

Other Sites

• Manytings.org Listening
• CLA audio based listening exercises online
• Listen to English: E. L. Easton
• Language Activities: a) Listening & Speaking
• Arlyn Freed's ESL/EFL Listening Resources with reviews of web sites (audio and video)
• Interactive Audio-Picture English Lessons
• Adult Learning Activities - California Distance Learning Project
• British Council - Learn English: Songs and Lyrics
• Lyrics Website - http://www.azlyrics.com
  Online Karaoke - http://www.singsnap.com/
  Audio Conversations - http://www.voxopop.com/
  Listening Videos - http://yappr.com
  Songs with lyrics - http://www.subingles.com/?langp=en

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Audacity & Audio Skills Training  

Audacity - a free, cross-platform, open source tool for recording and editing audio.

Installing and Using AudacityYou can download Audacity here.
In order to export mp3 files with it, you will also need to download and install the Lame Encoder.

Basic Record, Stop, & Play Controls

To edit the audio, click the 'selection tool

highlight and then the delete button on your keyboard. You can use the magnifying glass to zoom in or zoom out.  To remove a track, click the 'x' and start again.

Saving a file as an mp3
To do so, click 'File/Export'

Save as file type 'mp3'.

When the edit metadata window pops up, you can enter information or ignore it. (meta data is the info you would see on your mp3 player when listening to this file).

In the save as window, options allows you to change the bit rate (quality of the file - bigger=larger file, higher quality). 64kbs should be fine. Click 'save'.

  The screencast below shows how to use Audacity.
    Audacity Introduction Screencast

• Additional support at:
  • Documentation and Support
  • Tutorials
  • Audacity 101 (pdf, version 1.24)
  • How to podcast Audacity Tutorial

Task
Experiment with recording audio.
Record a short audio on any topic you like.
Export it as an .mp3 file.
- Upload it to you PBWorks site. (guide here)

Copy the URL of your audio file and use that to post it to your blog.
- Post that audio file on your blog with a short description (guide here) (example here)

To embed an audio file with a flash player, use this code:

<embed flashvars="audioUrl=MP3_FILE_URL" height="27" quality="best" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400"></embed>

This will result in a flash player like

instead of a download link like:
http://www.jefflebow.net/files/falling_slowly.mp3

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Readings

• First, You Have to Hear It! ESL Oral Language Practice
• Analyzing Oral Skills in Voice E-Mail and Online Interviews
• Skype and Podcasting: Disruptive Technologies for Language Learning
• LLT's oral learning special issue