http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/index.cfm
Voice of America
This is a site that I found a long time ago, but I only just explored it last night in any great detail. This site is a daily news site that is an offshoot of the radio station broadcast into many regions of the world (admittedly as propaganda, but still a good English source). The stories contained would be good for reading for comprehension. With graded English like this, students would have a good handle on most of the content words and be able to read, answer questions, and have group discussions. This website is good because it allows for a decent daily selection of articles on relevant news topics that are written in a version of graded English. Written in the same format as the radio broadcasts, these articles have some length, so they allow for depth of idea, but they also seem to use higher frequency words so as to be understood by a large audience. This seems as though it might be good for an intermediate class to use before transitioning them to non-graded VOA website (the regular English edition).
Another good reason to use this is that the website features the ability to listen to many of the posted stories so there is an added audio component.
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1 year ago
The great thing about this website is that it gives non-native speakers of English the opportunity to better understand the news in a clear and simple English. Short sentences, limited vocabulary and slow pace of speaking are the main elements that make this CALL tool unique. In addition, I like the fact that CALL users can find radio scripts from feature programs and the matching audio files of the texts as they were delivered on the radio. Also, offering RealAudio and MP3 downloadable audio files to the audience would actually allow them to save them and play them over and over again. Although it was not designed as a teaching program, Special English has become a very popular tool for teaching English and I personally recommend using it as a CALL tool.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about them being able to listen to it more than once! Good point, Hanan!
ReplyDeleteHanan, your point about the usefulness of the graded readings is also a good one. That makes this site useful for a wider range of students. The ability to listen not only addresses the needs of aural learners, but can help clarify pronunciation issues as well.
ReplyDeleteCould you add the "Follow" gadget to your blog? It would make it easier for others to see when you've updated your blog.