Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[RedRose]

An English teacher told me:"if you wanna improve your listening and speaking skills, just listen to VOA english first. after you are good at VOA English, you can start listening to normal-speed English."

VOA English means slow English, i.e, a person is speaking English very slowly.

But later an American friend told me:"you don't have to listen to VOA! you should learn English as a native does. we never listened to so-called VOA english even when we were kids. here everyone speaks to kids in a normal speed!"

who was right?

thanks!

[iitimone7]

personally, i've never heard of voa english. the only way to learn english is to practice in every way that you can! rent books on tape, watch tv and movies, and read, read, read!

but don't just read to yourself (sight read). you should read out loud. you need to practice hearing what each word sounds like. there are many words and sounds in english that other languages do not have. just practice, practice. if you don't use it lots, you'll lose what you've already learned. and ask lots of questions.

even if you listen to movies, or music...whatever, you may not understand everything that is said and that's okay. just listen to the sounds of the language and the way that sentences are formed.

that's the best advise that i have today...iitimone7

[RedRose]

[iitimone7]

my pleasure!!

[asterix]

VOA English and BBC English broadcasts use carefully spoken English which is delivered at a slightly slower pace than the spoken English you will hear every day in America or UK.
It is an excellent way for you to learn English.
When you can easily understand everything that is spoken on VOA, you will be able to move on to normal English with all the regional accents and elisions that are present in our everyday speech.
I think VOA English etc., is an excellent way to learn to understand the spoken word, but as iitimone says, it's not the only way.

[RedRose]

[asterix]

www.voanews.com/specialenglish
www.bbc.co.uk/specialenglish/index.shtml
ought to do the trick.

[RedRose]