I came across an interesting moment in a recording from Dellar and Walkley’s Outcomes Advanced. In unit 8 (Track 24 of the split edition) there’s a dialogue between two people talking about a holiday in the Dolomites. At one point the female speaker reassures her male listener that what he thinks is a dangerous situation […]
A Syllabus for Listening – Decoding was shortlisted for an English Speaking Union prize in 2018. It was one of five candidates for the Resources for Teachers category. Thanks to everyone who helped me get the book published. It was a great honour to be shortlisted. Below you can see the complete list of candidates […]
A machine tool for course book authors which enables them to navigate and search recordings for particular items – an audio concordancer. This was my machine tool for authoring the prize-winning ‘Streaming Speech’. More here. Streaming Speech: British and Irish version Electronic Publication. First a CD-ROM then an online service. 2003-2010. The British Irish version […]
I am a big fan, and avid user, of Sonocent’s AudioNotetaker. I first came across it in 2012, and wrote about it in the final chapter of my book, Phonology for Listening. You can read about how I have used it in teaching presentation skills here. You can read a longer description here, here and […]
Motormouth was developed in the 1990s, using Multimedia Toolbook and CD technology. I have a working prototype, available for demonstration. Motormouth is a recording concordancer which enables course book authors and materials writers to stay close to original recordings as they write listening activities. Searchable text transcript is hyperlinked to the original recording, so you […]
Anne Hodgson lives and works in Germany, and writes a blog entitled ‘The Island Weekly’. She has written a great review of Phonology for Listening here. She ends the review thus: … Phonology for Listening represents an original and enormously practical approach to teaching an essential language skill that needs attention, and is clearly in […]
Dictations was intended to join the Streaming Speech family, but it was never completed. The design was for ten chapters in five pairs: Hobbies, Vacation Jobs, Cities, Education and Holidays. There was to be a British English and US English chapter in each pair. The main idea was for students to answer some simple listening […]
Field’s book is the theory, this book is the practical implementation of that theory You can read the full review here. Review in English Australia Journal, by Arizio Sweeting Phonology for Listening is a masterpiece of its time. You can read more here, and the full review here. Review in the Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, by […]
20 November 2018 Not a winner at the English Speaking Union, but an honour to be nominated. 1 September 2018 Shortlisted for an English Speaking Union prize in the Resources for Teachers category. 1 June 2018 Errors in the March first printing are corrected. If your copy of A Syllabus for Listening – Decoding has […]
There are two versions of Jungle Listening. The first, simple version, is presented in conventional paper and sound files. The second, enhanced version, uses Sonocent’s AudioNotetaker – of which you can get a full working copy for 30-odd days from here. Marta’s evaluation questions to her students included a focus on AudioNotetaker. 1. Is AudioNotaker […]
I am a big fan of Randy Newman. I have been since my late teens when I first saw him on BBC television (black and white I seem to remember). For those of you who don’t know him, he is the composer of ‘You’ve got a friend in me’ and the music for Toy Story, […]
Image from here I promised more about squeeze zones. Here it is. The reason for my fascination with listening, and for my interest in squeeze zones, comes from reading an article about a Singaporean learner called Ying. Ying is a learner who kept a diary about her experiences while she was learning to listen. She […]
Image from here. Gillian Brown is someone whose work I am frequently returning to. I wrote a blog here recently. I quoted this (1990:7), and do so again: the stretches of acoustic blur often not longer permit any representation on a segment-by-segment basis She is talking about ‘private’ speech between people who know each other […]
Listening-decoding handouts and sound files – Speech in Action
The handout for the the first video – Listening-decoding in Use 01 – Introduction is here. And the sound files are here. The handout for the the second video – Listening-decoding in Use 02 – Consonant Death (the case of ‘t’) is here, the answer key is here. And the sound files are here. The […]