First of all I should apologise for some rogue posts which came out at the weekend – there were some technical difficulties so subscribers got empty or old posts – so sorry about that. I hope it doesn’t happen again.
I met a student today who I hadn’t seen for a few months. Wow! I really noticed a difference in his English. We looked at his work and although there were quite a few mistakes in it I was really thrilled to see how he had improved. The best thing was that he was writing his own work and even though it had some mistakes it conveyed his ideas. Work which is original and thoughtful can get good marks even though the English is not perfect. We talked for a few minutes and it was clear that he was a lot more confident with his English. He said proudly “I am sure my English is much better than before.” So I asked him how this had happened and he told me his secret – listening for one hour a day to the news in English on his headphones! The result of this is that now he understands all his lectures! The most interesting thing of all is that by improving his listening his writing is getting far better as well. He now has the confidence to write without copying.
So get listening! To whet your appetite (yes, to ‘get you interested’) why not take a look at this list of podcasts which you can subscribe to from the BBC? If you look in the right hand column of boxes you will see one which says ‘The best of Today’. Well, ‘Today’ is the flagship (i.e. best, most important, most recognised, most symbolic) news programme on BBC radio. This podcast lasts just ten minutes and it is the best parts of the programme put together and packaged up nicely just for you for free!