Improve your English Listening with News

Keeping up with the news is an interesting way to improve your English listening and increase your vocabulary.

Watch regular news online or as podcasts/vodcasts (downloadable audio/video recordings) from ABC Radio (AU), AlJazeera (QA),BBC (UK) or CNN (US). If you also follow the news
in your own language it is easier to understand the same news stories in English.

If you're a language learner it is of course better to download p/vodcasts so that you can watch the same news issue a few times. Some good news shows with easy language for English learners are the BBC Words in the News (UK), English Bites (AU) and Voice of America (US) p/vodcasts. These p/vodcasts have scripts, and Voice of America even has English subtitles.

Improve your English Pronunciation

It doesn't matter what English accent you have, but a clear pronunciation is very important for effective communication.

Basic sounds. The BBC has a page with pronunciation tips videos explaining the so-called phonetic system and modelling the 44 different sounds that make up the
English language in videos. You can also practice the correct pronunciation of the different letters with these EngVid pronunciation videos.

Minimal pairs. Perfect your English pronunciation with shiporsheep audios online. Select one of the 29 minimal pairs (similar sounds, like "ship" and "sheep") and start practising. You can also compare pairs with this series of EngVid pronunciation videos.

Stress and tone. Other pairs, contractions (should've), stress and tones are provided with fonetiks.org audios online in British, American, Australian and 6 other English dialects. A selection of videos to help you practice your pronunciation and word stress is also available on podcastsinenglish.

Watch American News: Simple, Slow and Subtitled

Watch or download Voice of America's short captioned videos or audio recordings of Special English in simple English (intermediate and upper-beginner level) with subtitles to improve your listening and vocabulary. Broadcasters read slower than normal.


You can download free scripts, mp3, vodcasts (downloadable video recordings) and pdf from their site; new recordings are added daily and cover news as well as e.g. agriculture, economics, education, health and technology.