WELCOME TO ENGLISH MUSTARD

Hiyall!

This morning we were talking about places to go on the net to get good listening practice. On the right of this page you will see I have set up a few RSS feeds - these will be a permanent feature of this site. The feeds auto-update every few days.

When you click on the links you get a pop up window where you can download and save the audio to your computer or mp3, and oftentimes a text transcript of the material too. So no excuses for not doing loads of extra listening!

The BBC Family of web sites is here as a permanent navigation block too, as well as a block called Linkarama with my personal nomination for website of the week.

For those of you with a fast connection, there are a couple of video feeds for news and current affairs. The same principle applies. Just click on the link, rock back in your chair and ...try not to doze off...

IN & AROUND THE WEB

I thought I'd put together some more links to keep you busy...10 sites to visit before the end of the course...

1. Wanna improve your American English pronunciation with possibly the most serious woman in the world? Why not try the University of Iowa Pronunciation Project page.
2. Those of you who are into grammatical self-castigation can get all the punishment you need at Better English (An ugly website but 1000s of useful online exercises)
3. There is some interesting stuff on meetings, negotiations and presentations at the English Club site.
4. There are plenty of situational expressions with audio (apologising, complaining, showing visitors around etc) you can download and practice at a site called ESL Gold
5. Randall's Cyber Listening Lab has loads of listening practice and exercises at all levels - it's all American English so be warned.
6. There is a lot of good reading material about Business Studies in general, with quizzes, case stuides, company profiles and downloadable stuff at The Times 100 page. This is one of my own personal favourites, actually.
7. Make yourself a quick online grammar test here or even here. Yet more punishment! Just remember - you deserve it.
8. Ever need to look stuff up? Try the Using English Reference Guide. Bookmark it and use it for your e-mails and reports.
9. The British Council - a very venerable institution - has a suprisingly upbeat and lively website for English learners well worth popping along for a look.
10. And finally, after all that hard work, why not go along to Rockschool and turn yourself into an overnight rock music sensation?

URGENT WARNING!

This is a serious issue. Something must be done.

Click on the image for details.