In the modern world, a person who does not know or even does not want to learn English is considered simply uneducated. There are too many methods to comprehend languages and gnaw at the granite of English grammar so that a beginner can navigate this wide variety of ways, various schools, courses, textbooks and video lessons. Let's deal with one of these methods - learning English through listening to radio stations - we will analyze the pros and cons of radio in English.
Pros and cons
The pros and cons of radio for learning a foreign language seem to be obvious. Let’s take a closer look.
On the one hand, the pros can be called:
- constant listening perception of the language, which is considered one of the first and most important requirements for the study of spoken language;
- You can choose any time that is most convenient for you to listen to the radio, from cooking in the kitchen to playing sports and driving in public transport;
- the ability to select a radio station according to your own taste and interests;
- the ability to vary the duration of daily classes and control your vocabulary of English words and phrasal constructions;
- pluses of the radio, like media - with a high advanced level of knowledge of the English language, you can easily and quickly find out the news of foreign media.
But there are also disadvantages to the radio in English:
- it is not always possible to understand what they say on the radio station, especially to a beginner in learning a particular foreign language;
- speaking on the radio can often seem like an incomprehensible murmur;
- it’s difficult to tune your gadget to an English radio station;
- It takes a lot of time to adapt to a quick conversation on the radio and learn to disassemble something in it.
How to listen to the radio to learn English?
To learn English using radio stations, there are also principles:
- Constancy, that is, daily classes are needed, if I may call it that.
- It is enough to devote 15-30 minutes a day to listening to the station, so that soon the advantages of the radio in English are quite clearly manifested.
- You shouldn’t stop listening to the radio after the first days, if you can’t make out fast speech, it’s useful to study conversations on different topics with different tones and speech speed in language learning - the effect of complete immersion in a foreign environment.
- The advantages of radio as a source of a living spoken language, capable of forming the correct pronunciation (and this is most important together with knowledge of a sufficient number of words) and significantly increasing the vocabulary, are obvious.
- Even if you do not understand most of what is said from the headphones, listen anyway, over time you will understand everything and the incomprehensible will become apparent.
- But the advantages of radio will not replace the understanding of the grammar and syntax of the language being studied - read from time to time dictionaries of English words, phrasebooks, grammar guides and other literature.
- If your receiver is not able to tune in to English-speaking stations, try listening to them online.
English radio
As well as in the variety of your favorite books, in a large number of radio stations you can find something to your liking, a topic that will affect your interest and excite motivation for action and learning. For example, if you like sports, turn on sports radio and listen to sports broadcasts. For lovers of pop music, opera, political and not only news or audio books, there is also a wave of its own!
English radio stations
So, when the advantages of a radio in English are obvious, it remains only to choose the right radio station. And here it is necessary to be guided only by your wishes and interests, because, ultimately, what you listen to should interest and motivate you to learn or increase the level of knowledge of English.
List of popular radio stations in English:
- BBC World Service - daily broadcasts news and cultural programs, as well as interviews with famous politicians, journalists, artists and artists.
- Words in News - a selection of weekly extraordinary news.
- BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1Xtra are music radio stations aimed at the target audience from the young to the more mature generation.
- Audio Book Radio - reading audio literature, including classic works of art and works by young authors.
- BBC Radio 4 is a talk radio that broadcasts a lot of different topics, including quizzes, news and politics.
- Voice Of America Learning English - radio programs are designed for listeners from the initial level of knowledge of the language (slow pronunciation), characterized by the broadcast of American English.
- TED Talks - Radio podcasts, conversations, and interviews.
Advanced Radio Stations
These options are suitable for people with an advanced level of knowledge of the English language:
- Real Life English - the programs are taught by teachers of English-speaking universities, hear slang from American to Australian.
- BBC English at Work - Business English, you can study the business level of the language, office conversational structures and basic business vocabulary.
- Business English Pod is another business English radio station with fluency.
Children's radio stations
The best way to teach your child English is to include songs, fairy tales, poems, and theater plays in English. This also shows the advantages of radio. Indeed, at children's radio stations, the selection of materials and the speed of speech are tailored precisely for the perception of young listeners.
Little by little, the baby will get used to foreign speech and begin to perceive it as part of his life.
You can try the radio station Luke's English Podcast - interesting programs for learning British English.