ENGLISH LISTENING LANGUAGE LAB ONLINE

PART 1: DESCRIPTION

English Listening Language Lab Online is a tool which has a huge archive of interviews on a great number of topics. It is an authentic material enabling its users an interactive self-study. It was created by Todd Beuckens who is an English teacher. He is also the speaker of the first interviews as he is a male native speaker of American English. You can also expose to the languages spoken in Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc thanks to the recent interviewers. So, the students can listen to all of the accents from American to South African.
The URL of the website is http://www.elllo.org/. It can work with Mac, Windows, Linux and cross-platform. Interviews are in MP3 format, so they can be played with any player which supports MP3 files, such as Windows Media Player and Real one Player. Besides interviews, this listening lab offers pre and post listening activities. The site is virtually well designed with pictures of interview subjects and vocabulary items. The level of the interviews mostly appeals to intermediate and advanced learners. However, there are some which are labeled as easy in order to appeal to the elementary learners. The website is free. This means people can download and distribute the materials in the website for educational purposes.
Beuckens (2003), the author of the website, says “It is hoped that by having one clip a day, students will be motivated to practice listening [daily], or . . . frequently”. The basic aim of the website most probably is to provide authentic material for students and teachers all over the world.
The product is designed to provide huge amount of exposure to English for students and help them understand the language spoken in a real context. As it is an authentic material, it aims to access to anyone around the world and make it possible for those who have trouble with finding meaningful listening material.
When it comes to how one can use the website, the only thing you need to know is how to click.
User can find the heading s/he wants to practice on the top of the homepage. These are interviews, mixer, listening games, news center, step, talking points, situations, etc. After choosing the heading, they see a list of what they have chosen on the page.
User can choose the topic s/he wants to study just clicking on the title.
After choosing the topic, user starts the audio file. The dialogue is also written on the page. Upon listening to the interview, the user can have audio slide show, slide quiz and the other options on the right side of the page. S/he can open them just clicking on them. If s/he follows the same procedure, s/he will have no difficulty in benefiting from the website.

PART 2: EVALUATION

The best advantage of the tool is that it is free and gives you right to download copy and distribute the materials in the website on the condition that you do not use them commercially. As long as you have Internet Explorer (IE) 4.01 or later, Netscape 4.05 or later, you can access to the website. If you are using PC, you can run it with Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows NT Service Pack 4. It requires at least 120 MHz Intel Pentium processor,16 MB RAM, 16-bit sound card, 65,000-color video display card, 28.8Kbps modem, speakers or headphones. If you are using Macintosh, Mac OS 8.1 or later, 32 MB RAM, 64 MB virtual memory, PowerPC 604 processor (200 MHz or faster), 65,000-color or better video display card, 28.8Kbps modem, speakers or headphones are required. The audio files in the site are in MP3 format, so they can be played with such software as Windows media player, real player and quick player which supports MP3 format. As the audio files can be downloaded to reproducible media, teachers and students can benefit from them even if they do not have internet connection and computer. The website also offers printable lesson. This makes the website more advantageous as access to the materials is easy. However, you cannot download the videos, you can watch them only on the website or google video. The website does not have download video link. You have to find another way to download the videos. However, compared with other resources, this website is absolutely more advantageous in terms of accessibility of the materials.
The tool is useful for both teachers and students. When we think that finding listening material sometimes becomes a torture, this site is a paradise for the teachers with its rich interview archive. The best advantage of the interviews is that they are authentic materials recorded by native speakers of many dialects. Students can listen to the native speakers of US, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition to this, the interview topics are interesting enough to get the attention of the students. When used in a classroom, teacher will not have much difficulty in catching the eyes of the students. They are also authentic in that the students can encounter with these topics in their daily life and practice them. This website gives the students opportunity to self study. Besides having meaningful context, the interviews also include the photos of the speakers and their nationality. This is useful in that students feel more comfortable while practicing as the speakers are sincere. The students can feel as if they were in the real world when they see the real people on the website. As a result of this, they feel more secure and learning becomes easy. They can practice listening on their own with such activities as games, news, interviews, quizzes and songs. As the activities are enjoyable, they have fun while exposing to comprehensible input.
The tool can enhance learning when it is thought that listening is a receptive skill of language and can only be improved by practicing. This website offers exactly this by providing listening activities over 1,000 designed for EFL and ESL students and teachers. These are interviews, listening games, mixer, news center and songs all of which are proved to have a positive effect on improving listening skill. However, there is one thing needed to be improved in these activities. These activities mostly appeal to intermediate and advanced learners. Beginner and elementary learners may not benefit from the website because of the complexity of the authentic material. They may discourage and even alienate from the language. It can be useful that the website include some activities which are suitable for the level of the beginner and elementary. These do not have to be authentic as long as they provide the learners practice listening. Maybe these can be a simplified version of the interviews if authentic material is needed. Another disadvantage of the website is about its quizzes. They do not provide any feedback. They only show the answer is correct or incorrect. There must be another section explaining why the answer is true or false.
This website can be used as an education tool by integrating its materials into a listening focused lesson plan. Teacher can download an interview and its printable version, and have a lesson based on them because the interview and the activities are really beneficial and well-qualified. These materials will most probably be effective and adequate for a listening lesson plan. The students also make use of them on their own. One of the foremost advantages of the website is actually this. They can watch an interview, try to understand what it is about, which sentences are used and then compare their answers with the text. The website offers rich range of listening exercises. They can improve their listening skills with the help of these activities.
In conclusion, English listening language lab online is a rich resource both for the teachers and students. It has wide range of activities making learners’ mind more active during the listening practice. It is an easily-accessible tool in that it does not require registration and any charge. In addition to this, it is easy to use because you can download material from the website. Thus, you can benefit from the materials even if you do not have any computer and internet connection. This website also provides information about foreign culture which is a must when learning a language. So, http://www.elllo.org/ appeals to the ESL and EFL students by satisfying their needs of listening and culture. As listening is an inseparable part of learning a language and finding authentic material is sometimes difficult, this website is absolutely the tool what students and teachers need.