Shownotes
Listening is a crucial skill for mastering English, especially for those preparing for the CELPIP exam. This episode highlights various engaging audio resources that can enhance your listening abilities while keeping the learning process enjoyable. You'll discover podcasts like the CBC World Report, which offers authentic Canadian content, and The Secret Life of Canada, which delves into unique stories about the country. The episode also introduces Declassified Mysteries and 99% Invisible, both of which provide interesting narratives and varied speaking styles. By exploring these recommended podcasts, you can find material that resonates with you, making it easier to develop a consistent listening habit that supports your language goals.
The episode delves into practical strategies for improving English listening skills, particularly for learners preparing for the CELPIP exam. You'll learn why you need to find engaging audio materials that are not only educational but also enjoyable! Your goal should be to create a listening habit.
As you listen, you'll discover several podcasts that might just grab your attention and become a new favourite!
Takeaways:
- Listening to engaging content in English is essential for improving your listening skills.
- Explore podcasts that feature Canadian content to prepare effectively for the CELPIP exam.
- Finding enjoyable resources will motivate you to practice your listening skills consistently.
- Diverse audio resources help expose you to different speaking styles and accents.
- Consider a variety of topics and genres to keep your listening practice enjoyable and engaging.
Links referenced in this episode:
CBC world report - What I like about it: It’s Canadian content which is something you have to be listening to on a daily basis if you’re getting ready for the CELPIP exam.
World Report with Marcia Young, John Northcott | Live Radio | CBC Listen
The Secret Life of Canada - from the podcast description: it’s about the country you know, but the stories you don’t.
The Secret Life of Canada | CBC Podcasts | CBC Listen
The CBC podcast directory:
Not Canada based, but useful to help you practice:
Redacted: Declassified Mysteries. I recently listened to and enjoyed the episode called Operation Paperclip: America’s Secret Nazi Scientists. What I liked about it: It’s not Canadian focused content, but I do like how easy it was to listen to. I think this show can offer you interesting stories to follow from speakers who are not too difficult to understand.
REDACTED: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamana
I recently listened to and enjoyed the episode called Operation Paperclip: America’s Secret Nazi Scientists. What I liked about it: It’s not Canadian focused content, but I do like how easy it was to listen to. I think this show can offer you interesting stories to follow from speakers who are not too difficult to understand.
REDACTED: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamana
99% Invisible. I really enjoyed the hosts. Their voices are easy to understand, and there’s a wide variety of stories there for you to check out. (It’s also not likely going to be Canadian focused, but you’ll get great practice here too. The episode I listened to the other day is called: The 15 Minute City. Give it a listen, and see what you think!
Grab your free listening guide: The CELPIP Listening Skills Made Easy: A mini guide celpipsuccess.com/guide The CELPIP listening skills made easy mini guide will teach you how to take that English podcast or Netflix show you’re listening to and transform it into a powerful listening practice activity.
Transcripts
Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing many episodes around helpful resources that I've found that I think will be useful for you as you practice your English and your CELPIP skills. Today's focus is all around listening.
I found a few podcasts that I enjoyed listening to myself and immediately thought, hey, this would be a great resource to share right here with you. So if you want authentic ways to practice your listening skills in English, then this will be your episode.
Well, hello there and welcome to the Speak English Fearlessly Podcast.
This is the podcast for motivated English learners who want to speak English fearlessly and learn practical tips and strategies to conquer the CELPIP exam.
I also love to feature encouraging interviews with regular people, people just like you, who are working towards becoming fluent in English so we can learn from their experiences together. Who am I? My name is Aaron Nelson and I've been an English teacher for over 17 years and I'm a certified CELPIP trainer.
I now help students prepare for the CELPIP exam through online classes.
I think a challenge people face as they get ready for the CELPIP exam, or if you are just looking for ways to improve your general listening skills in English, is finding useful and interesting sources to work with. Now I get it. Interesting is obviously a personal thing, right? What I find interesting might be awfully boring to you, and you'd be wrong, by the way.
I'm just kidding.
I know the things I like to listen to might not be your thing to get into, but what I wanted to do today is point you in a few audio directions that I think will lead you to finding content that you'll actually enjoy listening to and that you'll get something helpful from as you listen for your English and CELPIP prep skills. And that's huge.
Finding resources that you actually enjoy listening to in English is super important because your goal should not be just to listen to something because it's in English.
No, your goal should be to find resources in English that you actually enjoy hearing, that you enjoy listening to so much that it keeps you coming back for more. I firmly believe that practicing your listening skills in English should be fun and engaging, something that you actually look forward to doing.
Again, you might not like these suggestions that I'm about to offer you, and that's okay.
I bet if you look around at where I'm pointing you, you'll find something that you will enjoy and all the links that I'm mentioning here or that I'm going to be mentioning here will be in my show notes. Today if you want to check them out. So here are four audio resources that I recommend you explore.
The first one I've talked about several times before, I think, and it's called the CBC World Report.
What I like about it is that it's 100% Canadian content, which is something you have to be listening to on a daily basis if you're getting ready for the CELPIP exam. Remember, the CELPIP focuses on Canadian English, so you should be exposing yourself to Canadian English sources as much as you can.
And let me put a parentheses on that. The CBC World Report, it has Canadian accents, it has people who are Canadians talking, but it features stories from all around the world.
So when I said that it's Canadian content, it doesn't mean that everything that you're going to hear is based on Canada only. No, World Report means you're going to be hearing news reports from all over the world, but it's being delivered by Canadians with Canadian accents.
But, well, just check it out. You're going to be hearing all kinds of accents as you listen to it because, well, the stories cover topics from all over the world, right?
But yeah, like I was trying to tell you, this is a Canada based resource that you should listen to. Best of all, it's free and you'll find that in my show notes today. There is a link to it.
It's on the CBC cat, and it's just too much of a long link for me to tell you what it is right here. You probably fall asleep if I tried to read it out to you. But check out my show notes today if you want to check that out.
So that again is the CBC World Report. The second resource is called the Secret Life of Canada. From the podcast description, it's about the country.
You know Canada, but the stories you don't. I've only listened to one episode so far, but I'm interested. I'm hooked.
And I'm going to be checking out more, and I bet you will too if you give it a listen. The episode that I heard is called the Final Voyage of the Princess Sophia, better known, and I didn't know this as Canada's Titanic.
What I liked about this episode is that there are two hosts which will give you some great practice listening to different speaking styles. It also seems to be story based. The Last Voyage of the Princess Sofia is a fascinating story of a disaster in slow motion.
And I'm stealing that quote from the podcast itself. That disaster in slow motion line, I thought that was really interesting. And when you hear the story, you will know exactly what I'm talking about.
It's insane that this thing happened. Listen to find out what I mean.
And of course it's based in Canada, so that's perfect for your CELPIP listening practice because as I said before, you need to be exposing yourself to Canadian accents as much as you can because that's what you're going to face on the exam. The CBC in general has a large podcast directory that I encourage you to check out and explore.
The audio will likely be really strong, like the quality of it will be really easy for you to listen to, which is important so that you can hear and understand what's going on.
And of course it's Canadian content, which is important because like I said before, if you're preparing for the CELPIP exam, you need to be listening to Canadian accents as much as you can. And I'm going to include a link to that podcast directory in my show notes for you today.
And there are some that are not Canada based that I wanted to share with you that I enjoyed this week. My third suggestion is called Declassified Mysteries.
So if you're a mystery lover, if you like true crime or investigative reports, this might be the podcast for you. I recently listened to and enjoyed the episode called Operation America's Secret Nazi Scientists.
What I liked about it is that while it's not Canadian focused content, I liked how easy it was for me to listen to. I think this show can offer you interesting stories to follow from speakers who are not too difficult to understand.
And again, the name of that podcast is Declassified Mysteries and I'll be including a link to it in my show notes today. My final podcast suggestion for you is called 99% invisible. I really enjoyed the hosts of this one.
Their voices are easy to understand and there's a wide variety of stories there for you to check out. It's also not likely going to be Canadian focused, but you'll get great practice listening here too.
The episode I listened to the other day is called the 15 Minute City. Give it a listen and see what you think. Now I've got a special offer for you.
Do you ever wonder what you should be doing to improve your listening skills? Does sitting down to binge watch Netflix in English help? What about listening to your favorite English podcasts or your favorite singers?
I'll give you a you're close.
Listening to and watching English based content is a great place to start, but if you're not doing what, I'll share with you in my free listening skills Guide you're missing out.
The CELPIP Listening Skills Made Easy Mini Guide will teach you how to take that English podcast or Netflix show you're listening to and transform it into a powerful listening practice activity.
So if you're ready to learn a simple to follow strategy that will begin to help you bump your CELPIP listening scores from sixes to nines, then you need to download the Celpip Listening Skills Made Easy guide. It's 100% practical and 0% fluff and it will help you to begin to train your ears for the CELPIP exam. What this guide is not is a quick fix.
The strategy you will learn in this guide won't magically give you listening superpowers in English, I'm afraid. But I've got over 17 years experience helping people just like you become fluent in English.
I know what works and what doesn't when it comes to building your listening skills. And in this guide, I will walk you through one of my favorite simple things to do that works for for anyone willing to use it.
So if you're willing to consistently practice this one simple strategy, I promise you that you'll begin to hear the results.
You can use this simple process with any audio that you're practicing with, like the podcast episodes I shared here with you today to help you get ready for the CELPIP exam and build your English skills in general. To power up your listening skills in English, grab my free mini guide right here.
Just go to celpipsuccess.com guide that's celpipsuccess.com guide and there's going to be a link to that in my show notes today. Well, thank you so much for listening to today's episode.
I hope that I've given you a couple of ideas for you to explore as you are working on developing your listening skills. And remember, you might not fall in love with the episodes that I'm sharing with you here today, but they're just episodes.
Explore around the other content that these creators are putting out. Maybe you'll come up, or maybe you'll find a story that you connect with, a story that you like, a story that engages you.
Download it and listen to it. Remember, the point of this is to find material that you actually enjoy listening to so that you'll keep coming back for more. Like building a habit.
That's what I hope will happen for you as you find some of these resources. So thanks for listening to this episode.
I hope that you'll come back next Tuesday for another mini episode around some resources that I think are going to help you. Bye. Bye. Have a great week.
