Because of the Bing disaster (they changed their URLs yet again and so none of the links to Bing work any more), I've been going through my website, finding Bing links and replacing them with links to (mostly) Baidu's online dictionary. I was going through my article to help students understand accents of non-native speakers, replacing Bing links, and I realized that more links were broken: those for the International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA). IDEA is a great resource with audio recordings of people from all over the world speaking in English, so you can really learn to understand their accents. A while ago they changed their URL and the style & organization of their website. The old links didn't work any more, the screenshots in my article were no longer relevant, and my description of the process of using the site was no longer correct. I have fixed all the links, taken new screenshots of the process and made a new description of the process in my article, so everything should be OK now. If you work with foreign colleagues or speak with foreign clients, I strongly recommend you take advantage of IDEA to understand their accents. It's a great (and free!) resource.
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I've been working on a series of articles to help students in understanding English spoken by people with different accents. The next installment will be on using general media (like radio, TV, movies) to get practice listening to English spoken by people from around the world. I want to find and link to a site that contains links for many online radio stations from around the world, but ones that where people speak in English. But sites that list many international online radio stations have problems (at least for my purpose). Many sites can sort by country, but not by language (so you can find stations from a specific country but they might not be in English). Other sites can sort by language, but not by country (so you can find stations in English but you might not be able to find the specific country you need). Many of the links are old and don't work any more. Some link to sites that require special software. I'll continue to investigate. The best so far seems to be WRN, which I'll try out and compare to others. Iif you have any useful links for online radio in English, or any experience with WRN or other sites, please let me know in the comments.
I've published the next page in the "Help with International Accents" series. It's all about "Map Your Voice". It was a project the British Library organized where anyone in the world could record their voice and upload it. People who want to listen find dots on a map of the world and click on them to hear the recording.
It's especially useful for hearing the variety of accents among native Eng Check it out here: Finished the next page of "Help with International Accents", my series to help students of English who do business with people from all around the world and have trouble understanding their various accents. The new page is about using the Speech Accent Archive, a collection of audio recordings of people from all over the world speaking in English. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Several students have mentioned their difficulties understanding accents from other countries, especially of people who are not native English speakers.
I've given a few tips before but now I've decided to create a full-length article on this issue. It's not fninished yet but I've completed the first four pages. See it here: Please let me know what you think of it in the comments section. What parts are useful? Which are not? What more would you like to see in it? English is spoken in many places. As a result, it is also spoken in many ways. There are differences in vocabulary, idioms, grammar and accent.
The two main varieties of English are British English (abbreviated BrE) and American English (AmE). The differences in grammar are minor, but differences in vocabulary and accent can sometimes be a problem, even for native English speakers. So here are some links to help ESL students.
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G.A.L.E.S.L. / joe3
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