We have been delighted with the quality of the materials
and the efficiency of the service Sheila provides.
Rita Baker, Lydbury English Centre
In the space of five weeks the students went from being totally
flummoxed to being able to predict content and vocabulary
with accuracy. These ready-made materials are a gift for busy
teachers. Mary Ghali, Selly
Oak Colleges, Birmingham
A valuable addition to our self-study materials and a very
convenient aid to the hard-pressed teacher. Alan
Evison, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London
I just wanted to let you know how much my intermediate students
enjoy using the BBC Radio News. We have used your worksheets
regularly throughout the term both in class and for directed
study. The students find it very rewarding to deal with authentic
texts in this way and to be aware of their listening skills
improving. We are big fans. It’s a great service. Thank
you very much. Carol Butters,
Stevenson College, Edinburgh
We have been using this service for some time now. The students
love the immediacy and authenticity of the material, especially
on ‘big’ news days. Our teachers draw on a rich
variety of materials and this is one resource that they like
to use regularly. Frank Pinner,
Embassy CES, Oxford
What can I say? These materials are brilliant! They are based
on authentic up-to-date recordings from Radio 4 news broadcasts.
The materials are varied and designed for three different
levels. Because there are different levels you can either
select what is most challenging for your group or you can
use, for example, two of the worksheets to differentiate and
cater for the needs of different levels within one group.
They can be grabbed for stand-alone lessons or thoughtfully
integrated into, for example, skills lessons or topic based
sessions. They can also be given for homework or used in tutorials.
They are an invaluable resource. Elizabeth
Bray, Coventry College
Your worksheets are very much appreciated and highly thought
of here. Students have told me that they understand so much
more about current affairs here and that it’s given
them the confidence and background knowledge to follow the
news in the British media. As teachers, we all feel it’s
invaluable as Citizenship input, as a generator of discussion
and as a listening skills resource. Janet
Spiers, College of North-West London
We have been using Sheila Thorn’s excellent service
with a wide cross-section of our students for nine years now.
Sheila is utterly reliable and provides eminently useable,
reasonably-priced, listening materials which can be used either
for classroom activities or as stand-alone self-access materials.
Because they are based on current news broadcasts, they are
always topical and because the exercises are pitched at three
different levels, they can be used with all students, from
elementary upwards. This is an excellent resource and you
should not be without it!
Jane Magee, St Andrews University
I am delighted to be able to pass on to the very great appreciation of the service you provide for the daily news. It is experienced by students and teachers alike as a great tool and resource for listening and comprehension. Students also like being able to see their progress as they gradually take less time and make less mistakes. So a big thumbs up and thank you from us here at ELT St Andrews. Mary Stevens, Self Access Centre, English Language Teaching Centre. St Andrews University, Scotland
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We find the material is carefully selected, and the quality
of recording excellent. The ready-made worksheets are thoughtfully
prepared and are a boon to busy teachers. We use this topical
and up-to-date material in a variety of ways at both intermediate
and higher levels. The materials have also proven invaluable
for teacher training purposes. Carole
Collins, MLS International College, Bournemouth
We at York Associates have been subscribing to The Listening
Business since June 2000. It has proved very popular with
our trainers and course participants and we have been impressed
with the high quality and professional service Sheila provides.
Steve Flinders, York Associates
An excellent service and a first-class product - I would
think that all higher education institutions that teach Business
English could profitably invest in Sheila’s fast and
efficient service. Professor
John Bennett, St Gallen University, Switzerland
I think your materials are a brilliant resource for one-to-one
teaching. My executives have found the recordings and listening
exercises most interesting and challenging. Cynthia
Mardon-Taylor, Beltring Language Centre, Richmond, London
Sheila Thorn's materials have played an important role in
increasing learners' confidence and ability to deal with authentic
material. No less important is the fact that they are a wonderful
resource for busy teachers. The access to specialist vocabulary
provided by the BBC World Business News service has been a great
asset. We used this very successfully with a group of Finnish
teachers who specialise in teaching Business English. Gill
Godfrey, Plymouth College of Further Education
The BBC World Business News service materials give my students
the opportunity to listen to a wide variety of spoken English.
The varied exercises recycle vocabulary in an enjoyable and
stimulating way. Although my students inevitably find the
activities daunting at first, they soon find they are able
to understand more and more of the material. I would go so
far as to say that it’s the only listening material
I have ever used which has ever produced a noticeable improvement
in my students’ listening abilities. Any teacher looking
for some effective, easily-prepared, topical activities in
natural spoken English would be well advised to review Sheila’s
materials. Bob Mudford and
Associates, Vizcaya, Spain
Thank you once again for your excellent service over the
summer period. Our Pre-Sessional students have made full use
of your materials. I have a direct quote from one of the Pre-Sessional
teachers – ‘absolutely superb material –
it tests a whole range of skills and the students are always
engrossed.’ Rob White,
Cardiff University
This is a service that works most perfectly for our students.
They are future business people, so it is most motivating
for them to have a chance to listen in English to what is
happening in business globally at the moment. They also hear
a lot of different accents, which will be the reality for
them in the more and more international world of business.
Marina Wikman, Satakunta University,
Finland
The BBC World Business News service has proved a valuable, topical
and challenging resource in our Business English classes.
Richard Beale, Devon School
of English, Paignton
I have been subscribing to Sheila's BBC World Business News service for almost a year, and I consider my money well-spent. Firstly, because my students are either economics majors or people already in business, they are genuinely interested in the issues discussed in the programmes and do Sheila's challenging exercises without losing interest. As a result, they gradually improve their listening skills. Secondly, they improve their vocabulary. Thirdly, the topics discussed in programmes often provoke discussions among students which helps them learn. Lastly, students feel good about themselves because they usually do well, and I feel good about myself because I bring it about.
To conclude, for me this material delivers in a number of dimensions, and I would recommend it to anyone. The quality of journalism that BBC is known for plus the quality of exercises that Sheila provides make it into a very effective and user friendly tool. Alexey S. Podchasov, English Professor at Lomonosov MSU, Moscow, Russia
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‘An innovative series that offers a fresh and practical
approach to developing listening skills by means of authentic
texts’ John Field
'Really lovely listening materials that not only give students
practice with a range of accents, but also teach them the
skills they need to become proficient listeners. The texts
are varied and interesting and are exploited in imaginative
and very useful ways.’ Felicity
O’Dell
‘Sheila Thorn's work leads the field in helping learners to engage with real speakers in real contexts. An outstanding resource for teachers and students alike.’ Professor Ron Carter
‘The author's wonderfully innovative approach to listening continues in the intermediate level books. In particular, her choice of speakers takes into account the fact that the majority of learners will need to be able to understand the English accents of other non-native speakers, a crucial fact which is overlooked in most listening courses.’ Professor Jennifer Jenkins
I think your idea of 'listening training' is excellent. Too often students only get to hear actors recording set dialogues and it's very staged and 'unreal'. The student s enjoyed discussing what makes them improve their listening skills and could see the ideas behind your thinking.
Generally I think that 'listening training' of this sort is an excellent idea. Too often, boring and predictive dialogues between actors are used and students 'switch off'. Your materials make them really use their skills to 'hear' what is being said and to become 'involved' in the prediction of words, etc. Sue Hain, Dundee College
Comments from students at St Andrews University, Scotland:
I liked the topic of the interview in the audio. It's not boring like general English audio exercises where John and Richard talk about what they ate for lunch or which way to go to work. These sorts of exercises are good because there is endless content to choose from.
I enjoyed the listening exercises because I believe that such types of exercises can really help students to improve their listening skills.
The text material was amazing. I really loved these texts.
I found it interesting to do these exercises, because I could improve my listening and meanwhile I can learn some interesting knowledge. For the tasks I prefer to listen to real people and catch the information we need. The speed of the speech is quite good for us to do the practice.
I enjoyed the exercises a lot. I think listening is much more interesting than writing and reading. It helped me a lot, because before I came here, what listening exercises I took are all Standard English without different accents. However, in daily life here, I meet lots of people from different countries, their accents are all different. So I need to listen again and again to understand what on earth they are speaking. And if I can easily understand the listening exercises, it will not be difficult for me to communicate with others.
To begin with, the design of the vocabulary part is brilliant. It is so helpful for us to understand the listening material better as well as learning some new words. In addition, it will also help us to remember these words better. Also the part of interesting language points is entertaining. It helps us to understand a great diversity of local accent.
Scan of ET Professional review
January 2007 (Click
on the image for a larger view)
Scan of NATECLA review March
2007 (Click
on the image for a larger view)
Scan of Modern English Teach review July 2011 (Click
on the image for a larger view)
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‘I really enjoyed your talk on Saturday – I think
we all did. It was very interesting and useful.’ Dauna
Matheson at Aberdeen Teachers’ Association
‘I am one of the workshop convenors for the NATECLA
conference 2006. We would like to ask you to deliver another
workshop for us as your workshop last year was so well received.’
Esther Cosslett, NATECLA
To be honest, my three colleagues and I enjoyed your workshop
most of the ones we individually and collectively attended.
It was original, practical – yet rooted in solid theory
– and inspired us to be still talking about it over
a drink in the bar that evening. That’s some achievement!’
Paul Sanderson, Croydon College
‘I am writing to you on behalf of ELTAF, the English
Language Teachers’ Association in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main-Neckar
region, because you have been recommended to us as a high-quality
presenter for our upcoming biennial conference.’ Helen
Labies-Volz, ELTAF
‘I really enjoyed your session, as did – quite
evidently – the people who also attended. You presented
very well – you’ve got an eminently listenable-to-voice
and you talk well and enthusiastically – always interesting.
And you look smiling and calm! It was brilliant – you’ve
got such good stuff to tell people about, you’ve got
a strong personality, and you are easy to listen to. Well
done!’ Richard Cauldwell,
speechinaction, Birmingham
Many thanks for your comprehensive handout, and also for
a most interesting and thought-provoking session on Saturday.’
Hilary Curwell, Exeter Academy
Thank you very much for sending the handout. Your talk was
very useful and practical.’ Jin-Young
Choi, University of Exeter
‘I enjoyed your talk which I found both interesting,
informative and entertaining – so thank you. I hope
to put some of your ideas into practice – in fact, I
already have by focusing on elision in natural speech.’
Liv Livingstone, English
in Exeter
‘Thank you once again for a really fantastic session and for coming all this way. Everyone said to me how much they enjoyed the session and I found it extremely useful too – and immensely entertaining.’ Lucy Palmer, ELT Editor, Teachitworld
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An interesting and well illustrated talk.’
‘Very warm and enthusiastic speaker.’
‘Most informative.’
‘Sheila has really inspired me to start using my own
materials.’
‘Very engaging speaker.’
‘Focus was on the book which sounds great – Sheila
was very clear and well organized.’
‘Very interesting and pleasant presentation.’
‘This session was very interesting with some nice examples
of how features of listening can be focused on in listening
exercises – I have taken away some good ideas.’
‘Very good real life examples and ready to use tips.’
‘Great sense of humour.’
‘A useful session – refreshing to find out about
authentic resources.’
‘A very interesting and novel approach to listening
– informative and entertaining.’
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