Products and services: an overview  
 
  GUIDE TO THIS SECTION:  
 
The BBC Radio 4 News service

The BBC World Business Report service

The Real Lives, Real Listening series of books
 

The BBC Radio 4 News service

From Monday to Thursday institutions throughout the UK record the BBC Radio 4 News at 10am. Meanwhile I write three levels of intensive listening training exercises with comprehensive answersheets which I guarantee to e-mail to customers by 12.30pm the same day.

For more information about the BBC Radio 4 News service, please click here

The BBC World Business Report service

This 30-minute programme from the BBC World Service is an excellent source of Business English listening materials. It contains all the latest business news and regularly features interviews with non-native speakers or English. Every week I carefully select the most interesting and suitable 10+ minutes of the programme for teaching purposes. I then provide a variety of exercises at intermediate + level and comprehensive answersheets to accompany the programme, together with a full transcript of the interviews and in-depth reports.

For more information about the BBC World Business News service, please click here

The Real Lives, Real Listening series of books

Since 2004 I have been collecting interviews and group conversations with a huge number of native and non-native English speakers in order to produce my series of Real Lives, Real Listening books.

In 2009 I teamed up with a new publisher, Andy Cowle of North Star ELT, who has brought out new colour editions of my original books with illustrations. The new editions have been heavily revised and now contain more listening training exercises and language development exercises.

The three titles in the series are:

A Place I Know Well A Typical Day My Family

They are currently available at Elementary Level (CEF A2/B1 Levels, i.e. KET and PET Level and Skills for Life Entry Levels 1 and 2) and Intermediate Level (CEF B1/B2 Levels, i.e. FCE and CAE Level and Skills for Life Entry Level 3 and Level 1).

The Advanced Level books (CEF C1/C2 Levels, CAE and CPE Level and Skills for Life Levels 1 and 2) are due for publication in February 2012.

         
         

These books are unique for three reasons:
1. These are the first authentic listening books aimed initially at elementary and intermediate students to feature 100% authentic unscripted listening passages.
2. The main focus of each book is on listening training and not testing.
3. Each book contains recordings of native and non-native English speakers, exposing students to a wide variety of accents.
For more information on the Real Lives, Real Listening series, please click here
 
     
  Richard Cauldwell of SpeechInAction shares my enthusiasm for using recordings of real speech:
www.speechinaction.com
 

I also work closely with my publisher, Andy Cowle of North Star ELT:

  www.northstarelt.co.uk