Songs and Poems
I welcome songs and poems, composed by students of English. In the case of poems submitted, I may I may write music to it, creating a song activity. Keep in mind that songs at English Teachers Everywhere are very short (10 to 90 seconds), so lyrics should be correspondingly mini.

Little Stories
Record yourself telling a little story, about something unusual that happened to you or that you heard about. It should be two minutes or less. If you are not a native English speaker, no problem. All the better. See Little Stories for samples.

Other Voices
Send me a brief bio of you on audio. See Other Voices for examples.

Anything
So, really, anything you see on this site–jokes, culture stuff, holiday stuff, I will put up if it is a useful language learning text.

Sending Audio
First contact me and tell me what you have. I hope that it’s audio–a file in mp3, WAV, or aif format. The recording quality doesn’t have to be perfect. A little noise is okay.
you know how to record yourself digitally, you can submit a joke, a comedy sketch, a Little Story, or an Other Voices interview.

If you know how to record yourself digitally, you can submit a joke, a comedy sketch, a Little Story, or an Other Voices interview.

I would especially like to receive brief audio bios from English teachers or students around the world. I will then, if possible, edit the audio and put it in the “Other Voices” section.

I would also like to receive poems from English students around the world. I may make a song out of the poem, like I did with Teenage Years, and post the song and poem on the site.

In short, anything that fits the categories on this site I will consider putting up.

There’s no pay, just fame.

First contact me, and tell me what your submission is, and, how large the audio file is. Note, that the majority of tthe audio files on this site are 1 minute or less. Think small.

As always, these audios are short–short enough to be done as dictations.

All of them. It is just a matter of the teacher’s intuition and ability to adjust.

Take The Counting Songs. 10 seconds long. The singer counts from one to seven, and then back. It seems like a beginning level activity. Can be. But I have used it at all levels. I have used it with teachers of English and teacher trainers of English. They think it’s easy the first time when they sing “1-2-3-4-5-6-7-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.” But what the heck? The song’s 10 seconds long. It’s not as if you are wasting time. Then they are usually suprised to find that the “2-4-6-8-10-and-12″ version is not so easy, especially counting backwards.

Next, I ask them to write their own number patterns to the karaoke version. We put these on the board and the entire group has to sing/speak them–again at fairly high speed. It’s not just counting anymore. This is tongue training. And because we do the song many times–each one different–there is a high amount of repetition, and repetition is key to language practice.

So a seemingly easy task becomes rich in practice for even advanced levels.

This is why Recycle Songs work for almost any level of learner. When they compose their own words, they are writing to their own level and the level of their peers. Beginners write simple patterns; Ph.ds write complex patterns.

Not all audios are beneficial to basic learners, of course. We don’t want to frustrate them with a lot of language they do not understand. That’s why most of the audio on the site is VERY short. If the teacher presents a short audio task carefully, most students are going to succeed after a few repetitions. And isn’t that what we want–our students to succeed?

Dear Kevin,

I applaud your efforts to create a new website of ESL audio materials, but in most respects your “site” is glaringly lacking.

May I point out that, unlike yours, most respectable ESL websites–UsingEnglish, Dave’s ESL cafe, etc.– include borders or flash banners devoted to advertisements. Thus, while we are browsing for material it is quite easy to look for ways to spend our money, or to pleasantly distract ourselves with thoughts thereof. This wasn’t possible at your “site.”

I also find your content bizarre. ESL material should be sober for adults, cute and cloying for the young learners. Not plain mad.

And I cannot suss out any reason for texts intended to appeal to Tajiks and such. Students should learn about the UK mostly, and some about America, and perhaps a little about Australia–maybe one text about a koala or something.

My ESL students prefer texts like “At the Tobbaconist’s” or “Mr. Brown on High Street,” and they prefer recordings made NOT by so-called genuine people but by actors—professionals, to wit—whose language is clearer and more practiced than the man on the street.

2) And while we are at it, English students want, deserve, and need to hear native English speakers, and nothing but. Your “Other Voices” section provides recordings of non-native English speakers, from places as far afield as Taiwan, Mexico, and Arizona. If a speaker’s English is not clean, better that students don’t understand it all; otherwise they will learn bad habits.

3) Songs, songs, songs. Really, now. I believe songs should be used in the classroom only as often as we listen to them in real life. I, like most people listen to one song a month (usually something by Gary Numan or In Sync).And Movement Songs? Students don’t learn a language by prancing about. Students learn by sitting at their desks and keeping their noses in the book. Oh, perhaps it’s not glamorous, perhaps it’s not fun, but it works.

Decades of research have not uncovered any method better than the “Three RE-’s Approach.”

A. Read – read a text
B. Recite – (recite the text aloud)
C. Redo – (redo steps A and B).

It is not easy to learn a language, nor is it fun; and the teacher is shirking responsibility if he doesn’t let on to his students. Study is how we learn. Study and hard work. Coupled with the motivational menace of frequent and weighty examinations.

Yours,
H
Sheffield, UK