Where Can You Find "Natural" Use of Idioms in Audio Format
If you want to find idioms used naturally in audio, make your conditions a bit tighter.
Do you want just any idioms, and any format? Let's take a look at format first.
What is a Good Audio Format When you ask about format, you are actually asking about two different things.
First is the format of the contents in the audio.
And next is the format of the audio itself.
Decide what content you want in the audio you are looking for.
We can ask many questions about this content to find exactly what you want in the audio you are looking for.
The format of the audio itself is a much easier issue.
While there are many audio formats out there, I recommend staying with MP3 or one of its cousins (M4V, etc).
These files can be played almost anywhere, and they are small.
While they are small, they still have good quality and you will understand everything that is being said if the recording itself is good.
But the content needs a bit more discussion.
The Content What content do you want to learn? You should have an idea of what idioms you want to learn.
This will help you decide what idioms audios will be good for you and you will not waste time and perhaps money on audios that you do not need or want.
Next you have to decide if you want to hear the idioms used naturally in conversation or in stories.
If you choose conversation, you may have difficulty getting exactly what you want.
To begin with, there are simply very few recorded conversations that set out to show the use of idioms.
That means the idioms in them are not used very frequently.
Further, if a recording is totally natural and spontaneous (not scripted), then again the idioms are probably not going to be used very frequently.
But you will hear more conversational language (contractions and other reductions will be more frequent).
This is quite different in stories.
Stories are definitely scripted, and they will not have all the natural spoken English reductions in them.
On the other hand, they may have the idioms used several times, in several different sentences to show how they are used.
This means that these stories may be better at giving you lots of repetition listening to the idioms.
There may be more than one pattern of use in the story.
That is better for learning quickly.
So, where do you find these stories? Where Can You Get Them There are two big sources for these stories.
Free audios, and the ones you have to pay for.
The free ones are almost all found on the internet.
I recommend doing searches using search terms with the words 'idioms', and 'audio' in them.
I don't recommend putting the word 'free' in your search.
That almost always brings pages full of links to other sites, and you have to search harder.
The other big group are the audios you have to pay for.
You can find them in book stores,usually books with CD's.
You can also find them on some sites on the internet, like Amazon.
Before you buy, try to find a sample of the author's work, so you know what you can expect in the product, and look for testimonials about the quality of the product.
Who is writing the testimonials? Are they people like yourself? These points are important to consider.
How Can I Trust the MP3 Downloads This is an easy question to worry about since the internet has lots of dangers.
Fortunately, MP3's are safe.
MP3 cannot contain viruses, so downloading them is safe.
Be careful of other files that you might want to download, but MP3's themselves are safe.
It Takes a Long Time to Download.
Well, that depends on your connection, but MP3 files are quite small.
They can usually be downloaded quickly and easily by most normal connections.
Even if you have a slow connection, you should be able to download these files without too much trouble.
Also, the files you want should not be too big simply because big files will take too long to listen to.
In general, you do not want long long files for listening practice because they are difficult to review, and do not let you repeat listening enough to really learn fast.
Summary When you consider what is a good audio format, think of content, and the format itself (MP3 is safe).
The content means what idioms are used, and whether the content is a conversation or stories.
You can get audios free on the internet, or pay for them in bookstores in books with CD's, or on the internet.
I recommend you visit English Listening World.
com to see the collection of stories that contain idioms for listening practice.
While you are there, you can sign up to receive the e-zine that I write monthly with conversations in it for listening practice.
Do you want just any idioms, and any format? Let's take a look at format first.
What is a Good Audio Format When you ask about format, you are actually asking about two different things.
First is the format of the contents in the audio.
And next is the format of the audio itself.
Decide what content you want in the audio you are looking for.
We can ask many questions about this content to find exactly what you want in the audio you are looking for.
The format of the audio itself is a much easier issue.
While there are many audio formats out there, I recommend staying with MP3 or one of its cousins (M4V, etc).
These files can be played almost anywhere, and they are small.
While they are small, they still have good quality and you will understand everything that is being said if the recording itself is good.
But the content needs a bit more discussion.
The Content What content do you want to learn? You should have an idea of what idioms you want to learn.
This will help you decide what idioms audios will be good for you and you will not waste time and perhaps money on audios that you do not need or want.
Next you have to decide if you want to hear the idioms used naturally in conversation or in stories.
If you choose conversation, you may have difficulty getting exactly what you want.
To begin with, there are simply very few recorded conversations that set out to show the use of idioms.
That means the idioms in them are not used very frequently.
Further, if a recording is totally natural and spontaneous (not scripted), then again the idioms are probably not going to be used very frequently.
But you will hear more conversational language (contractions and other reductions will be more frequent).
This is quite different in stories.
Stories are definitely scripted, and they will not have all the natural spoken English reductions in them.
On the other hand, they may have the idioms used several times, in several different sentences to show how they are used.
This means that these stories may be better at giving you lots of repetition listening to the idioms.
There may be more than one pattern of use in the story.
That is better for learning quickly.
So, where do you find these stories? Where Can You Get Them There are two big sources for these stories.
Free audios, and the ones you have to pay for.
The free ones are almost all found on the internet.
I recommend doing searches using search terms with the words 'idioms', and 'audio' in them.
I don't recommend putting the word 'free' in your search.
That almost always brings pages full of links to other sites, and you have to search harder.
The other big group are the audios you have to pay for.
You can find them in book stores,usually books with CD's.
You can also find them on some sites on the internet, like Amazon.
Before you buy, try to find a sample of the author's work, so you know what you can expect in the product, and look for testimonials about the quality of the product.
Who is writing the testimonials? Are they people like yourself? These points are important to consider.
How Can I Trust the MP3 Downloads This is an easy question to worry about since the internet has lots of dangers.
Fortunately, MP3's are safe.
MP3 cannot contain viruses, so downloading them is safe.
Be careful of other files that you might want to download, but MP3's themselves are safe.
It Takes a Long Time to Download.
Well, that depends on your connection, but MP3 files are quite small.
They can usually be downloaded quickly and easily by most normal connections.
Even if you have a slow connection, you should be able to download these files without too much trouble.
Also, the files you want should not be too big simply because big files will take too long to listen to.
In general, you do not want long long files for listening practice because they are difficult to review, and do not let you repeat listening enough to really learn fast.
Summary When you consider what is a good audio format, think of content, and the format itself (MP3 is safe).
The content means what idioms are used, and whether the content is a conversation or stories.
You can get audios free on the internet, or pay for them in bookstores in books with CD's, or on the internet.
I recommend you visit English Listening World.
com to see the collection of stories that contain idioms for listening practice.
While you are there, you can sign up to receive the e-zine that I write monthly with conversations in it for listening practice.
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