Dave's video course.
From the article "Use T.V shows. It's fast, free and incredibly effecitve":
"Problems with listening and speaking? You are not alone. Speaking and listening is a problem for ALL language learners. When I was a teenager I learnt Russian at school. This was back in the days when computers took 15 minutes to turn on and Russia was the Soviet Union. We used archaic books called 'Poshli Dalshe' (Let's go further) and 'Iskra' (spark). These books helped me master reading Russian and gave me a good introduction to the strange grammar of the language (strange for me anyway). But they were useless at teaching me to speak or listen to Russian. As a result I arrived in Moscow several years later and found myself struggling to maintain a conversation which went beyond the basic 'I have two brothers and two sisters'. The main problem was that I had very little experience of listening to Russian and almost no experience of regularly speaking the language. Nowadays EVERYTHING HAS CHANG
ED. T.V shows and films are available for free thanks to the vast number of video sites and file sharing sites. We can all learn how a language is actually spoken and all we need to do is turn on our computer, which fortunately takes less than 30 seconds these days. In addition to the free TV shows, there are also FREE TV SHOW LESSONS available here on Squidoo and on my website too. These lessons contain comprehension, grammar and vocabulary exercises with answers. What are you waiting for? Click on the big arrow below to start learning with TV".
Why learn with 'the idiot box'?
Here is a list of reasons why you should learn any language with 'the idiot box'
- TV shows can cater for all ages and levels.
- They present the language as it is actually used. (They aren't contrived like the student books)
- They contain the most common phrases and repeat them often.
- They contain a wide range of vocabulary (much wider than any student book)
- They contain all grammatical structures.
- They improve a student's pronunciation.
- They drastically improve the student's reactions.
- They are both fun and relaxing.
- They improve a student's confidence once the initial difficulties have been overcome.
This list needs to be made bigger - please use the comments section to add more reasons.
FREE VIDEO LESSONS - http://http://www.skype-lessons.com/lang-en/content/10-video-lessons-skype-english-lessons
Pre-intermediate/intermediate levels should use IT Crowd. Every episode of all 4 seasons. The Simpsons is also effective, and South Park is not bad either, but not for children!
Upper-Intermediates should try Jamie Oliver, Blackadder, Father Ted and Game On.
Advanced learners should try The Office and Sherlock Holmes.