“Unread books know how to take revenge,” wrote Ray Bradbury. But how can a modern person with a frantic pace of life not make himself "avengers"? There is a way out - listen to audiobooks, and if you do it in English as well, you will get a double benefit. We will tell you how to learn English from audiobooks, why you need to listen to them and how to work with them. And at the end of the article you will find links to 7 great sites with audiobooks on English language for children and adults.

Which audiobook to listen to in English

If you know English not high level not all books will be equally useful. Let's see what materials can be found on the Internet and what audiobook to listen to in English. Types of audiobooks:

1. By type of recitation

Books voiced by a professional speaker (native English speaker) - such books are ideal for those who want to listen to competent English speech and learn to speak like a native speaker. If you are going to repeat the words after the announcer, learn the correct intonation and correct pronunciation, then this type is “shown” to you. Books read by a professional announcer are versatile material that is suitable for any listening purpose. They have only one drawback - they are not easy to find in the public domain.
Books voiced by ordinary people (native English speakers) - such books are well suited for people with a level of knowledge and above. If you want to get used to the different accents in English and want to improve your listening comprehension, these are the books to choose from. The most important advantage of this type of audiobooks in English is that they are easy to find in the public domain. However, if your level of knowledge is below average, then it will be difficult to perceive the speech of native speakers. In addition, the audio track is most often recorded in a normal home environment, so the sound quality leaves much to be desired.
Books voiced by Russian-speaking teachers or linguists are another good option for people with a low level of knowledge. Audio is usually recorded in professional studios, all words are pronounced clearly, you will easily understand them. On the other hand, the intonation and pronunciation of a Russian-speaking speaker is still slightly different from the intonation and pronunciation of a native speaker.
Books created with special computer programs(Text-To-Speech) is not the best option for learning English from audio books. The program is not able to voice the text in such a way that a natural coherent speech with intonation characteristic of native speakers is obtained.

2. By complexity

Children's fairy tales and stories are the simplest material that adults should not neglect. Children's books, as a rule, are read by professional announcers at a measured pace. At the same time, the texts are easy to understand also due to the vocabulary: children's books use a limited set of the most frequently used words.
Audiobooks with supporting text - good material for those who find it difficult to understand foreign speech by ear: you can listen to a book and follow the text with your eyes. In addition, such materials are convenient to use if you are going to learn new words: you can see their spelling in the text.
Standard audiobooks are materials for people with an Intermediate level and above. These are common entries for native speakers, so they are not always easy to understand. On the other hand, you can easily find lyrics for almost any audio on the Internet, and this will help you understand the book.

In addition, we advise you to try listening to an audiobook, the text of which you have read in Russian more than once. Surely every person has a favorite work of an English-speaking author. If you remember it very well in Russian, then it will be easier for you to understand the audio recording in English.

Benefits of audiobooks in English

One of the most difficult skills in learning English is listening comprehension. To learn to understand foreigners, you need to listen to them often. Therefore, if you do not live abroad and do not communicate daily with native speakers, you need to look for affordable ways to practice listening. The best assistants in this matter are podcasts and audiobooks. Read about. And now let's find out how useful it is to learn English from audiobooks:

1. You improve your English listening comprehension

This is main reason, according to which audiobooks in English are very popular among students. The more we listen, the faster we get used to foreign speech and begin to understand it. And if you consider the fact that most free audiobooks are voiced by native speakers who are not professional voiceovers, then you can also listen to people with different pronunciations. Some will lisp, some will lisp, some will speak too fast - this is a great workout for your listening skill.

2. You get used to the sound of coherent speech

The announcers do not pause between words and pronounce each phrase with natural intonation. You will gradually get used to live speech, and subsequently it will be easy for you to understand what a foreign interlocutor is saying.

3. You learn new words and phrases in context

If we are sometimes too lazy to find and learn words from podcasts or educational texts, then an unfamiliar word that plays an important role will certainly cause a desire to find out what it is about. Words that are important for understanding the meaning will be easy to remember, because you learn them in context and understand how they are used.

4. You listen and remember how grammar is used in live speech

In theory, you understand perfectly when to use the Present Perfect, but when it comes to using this tense in speech, do you get confused and do not know if it would be appropriate to use it? Listening to audiobooks in English will help you understand how any grammatical construction "works" in practice. If you not only passively listen to the recording, but also think about how this or that tense is used, you will understand the principle of English grammar not in theory, but in practice.

5. You study English where it suits you

Audiobooks in English are portable learning materials. You can take them with you wherever you go by downloading them to your smartphone or tablet. So if on the way to work you are not interested in listening to others, listen to an audiobook. Find out how else you can use your gadget for learning from the article "".

6. You develop

The very unread books that could take revenge on you now pose no danger, because you will listen to them. If it is not always possible to devote time to reading, then even the busiest person can afford to listen to an audiobook. Moreover, you can read not only fiction, but also professional or self-development books, then you will also engage in self-education without wasting a minute of your free time on it.

7. You enjoy exercising

We all understand that we need to "accustom" ourselves to the sound of foreign speech, but not everyone likes podcasts. Some people are not interested in them. Audiobooks are just as addictive as coffee in the morning. If you choose an interesting book, you will get carried away with the plot so quickly that you will look forward to listening to the next excerpt of your favorite work.

How to listen to audiobooks in English

You can just listen to the audiobook and have fun, it is suitable for those who understand English well by ear. And what about those who find it difficult to understand English speech? For them, there is a technique that, with regular use, will significantly improve your listening skills. How to do it? Use a simple technique:

Listen to a short excerpt from a book, for example, take one chapter. It's okay if you don't understand every word, at this stage try to catch the general meaning of what was said.
Take the text of the book and turn on the recording. Listen to the speaker and at the same time follow the text with your eyes. Do not focus on unfamiliar words, try to guess their meanings from the context.
If you want to replenish your vocabulary, then highlight unfamiliar words in the text with a marker, then write them out from the text and learn them.
The next day after learning new words, listen to the audio recording of the chapter again, do not use the text, try to understand as much information as possible by ear.
Want to improve your pronunciation with your favorite book? Then listen to the speaker and repeat the text after him, trying to copy all the sounds and intonation of a native speaker. If you decide to use this technique, you need to find an audio recording read by a professional announcer with the correct pronunciation.

Where to Download Audiobooks in English: Top 7 Sites

Children's audiobooks

Storynory.com is a site with children's stories in English. Ideal for those who do not understand English well by ear: a native speaker with clear diction recites simple children's stories. The text of the recording is located right there, and all audio files can be downloaded for free.
Bookbox.com is a site with children's fairy tales. There are no texts for the recordings, the possibility of listening online too. But you can download any audio story for free and listen to it in your free time. The text uses simple vocabulary that you can easily understand.

Audiobooks with lyrics

Etc.usf.edu is one of the most user-friendly audiobook sites out there. Each work is conveniently divided into chapters, and text is attached to the audio recordings. You can listen to audio and follow the text on the site, or you can download Mp3 recordings and text in PDF format. It should be noted that the audio recordings are presented in professional quality, so you may not need the text.
Nikolledoolin.com is a resource with a small selection of audiobooks, but all of them have text, so it's convenient to work with if you still find it difficult to understand an audio recording without text.

Audiobooks in English of various genres

Librivox.org is a resource thanks to which there are more and more free audiobooks in English every day. By clicking on the link, you will see two buttons: Volunteer and Catalog. The Volunteer button will take you to a page for volunteers - people who read books in English and post them on this site. The Catalog button will take you to the book catalog. You can easily find the audio recording you need by using the site search. Any book can be listened to online or downloaded for free.
Loyalbooks.com is a resource with over 7,000 free audiobooks in English. All audio files are conveniently divided into chapters, they can be listened to online or downloaded. Most of the recordings are read by professional speakers, the sound quality is good, so it will be easy for you to make out the words.
Thoughtaudio.com is a site with free audiobooks in English. The recordings are presented in good quality, divided into chapters of the book, they can be downloaded for free or listened to directly on the site.

Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled “This could change your life”.

Books can be dangerous. The best of them should have a warning: "This book can change your life."

Helen Exley

We hope you enjoy our tips on how to learn English with audiobooks. In this article, we have presented 7 great resources, and in one of the following articles, we will tell you about 10 more cool sites with free audiobooks. Want to be the first to know about them? Then subscribe and get valuable advice from our teachers and useful links once a week!

The advent of audio books has become a great gift for those who love to read, who are always busy with daily activities, work, study ... Although no! As times in study they have become help. Especially audio books for learning English have noticeably accelerated, simplified and diversified the learning process.

True, another problem arose: what works to choose for learning English from audiobooks? And then - where to look for them, download or buy? This article will answer every question. We will distribute, literally “sort out” the best audiobooks for beginners to learn English from scratch, for intermediate and advanced levels, and show several sources of quality recordings. If you are interested in studying in courses, we suggest paying attention to. Using the filter, you will be able to find the nearest English school.

Audiobooks for learning English by levels

We say “study”, we mean “book”, right? This is what the classical source of knowledge looks like in the minds of most students. But we offer you not an English textbook or even an English tutorial, but much more exciting literature. But first, your turn: honestly determine your level of language proficiency in order to choose the right adapted audiobooks, in this list they are grouped by skill level:

Elementary, Beginner, or A1-A2:

The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum Robin Hood adapted by Stephen Colbourne Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling White Fang by Jack London.

These books have common features that make them ideal for beginners to learn English, including children in grades 2 and 3. These are common vocabulary, simple forms of tenses, basic grammatical constructions, fascinating plots.

Intermediate, Elementary, or B1:

Emma Jane Austen The Great Gatsby Francis-Scott Fitzgerald The Red-Headed League Arthur Conan Doyle Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe (text adapted).

You are probably familiar with these stories, but listening to them in the original language will reveal their meaning in a new way. Adapted audiobooks ensure you understand the text.

Upper Intermediate, or B2:

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll A murder is announced Agatha Christie Three men in a boat Jerome K. Jerome A Space Odyssey ”) Arthur Clarke Therese Raquin (“Therese Raquin”) Emile Zola GoldFinger (“Goldfinger”) Ian Fleming.

Even difficult moments will be understood thanks to your vocabulary at this level. And exciting stories motivate you to listen further and / or again (yes, learning English from audiobooks suggests and recommends listening again!).

Please note that many of these works have been filmed. Watching these films in English (and also these from our list) will help to consolidate the vocabulary.

How to choose audiobooks in English for beginners

Audiobooks in English for beginners from our list are only indicative examples. After listening to them, the boundless world of literature in English will open before you. But you need to choose works carefully in order to combine pleasant ( good book) with useful (learning English).

Choose to your liking. Don't force yourself to "listen" to a piece just because it's a classic or an acclaimed masterpiece. Look for genres, styles and works that you personally like.

Choose an announcer - that is, the voice with which the book is sounded. Your perception of both a particular work and the method of learning English from audiobooks in general depends on it. If it's hard to perceive a British accent, listen to American speakers. Men or women - the choice is yours.

Choose the speed of perception. Audiobooks allow you to listen to a difficult or favorite episode several times, pause, and then continue listening at a convenient time. This is their advantage over listening to live interlocutors.

With a lot of undeniable advantages, audiobooks have some disadvantages. But they can and should be taken into account in order to maximize the benefits of the technique.

Just a few tips on how to make learning English with audiobooks more effective:

Go from simple to complex. As knowledge deepens and vocabulary choose more complex pieces. Otherwise, the meaning will be lost and erased from memory.

Read, not just listen. It will be great if you have the same work in two formats: as a text and an audiobook. But books with translation, of course, are not suitable. Your task is to perceive the same text both by ear and visually.

Take notes. Some people make notes in the books they read. While listening to an audiobook in English, take notes in a notebook: write down the names of the characters, short description their characters, the main events of the plot.

And be sure to use the new vocabulary yourself. Do not leave new words in books, transfer them to real life, use them, retell the content to your friends, discuss the work in a language club.

Where to download audiobooks in English for free?

Everything is on the web, which is why it can be so hard to find something specific. If you're looking for audiobooks to learn English, check out these resources:

voicesinthedark.com

freeclassicaudiobooks.com

Here is another list of sites with audiobooks in English. Now you are ready to learn English from audiobooks. Headphones, player - and forward, on your own business and into the world of literature. Clean, travel, walk your dog, play sports and listen to English audiobooks at the same time.

Learning a foreign language is difficult not so much because of the novelty of the rules and words, but because of the multitasking of this process. A beginner should immediately understand how to read in a foreign language, write correctly, speak and perceive the speech of interlocutors. To cope with all these things at the same time and feel like Caesar, audio English lessons for beginners will help. In today's article, we will explain what the effectiveness of such classes is, compile an overview of popular methods and courses, and also give helpful tips for beginners in learning English. Let's start!

As noted in the introduction, learning a language from scratch is a complex process. But with a competent approach, mastering the basic course will not take much time and effort. And we propose to develop this most competent approach to learning English, based on audio methods. Why audio? Because they allow you to learn English in all aspects at once.

Vocabulary set. The announcer slowly pronounces the word, and then its translation. The task of the student is to first listen carefully, and then repeat the spoken word at intervals specially allotted for this action.
Listening to foreign speech . The student has to constantly listen to the words spoken by the speaker, which contributes to an automatic improvement in understanding the language. As a rule, after a few lessons, even complete beginners begin to perceive English well by ear.
Pronunciation . This parameter is especially important when the language is being studied independently, and there are no interlocutors for dialogue. This skill is not only the correct pronunciation, which is automatically given to the student, thanks to the recorded phrases of the announcer. It is also the absence of fear to speak a foreign language. Therefore, it is worth choosing such audio materials in which, in addition to tasks for repetition, there are classes for building dialogues. While completing the lessons, the student must compose his own phrases and pronounce them in response to the speaker's thematic questions.
Reading and writing . It would seem that audio methodology has nothing to do with these skills. And here it is not. A good audio course will teach English to the fullest: the student will listen, speak, read, and write in English correctly. You are probably wondering how this comprehensive training takes place? Yes, very easy! It is enough to purchase audio courses with textual presentation of lessons, or vice versa - to study English texts with audio accompaniment. Then you can visually memorize the spelling of words and work out the rules of reading in practice.

As you can see, listening to audio really develops all the skills necessary for mastering foreign speech. Effective learning requires only two components: competent teaching materials and proper organization. educational process. Let's try to take a closer look at these factors and start with a small overview of audio English lessons designed for beginners. We will select the 5 highest quality materials that deserve the most positive feedback.

Popular English for Beginners Audio Courses

There is an unimaginable amount of English learning materials on the Internet and on the shelves of bookstores. But from this variety, one must be able to choose a high-quality methodology, classes on which will give fruitful results. Therefore, to help beginners, we made a mini-review of really high-quality audio materials.

Pimsleur Courses

The legendary technique, patented in the middle of the last century. Since then, millions of people around the world have been able to learn English with it! And there is even talk that the method was actively used in the language schools of the CIA and the FBI.

Other English topics: How to write a story about yourself in English, as well as ready-made examples

During the classes, students will master the grammatical minimum necessary for the initial level, and will work on about 1700 English words and expressions. The audio material is recorded by a professional speaker, which makes it easier for beginners to perceive information.

Read here: The best English textbooks - tutorials, manuals and dictionaries

English for every day

The original method of introducing beginners to the English language, developed by teachers of the Moscow State University Linguistics.

The course consists of 15 lessons that use active vocabulary in spoken English. Each lesson is divided into 2 parts: first, the perception and memorization of new information, and then repeating it with the help of dialogues. Training course sets the following goals:

Formation of understanding of language culture;
Development of the skill of perception of foreign speech by ear;
Acquaintance with colloquial vocabulary, with the help of modeling everyday situations;
Encouragement to independent speaking, through listening and participation in dialogues.

Thus, after completing 15 lessons, the student will be well versed in spoken English and will be able to freely express his opinion on various issues.

These are the recommended materials that have gained the most popularity in the field of study. foreign languages. However, this does not mean that you need to use only them. On the contrary, the more variety in your studies, the less English classes you will have time to get bored with. Therefore, try to conduct lessons in a variety of ways, sometimes replacing grammar books and audio dialogues with exciting audiobook classes or watching films in the original.

And finally, we will tell you a few subtleties of the organization of training sessions. As you remember, this is the second component of the effectiveness of audio lessons. So, below are a number of recommendations that will help beginners achieve rapid and successful mastering of the English language.

Regularity of classes - the most important factor on which the whole process of cognition depends. If you study English as you have to, from time to time, then there can be no question of any success. Therefore, be sure to allocate strictly defined time in your schedule for lessons and repetition of the material.
Attentive and meticulous work with audio recordings - listen to what the speaker says, try to quickly connect the memory and logical understanding of the phrase. It is desirable to work with the text component, emphasizing new words, practicing reading rules or marking the use of grammatical rules.
Mandatory repetition - in general, the courses provide for automatic repetition of vocabulary, due to its active use in the construction of dialogues. But, if you see that some phrases or words have not been used in lessons for a long time, then do not be lazy to repeat them yourself. This is a necessary stage for the formation of a base of English words in long-term memory.
Constant progress - never rest on your laurels. After completing the first English for Beginners course, listen to the audio of the second stage, then the third, and so on. Only in this way can you achieve perfect command of the language. And if, after the first, for example, 15 lessons, you abandon your studies, you will soon realize that the studied information is erased from memory. Language must be used, and this is the basic rule and motto of all polyglots.

This is how English is learned with the help of audio methods. Choose the audio course you like, develop a lesson plan and start learning the language! Good luck in improving your knowledge and see you soon!

Audio courses are a great way to get the most useful information in English, relieving eye strain. You can do household chores, travel, walk and listen to English podcasts. You will learn to hear and recognize a huge number of accents, nuances of pronunciation thanks to the audio materials of various courses. Listening skill - the ability to perceive English speech by ear - you also develop by listening to audio courses. We offer a selection that may interest you.

British Council Podcasts (MP3 + Scripts)

The British Council has prepared audio materials for years of listening. But don't let that scare you - they are divided into topics and levels. Choose what suits you and immerse yourself in English. In addition to audio materials, you will also find games and tests in English.

English USA - Audio course "So they say in America"

This audio course was created by journalists and announcers of the legendary Voice of America radio. The course consists of 104 lessons and they are designed for two years. But you can decide for yourself with what intensity to immerse yourself in English. The protagonist of the course is the journalist Martin, who travels around America, communicates with different people and incorporates the most common colloquial idioms into his conversations.

Chudakov I.V. – Polyglossum – English on the road (30 lessons)

This is an English course for those who begin to dive into it from scratch. The most common conversational topics are presented in separate lessons, the course is convenient to listen to while driving, it includes 10 hours of materials.

You can download course audio materials. Online.

Elizabeth Smith - English in 6 weeks

The course is designed for you to study English daily for 35 minutes a day for 6 weeks. Practice shows that it is not so simple, but effective if you really do not miss a single day. Thanks to the course, you will be able to learn a minimum of colloquial vocabulary (about 400 words), which is the most necessary for communication during foreign trips. This minimum will be enough for you to overcome the language barrier. The course can be a good basis for further study of English.

You can download the audio course.

English lessons with Rita Belova from the BBC (178 episodes)

The podcast includes 10 parts, each of which is one of the important conversational topics. Issues - a large number of, but they are divided into thematic groups: at the doctor's, business, idioms, everyday vocabulary, in a hotel, in the office and many others. You can choose what is your priority.

Issues can be downloaded.

6 Minute English with BBC (69 episodes)

Short audio episodes of 6 minutes. Agree, it’s quite easy to devote such an amount of time every day. Each program contains examples of the use of words and explanations.

You can download audio materials.

BBC Grammar Challenge (87 episodes)

Short six-minute grammar podcasts. You will be able to repeat, clarify and memorize verb forms, tenses, prepositions, pronunciation features and other grammatical nuances.

You can download podcasts.

Choose an audio course and immerse yourself in English!

Storms on the Sun