Listening comprehension
High-quality audio has been available on the Internet for several years now, but until quite recently making use of it was not easy. This was due to two issues - file size and browser support.
Regarding size, audio files are very large - one minute of "high-quality" audio (44kHz, 16 bit stereo = 172kb/sec) requires over 10Mb. To put this into perspective, two copies of the Bible can be stored in the same space. Even "low-quality" audio - equivalent to telephone quality - would fill a standard floppy in about 2 minutes. In these days of massive hard disks, this might not sound as constraining as it did just a few years ago when memory was more expensive. Over a network connection, the real significance of large file size is that it takes longer to download. The one minute of high quality audio described above would take around 45 minutes to download over a standard 33.6k modem.
Browser support for audio files has been limited until recently. Different operating systems (PC, Mac, etc) supported different file formats, so that deciding on a file format meant either providing multiple types or restricitng access to a "most likely" group.
There was an positive side to this form of audio - once it was downloaded and stored, it could be played back indefinitely at identical high quality. An example of a foreign-language resource was Voice of America, which made daily broadcasts available in a wide range of languages.
The enormous step forward in usability of audio is based around the introduction of streamed audio. This is a highly compressed format which starts to play as it downloads; the file is not stored locally, so huge amounts of memory and disk space are not called for. Streamed audio was introduced in the mid-90s, but has only become of serious interest to language learners in the last year when reliable high-quality access has become routine.
There are two major formats for streamed audio: Real Player or Windows Media. In each case you need a dedicated player and this is available as a free dowload for both PCs and Macs.
Windows Media Player delivers most popular streaming and local audio and video formats, including Windows Media (WMA), MP3, WAV, AVI, MPEG, and more.
The range and quality of audio files which are now available is now excellent. A small sample is given below:
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Learn to speak Italian
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Although this is quite on old site, it is of interest because it provides 3 dowloadable file formats and one streamed format for each phrase.
Because each chunk is quite small, each one downloads relatively fast. It is interesting t compare file quality across the different formats.
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BBC news
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News available in English in audio and video; also Russian, Welsh, etc. audio only
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Funambule
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Apprendre et enseigner le français avec TV5. Good intermediate-level French learning resource, with video clips, transcripts, MCQs
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France-Inter
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France Info vous propose à toute heure du jour et de la nuit, une information complète sans cesse renouvelée... Ecouter en direct.
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Broadcast Com
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Links to many radio sources; also extracts from world-famous speeches
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Listening comprehension is about more than merely providing access to audio sources. The web can allow access to transcripts and other support materials to facilitate comprehension. An interesting example is the Cornell Grand Rounds Project.
Although this is not an example from language teaching, it does constitute a useful generic illustration of how to present a lecture on-line with the support of video, audio and slides.
A good source for further information is
"Real-time Audio/Video Playback on the Web", Language Learning & Technology, 1997 by Bob Godwin-Jones at
Virginia Commonwealth University. It is a little dated in some respects, but has fascinating links to sources in Cornish and Polish.
last updated 7th February 2000
Author: William Haworth
