Useful Websites for Language Learning

Podcasts for listening practice:
http://ewradio.org/ Earthwatch -Two-minute sound bites on ecological subjects accompanied by the script
http://breakingnewsenglish.com/ Breaking News - Very up-to-date texts read at two speeds on recent news. Text and a remarkably complete lesson plans and activities. Really designed for teachers to use but students could benefit from working on them alone.
http://englishcaster.com/idioms/

An explanation of an idiomatic expression (a new one every day) American accent. You get background music too! And more.

http://esl.about.com/od/englishlistening/a/intro_podcasts.htm Kenneth Beare's site - Follow the links

Podcasts are downloadable sound files. This means they can be played and replayed again and individual phrases listened to lots of times. They can be used as models for pronunciation practice and lots more.

For learning languages it is good if the written text is available - reading can solve some comprehension problems and the sites here all have the text of the script;

If you are using these for learning I recommend that you listen at least three times before looking at the script.