Erin Bouma's Recommended
Erin’s WEBFinds: Listening and Speaking
http://www.musicalenglishlessons.org.htm
The strength of this site is in the English practice with Pop Song texts/songs and worksheets, the Beatles, and traditional songs in English. There are also varied materials including: Classical Literature (Shakespeare, Dickens), Grammar, Jokes, Proverbs and Tongue Twisters, study tips, vocabulary, and young learner’s nursery rhymes and ABC practice. Also has much material on Christianity and the Bible.
http://www.isabelperez.com/songs.htm
Developed by a Spanish Secondary English teacher. Ninety pop songs (from Every Brothers to Eminem) with lyrics, sound recording and various exercises for listening, pronunciation and comprehension.
There is also a section with Grammar, Vocabulary and Cultural online tests.
http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php?sitepal
Text to Speech. 20 animated heads speak the words you type into the box. There is a male Australian, female Scot, and males and females representing different U.K. and U.S.A. patterns. You can also adjust the pitch, speed and duration of the spoken text.
This site, which has a free sign-up, offers a world of authentic content and an online community of learners and native speaker tutors. It’s possible to learn English from authentic, interesting content, a vast library of real life articles, stories, interviews, radio shows, novels, etc.
At this new site you sign up for free then submit a text that you want read aloud by a native speaker. They record it for you and send you the audio file. You use that audio file to help yourself learn your target language.
To encourage users to help each other out, Rhinospike uses a queue system. When Audio Request is submitted, it is inserted into the queue for that language. Native speakers find your request and make a recording for it. To move up the queue, you can record your voice for users learning your language. Give and you shall receive!
Amy Walker began studying accents as an actress and writer/director, in order to more deeply understand and portray characters with authenticity and empathy. In her video she portrays 21 English accents (including a Russian speaker).
There are as many accents in this world as there are people who have ever lived. Accents involve trends, as ephemeral as fashion, not rules.
One voice/accent cannot represent an entire country or city. It can only represent one person, at one time. However, there are similar patterns to be found in the way people speak and express themselves within their spheres of influence. As globalization continues, it’s interesting to observe how our influence on each other’s speech is no longer limited to geographic proximity.
http://www.21accents.com/21_Accents/Video_Tutorials.html
In two lively videos, Amy Walker explains how to learn any accent. She says you must start by being fascinated, pay attention, observe, practice and check back. Her five categories for approaching accents include: 1) pronunciation of consonants and vowels, 2) the melody of speech, 3) the rhythm and stress unique to each language and speaker, 4) the grammar patterns and word choices and, finally, accent captures self-expression, attitude, time and place.
In two other tutorials, she also explores how food words: cheese, chicken and chocolate sound in different languages and with different accents. Then she explores dance, sport and film.