ESL 086-M1  

Academic Listening & Note-Taking

Bunker Hill Community College

Room:  B-135B

Instructor:  Joseph Pettigrew

Course Information

Homework Assignments    

Audio from Class (Lectures)

NOTE:  Part One from each chapter is on the Student CD that comes with your book.

To save these files to your computer ...

1. Click on the link below. It will open a new page.

2. On the new page, right click on Download at the top left of the page.

3. Choose Save Link As in the menu that appears to save the file to your computer. 

Selected Video from Class

To save these files to your computer ...

1. Click on the link below the picture.

2. On the next page, right click on Download at the top left of the page.

3. Choose Save Link As in the menu that appears.

Most videos are playable on Windows Media Player or Apple Quicktime Viewer.

A video player that plays virtually all formats (mp4, m4v, mov, wmf, etc.) is the VLC Media Player. It's a free download at CNET. 

Newcomer's Almanac

A newsletter with information about the U.S.  Topics include holidays, customs, sports, entertainment, politics, and more.

• 2013-06 Newcomer's Almanac.pdf (June 2013)

Reading Suggestions

Here are lists of books, mostly novels and biographies, that have been recommended for ESL students. If you want to practice your reading but don't know where to start, check out these suggestions:

• Recommended_Books_(City-College-of-San-Francisco).pdf
• Reading Suggestions for ESL Students.pdf

CNN Student News

A daily ten-minute news broadcast for US high school students. Each program has a transcript on the CNN website so you can read what is being said. You can also subscribe to the podcast version on iTunes.

• CNN Student News page
• iTunes page (This link will open iTunes on your computer.)

Quick and Dirty Tips

Quick & Dirty Tips is a site with podcasts on a wide variety of subjects, including legal issues, managing money, public speaking, exercise, health, modern manners, and more. Each episode has a transcript that you can read while you listen to it.

Listening Practice with Videos

Video Jug is site that's a lot like YouTube, but with instructional videos on almost every topic you can think of:  food, sports, health, hobbies, cars, travel, education, and many, many more. Best of all, the videos have transcripts, so you can read what the speakers are saying as well as listen to them. If you register, you can also download the videos and watch them on your iPod or cell phone. There is a mix of British and American videos (and accents).  To get you started, try . . .

• All About College,
• How to Make American Pancakes, or
• Manners and Body Language Across Cultures

Learning Vocabulary: The Academic Word List

The Academic Word List contains 570 word families which were chosen because they appear often in a wide range of college textbooks. These are not the 570 most common words in English; they are the ones you will encounter most often while reading in college. They're also very common in newspapers, magazines, and on the internet. If you want to improve your vocabulary, this is a very good place to start.

• The list on Simple English Wiktionary (click on the words and go to the definition)
• The list with all forms of each word (e.g., abstract/abstraction/abstractly/...)
• Practice exercises with answers (practice 10 words at at time with immediate feedback)

Interesting Articles

• Ten Simple Google Search Tricks (New York Times)
• Forget What You Know about Good Study Habits (NY Times)

Boston-Area Neighborhoods

Here is a link to Boston University's Get to Know Your Neighborhood page. It has interesting information about many areas in and around Boston, including Jamaica Plain, Cambridge, Allston, Chinatown, Brookline, and more.  Even if you've lived in Boston for a while, you will learn something new.