The daily news broadcasts, in whatever language you are studying, provide an ever-changing listening resource for you to use. Nowadays such broadcasts are available through a wide range of media. in To improve your listening skills in German, for example, it is important to take advantage of the resources such as news broadcasts that are available to you and, in particular, to make use of web-based listening resources in audio or video format.
In these activities you will explore and practise using news-centred resources available on the internet for improving your listening skills in German.
There are several websites that are designed for listening and which focus on the news in German. In this activity you are going to evaluate two German websites that can be used to improve your listening skills.
Compare the following two websites, which allow you to listen to the news in German. Identify the particular features of each website by dragging and dropping options into the appropriate box below. Then check your answers and decide which website you prefer.
Aktuelle Nachrichten
auf Audio und Video von der deutschen Welle
http://www.dw-world.de/german# [No responsibility
is taken for content or information contained on external web pages]
Nachrichten der Tagesschau
www.tagesschau.de [No responsibility is taken
for content or information contained on external web pages]
You are now going to practise using one of the websites from the previous activity to improve your listening skills in the language you are studying.
Open the news grid below and complete it while watching/listening to a pre-recorded news broadcast in German on the internet. Study the example first if you would like guidance on what to do.
News Grid (doc, 44KB). You may wish to print this document.
Make a list of useful words and phrases that you have learnt during this listening activity in the box below. Then copy and paste these into your vocabulary organiser so that you can learn them.
Adapted from material provided by Kirsten Söntgens, University of Southampton