TalkEnglish

TalkEnglish is a free website whose goal is to help you speak English more fluently. If you have trouble understanding all the instructions, the first thing you should do is click on the dropdown "Select a Language" menu at the top right of the home page. Written instructions are given in 20 different languages.

Home page of TalkEnglish.com

The basic pattern you need to follow is to: click on the sentence, listen to the audio, repeat with your voice. There is a huge number of different lessons at this website! Besides learning all the basics and important phrases for travel and job interviews, you can find lessons in talking about your feelings, various sports, movies, eating out, going to the doctor, and even smoking (both asking for a light or for saying that you don't like smoking!).

Here are some basic interview questions you can practice saying.

 One thing I really like about this website is the large number of listening comprehension exercises. For those of you who struggle to understand what people are saying, click on the Listening Lessons. There are three levels: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. You will listen to a short dialogue and then answer questions about what the people are saying. If you don't understand something, you can click on "Show Conversation Dialog" .... but try not to do this until you have listened several times! The speakers use American English and speak quickly, like most Americans do, so you have to listen carefully. 

This is the dialogue from an Intermediate Listening Lesson.

If you can't spend much time working at your computer, you can download every single exercise to your MP3 player for a charge of around $19. To do this, you have to go to the English Download page. The total file size is over 1GB, so make sure you have the room! The payment is made through a secure site, so your personal information should be safe.