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Index Screen
Browse units by topic
Each of the five sections of the app deals with a different business environment – like ‘everyday business communication’, ‘cultural considerations’, and even ‘outside the office’. Within each section, there are four distinct units. This page also allows the user to see what accents they will hear in each unit.Browse units by topic
A clearer view of each unit so that you can see at a glance which units you have completed and which you still need to do.Browse units by accent
Listening offers the user 55 different recordings in a huge range of accents. The ‘units by accent’ tab allows the user to choose a specific accent that they know they need practice in understanding. The app offers not just native English accents but also non-native speaker accents. Business people around the world increasingly use English as a lingua franca, so it is vital that learners can understand not just American and British English but also Chinese and Indian English. -
Multiple choice questions
Test your general understanding of a recording by answering multiple choice questions. Use 'practice mode' if you want to be told immediately if you are correct, and use 'test mode' if you want to wait till the end of the exercise to be given a score.
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Listen to authentic recordings and read and review
Focus on some specific words in the recording that are difficult to pronounce, or sound interesting or unusual in this particular accent.
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Fill in the blanks
Engage with the recording at a more detailed level by listening for specific words and phrases.
Hint ScreenIf you are having difficulty spelling what you are hearing, get the app to give you some letters to help you out.
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Match vocabulary
A great way to learn new vocabulary and check understanding - match a word from the recording with a synonym.
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Listen and check
Authentic recordings create an opportunity to hear real language, which includes things like hesitations, mistakes and false starts. Instead of glossing over these, Listening highlights the most interesting of them and uses them as an opportunity to show the student what real English is about, 'warts and all'.
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Sort vocabulary lists
Another fun way to check understanding of new vocabulary.
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True or False
Test your general understanding of a recording by answering true or false questions. Use 'practice mode' if you want to be told immediately if you are correct, and use 'test mode' if you want to wait till the end of the exercise to be given a score.
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Choose the right word
In total, Listening uses 10 different exercise types to provide a varied and interesting learning experience for the user.
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Extras
Look out for little tabs on the bottom right corner of lots of the exercises with titles such as 'Useful vocabulary', 'clear usage', 'cobuild' and 'tip'. These offer the user information to support their learning - grammar advice, extra vocabulary, sample sentences from the Collins COBUILD English corpus, notes on pronunciation and clarification on colloquial or non-standard English that appears in the recordings.
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Mini-dictionary
This mini-dictionary, taken from Collins' internationally acclaimed COBUILD Advanced Dictionary, lists some of the most difficult vocabulary that comes up in each of the recordings, providing both a definition and at least one example sentence for each entry.