In the listening and speaking sections of the TOEFL, students have to listen to academic lectures in English. After they listen to the lectures, they have to be able to remember facts, identify main ideas and supporting details, summarize, and use information from the lectures to answer questions.

Many students are not familiar with academic English. But now there is a wonderful new place students can go to become familiar with academic English. It’s called iTunes U!

iTunes U isn’t a real school. But it is an excellent source of good academic English.

During the last few years, millions of people have become familiar with iPods and the iTunes Store. If you know how to find the iTunes Store, you are only a few steps from the door to iTunes U!

iTunes U is a special area inside the iTunes Store. When you enter iTunes U, you’ll find free academic lectures, interviews, and other kinds of class content from top U.S. colleges and universities, such as Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Duke University, and MIT.

If you have an iPod or other mp3 player, you can download lectures and other content from iTunes U and carry them with you wherever you go. If you don’t have an iPod, you can listen to them on your computer.

Here are some suggestions to help you use iTunes U to prepare for the TOEFL:

Look for lectures that are easy to understand. When you are trying to improve your English, it’s important to read or listen to as much easy-to-understand English as possible. Remember this when you look for lectures and other material on iTunes U.

One way to make sure the lectures are easy to understand is to listen to lectures about subjects you are already familiar with. For example, at the UC Berkeley iTunes U site, there are many lectures on world history in the Social Sciences section. If you are familiar with the Renaissance, find a lecture on the Renaissance and listen to it. What you learned about the Renaissance in your language will help you understand the English lecture on the Renaissance.

If you don’t understand part of a lecture, go back and listen to it again. When read or listen again to something you don’t understand, it will often make sense (be understandable) the second or third time.

If you find a lecture that is interesting, listen to it two or three times. Repeated listening is always a good strategy to improve understanding and to help you acquire, or absorb, more English.

Some lectures include pictures or video that will help you understand more. And some professors give links to their web sites, where they have outlines and other information.

I suggest that you begin with either UC Berkeley or Stanford University.

They both have large collections of lectures for you to choose from. Later, if you want to look at other schools, you can find a list of them at the iTunes Store or at http://itunesu.pbwiki.com/.

Come back in a few days, and I will have some more suggestions for using iTunes U to improve your academic English.

If you have a question or comment about this subject, use the “Add a comment” link below. I would like to hear from you.

Warren Ediger

warren@successfulenglish.com

Note: iTunes U is a registered trademark of Apple Computers.