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songs, and others, can be used as learning and Indian Institutes of Technology. This ini-
resources for improving one’s listening skills. tiative is funded by the Ministry of Human
Resource and Development, Government of
2�2�2�3 TED India. The main idea is to upload video lec-
TED stands for Technology Entertainment tures online, taught by the members of these
Design. It is a global community where people institutes, which can be accessed by everyone.
from distinctive cultures come together to put They have a YouTube channel which is pub-
forth their views for deeper understanding of licly accessible.
the world. It was founded by Harry Marks in On the one hand, NPTEL offers readily
the year 1984. It began as a conference where available resources for English language learn-
Technology, Entertainment, and Design con-
verged to mould exciting topics. However, ing through tailored courses. On the other hand,
the digital collection of lectures and classes are
today it covers almost all topics, from Science
to Business, in more than 100 languages. TED a ready source for practicing listening skills in
a setting that is academic and technical.
also has a wonderful online platform that intro-
duces to the world’s most inspiring thinkers 2�2�2�5 Subtitled Videos
and free souls to the world. It is a room of
thoughts, knowledge, and viewpoints. Another digital resource that is useful for
listening practice is subtitled videos. When
Other than being a source of information engaging with audio or audio-visual content in
and entertainment, TED Talks are an excellent a foreign language, learners may find it difficult
tool for developing listening comprehension to follow the pronunciation and the ideas being
skills. English language learners can self-prac- presented. Subtitled content allows learners to
tice by listening to the audio-visual content self-test, verify their listening skills and cor-
and testing their ability to grasp pronuncia- rect themselves. Thus even though the content
tion, vocabulary, and concepts. The diversity is not interactive, in that learners cannot ask
and varying levels of difficulty of the content questions or clear their doubts, such resources
allows the learners to continue improving their can go a long way in improving their language
listening skills. skills.

2�2�2�4 NPTEL 2�2�3 Audio Files: Transfer and Stor-
With the support of the government, the age
top universities and colleges in India have Audio content for the practice of listening
uploaded videos of their online classes. In fact, skills can be transferred and stored on different
many foreign universities also possess digital gadgets in specific file formats. Such formats
resources through which some of their courses used for accessing and storing audio data in the
can be accessed remotely and for free. These computer are referred to as Audio file formats.
platforms introduce learners to classes held in Audio coding formats are used for the storage
different universities across the country and or digital transmission of audio data such as
across the world. digital television, digital radio, audio and video

One such prominent national resource is the files. Some of the most popular examples of
National Programme on Technology Enhanced these are:
Learning (NPTEL), a joint university-level f MP3 – third audio format of
venture by the Indian Institutes of Science MPEG

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