| Audiobooks (or Books on Tape) (HINT: audiobooks and books on tape are the same thing.) I highly recommend audiobooks to my students for the following reasons: 1. They are a wonderful way to immerse yourself in English. You hear the pronouncation, inflections, intonations, sentence structures and grammar the same way a child hears them - through your ears! This is the best and most natural way to absorb a language. 2. As you all know, written English really is different from spoken English. Audiobooks are a way to absorb the patterns of written English while driving, washing dishes, relaxing or anything else that leaves your ears free, while soaking up pronounciation patterns at the same time. 3. They're entertaining! For someone like me, who loves read but no longer has the time to sit down with a good book, audiobooks are way for me to enjoy a good story while I take care of my daughter, drive to work, or do household chores. Learning doesn't always have to be hard. It can be fun, too, and audiobooks are great proof of that. Now, next question: where to get them? Audiobooks are available at bookstores and at the public library. I asked the librarian at the San Mateo Public Library how to search for audiobooks online (at that particular library) and here's what she told me: (Note: if you use a different library, check your library's website and proceed accordingly.) Here's how to search for books-on-tape (and CD) in the San Mateo Public Library. On the basic search screen click on the limit button to limit your search to Library equals SMP (type SMP in the text box) then choose to search by Sound recording call # in the drop-down box on the first search screen. In the box that says enter a word or phrase enter one of the audiobook categories preceded by CAS or CD depending on which format you want: VA General Non-fiction VB Business & Finance VC History VD Adventure & Travel VE Biography & Autobiography VF Science & Health VG Self-help VH Humor VM Mythology & Folklore VN Classics VO General Fiction VP Mystery VQ Suspense & Horror VR Science Fiction & Fantasy VS Historical Fiction VT Western So to search for Westerns on cassette you would enter "CAS VT" and get a list of all the Westerns on tape. All right then, go out there and start listening! |