BBC Learning English is a department of the BBC World Service devoted to English language teaching.
The service provides free resources and activities for teachers and students, primarily through its website. It also produces radio programmes which go out on some of the BBC World Service's language services and partner stations. It has won numerous awards, including two Eltons from the British Council and an English Speaking Union award for innovation in English language teaching.
The department was established in 1943. Since then, it changed name multiple times, for example "English by Radio" (or ExR), "English by Radio and Television" and "BBC English", before arriving at "BBC Learning English" as it is known today. BBC World Service started broadcasting English language teaching programmes in 1945. There were programmes for beginners, for intermediate and advanced learners, for adult learners and children. There were number of series for teaching language comprehension with a help of song lyrics, such as Pop Words. It was usual for the major broadcasters in the 1950s to have a programme teaching the language of the country the broadcaster served.
References
Australian Idioms vs English Idioms: The Staff Challenge! - Dan wants to challenge the BBC Learning English staff to see how well they understand Australian English idioms. See how well they do! Do you want to learn how to speak English? Then join...
External links
- bbclearningenglish.com BBC Learning English
- An example of song lyrics to aid teaching language comprehension - from "The Road to Nashville"