Business English Learners often want to listen to authentic English recordings whose content is related to business topics. The Web offers the advantage of up-to-dateness. The following list is intended to offer a variety of different types of listening in terms of length; style of content, e.g. news and commentary; and accent. All require the user’s computer to have RealMedia’s RealPlayer plug-in which is a free download available from:http://www.real.com
BBC World Service – World Business Review
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/business/webber.shtml
A fifteen-minute radio programme summarising the main international business stories.
BBC Working Lunch
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/working_lunch
A regular feature of BBC2 television’s daytime schedule. Working Lunch features factual, light-hearted, analysis of business and finance in the UK. Much of the listening is, in fact, video so benefits from a high-speed Internet connection. However, the language is rich in idiomatic expressions.
Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/media/radio/listen.html
Part of the web-site owned by the current mayor of New York. Listen to live reports from London, New York and Tokyo on the performance of their respective stock markets as well as general business news. The Bloomberg web-site also has a tv channel for those with a broadband connection. American accents all round at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/media/tv/index.html
National Public Radio – Business & High Tech
http://news.npr.org/business.html
Three to four-minute reports on business topics from America’s only commercial-free media outlet.
CBC – The Business Network
http://calgary.cbc.ca/biznet
A daily business programme from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Each programme features an interview (around 5 minutes) and a column (around three minutes).
ABC News Radio
http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/listen
Listen to rolling news reports on Australia’s main radio news station. At the moment they only provide a live feed.
Radio New Zealand International – Tradewinds
http://www.rnzi.com/audio/audio.shtml
Tradewinds is a 15 minute radio programme which reviews the week’s top business stories from New Zealand and the south Pacific region.
RTE News – OnBusiness
http://www.onbusiness.ie
Business news from the main Irish broadcaster. There is a choice of two programmes: OnBusiness Today and Tonight. Both are short (5 to 7 minutes) and cover the latest business stories.
Public tv
http://www.public.tv
Free access to high quality, authentic business presentations and other videos. Click on “Business” in the Video Categories list on the right.
If you have any suggestions for other similar links or find that any of these have changed or died please contact us: contact@te4be.com
