Since 2018, Tim Krause has been adapting Oregon-based news stories for beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels on ESOL News Oregon. Those readings come with interactive questions to review vocabulary, details, main ideas, and additional language features. They are a great resource, and older archived articles often are just as applicable today.
In 2019, I started narrating and sharing some of these articles. These can be helpful for students who want to read and listen, to help them follow the meaning or pronunciation. They could also be adapted for listening comprehension activities.
The narrated news articles are all shared on SoundCloud. The links can be shared directly, or embedded in a web page. Tim has gone back and added the audio to his site, too – you can look for the articles that have little sound icons next to them.
Here’s a list of the ten most recent files — there are 45 of them in total, as of the time I’m writing this. Most are 1-3 minutes long.
The audio can also be accessed through Apple Podcasts and Google Music podcasts. This is a fast way for students with smartphones to access, download, and keep this content, which is all licensed under a Creative Commons open license to share with attribution for non-commercial purposes.
These days, I’m more interested in supporting others to do this kind of work. Davida Jordan, one of my coworkers at PCC, has already recorded three great articles. Please reach out to me if you’re interested in contributing.