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Old 02-23-2003, 08:17 AM   #4 (permalink)
Erin
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Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: USA
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Great questions! First, of course the best thing for TOEFL prep is real TOEFL questions, right? Right! There are many differences between TOEFL material and other listening materials/sources.

Your other source is correct about the aims of commercial broadcasts (may I ask to whom you're referring? Just curious...)--they must appeal to audiences and get their message across quickly and "painlessly." This is the nature of commercial media. Advertisements are the same way.

About the various broadcasts: I've never actually heard any VOA broadcast, and BBC uses British English, so will not be nearly as helpful as broadcasts in American English. CNN is closer to TOEFL English, but still quite different for several reasons--the reports are relatively short and often not scripted. NPR is a bit more similar to TOEFL--the reports are more in-depth and are scripted, but the level of English is a bit higher than that of the TOEFL.

Finally, movies may have the most realistic portrayal of how we really speak, but of course are one of the most difficult things to understand. I don't don't think movies are nearly as helpful as are these other broadcasts I've mentioned, at least for people who want to focus directly on listening similar to that on the TOEFL.
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