Listening to Audio Help

Listening

We have provided sound clip versions of the role plays, idioms and other parts of the ESL Corner.

Wherever a sound clip is available, you will see this symbol, . To listen to the sound clips you simply need to click on the symbol.

A new, small window will pop open and, in a few seconds, the audio should start playing automatically. Click on "Play Again" to hear the clip more than once. When you are done, close the pop-up window.

If the sound clip does not play automatically, click on the "Can't Hear It? Try Here" link inside the pop-up window. This will open your default audio player and play the clip.

The speed of your connection to the Internet will make a difference to the time it takes to load the audio clip. If you're using a slow internet connection you will find that the audio clip may take longer to download.

Please be patient.

What you need to listen - the technical stuff

Our audio clips are in .WAV and MP3 format. Many media players can play these files.

Most computers come with a 'media player' already installed (such as Windows Media Player), which should automatically play the audio file. You may have installed other audio/video software, such as Quicktime, Real Audio, Winamp, etc., which also play these files.

Your web browser also needs to be configured to automatically play sound files with your audio player. This is normal and you should not have to change anything. You also need to have JavaScript enabled on your computer so that the pop-up window will open. The sound clip will not play unless the pop-up window opens.

Of course, your computer must be able to play sounds (your computer needs to have a sound card) and you need to have your computer speakers or headphones and the volume on.

Saving the audio files

You can download the audio files to listen to any time you want on your computer. To do this, right-click on the link in the pop-up window and click on "save target" in Internet Explorer or "save link as" in Firefox.

Select (and remember) where you want the file saved. When it is finished downloading you can double-click on the saved file to play it with your default audio player.

You can then listen to the file any time you want.

Problems

If you've found a broken link or other technical problem, please email our Web Coordinator and we will fix it as soon as possible.