Love to listen

This week's column is by Language Editor Joanna Westcombe.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could have a radio or a TV as your one luxury, which would you take? I know what I'd want. My clock-radio wakes me with the headlines; my internet radio tunes into the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 while I'm making my morning tea; and the Radio Box app on my smartphone gives me news and comment as I cycle to and from work.

The radio set is covetable again, now that it's digital and internet-connected. Radio reaches places that TV can't (and shouldn't), such as the car, the garden and the bathroom. And while TV has to keep developing new entertainment formats and special effects to keep its viewers, radio can concentrate on delivering good content to its audiences. This can be high-quality drama and documentaries or old favourites such as Desert Island Discs, 70 years old next year, in which guests choose their favourite pieces of music, a book and one luxury they wouldn't want to live without.

Think, too, about the connections in your brain that have to happen when you have no visual input. You fill in the visual information yourself: a place that is being described, a sequence of events, the gestures a speaker might be making. At the same time, your mind is free to wander down pathways, whether into the past or into a landscape. This is much more involving, and much less distracting, than when you're shown everything in pictures. So listening is good for you.

In a foreign language, though, all those unknown words and confusing sound combinations get in the way, so listening is a skill that needs practice. In this month's cover story in Spotlight, we introduce you to a listening test from telc. You may want to make sure you are fully awake with a cup of tea ready before you start — and I don't recommend doing it in the car, garden or bathroom (or with the radio on). But just think: when your skills are ready, there's a world of English to connect to, out there, inside your radio set.

*Don't have your copy of the August Spotlight yet? Get one here free!