If, you find that one of the most commonly heard requests from your learners is to provide them with additional listening materials to study with outside of class, this post is definitely for you.
We’ve trawled the internet and the result of my extensive labors is the list of ten great resources you see below… enjoy!
1. Link Eng Park
This site doesn’t actually produce any of its own materials, but it’s as close as an encyclopedia of all ESL online listening materials as you’re ever likely to find. If you can’t find something here for your teaching context, you almost might as well stop searching!
Link Eng Park is a great resource for ELT podcasts.
Reasons to use this site:
▪ Free to use (as are all on this list unless otherwise stated)
▪ Organized according to various levels
▪ Many if not all include scripts of the listening
▪ Many video clips as well as regular audio
▪ Updated regularly
▪ Simple and effective search function
2. British Council Learn English Teens
The Listening skills practice section of this fantastic website enables learners to practice and improve listening skills for their school studies and English exams.
Reasons to use this site:
▪ It caters specifically for teenage learners
▪ The activities have been carefully prepared for different levels (according to CEF levels)
▪ There are interactive pre-listening vocabulary exercises
▪ Copious post-listening activities include true or false questions and gap fills
▪ Transcripts, worksheets and other downloadable materials are also available
▪ The site is regularly updated with new materials
▪ Materials are extremely high quality
▪ There’s an app
3. Elllo
Elllo provides a wealth of listening exercises in video or audio format. What I particularly like about this one is that the listening exercises feature English speakers of different nationalities, meaning your learners are exposed to a variety of English accents like Australian, South African and Scottish among others.
Reasons to use this site:
▪ Search results are given by level, topic, country or media
▪ There is an option that allows you choose from games, audio or video
▪ All of the exercises come with vocabulary lists, additional exercises or quizzes, as well as download links
4. Easy Listening for Kids
This website has a nice collection of short and easy listening activities that are particularly suited to young learners.
Reasons to use this site:
▪ Each audio track comes with the text for reading
▪ There are vocabulary lists and exercises your young learners won’t have any trouble completing
▪ There’s even a second website with additional listening exercises for children
5. BBC Insight Plus – Talk about English
This is an older site (and no longer updated), but a great resource for learners of academic English. It features lectures on many typical academic subjects, such as global warming, economics and drug use.
Fantastic resources for Academic English learners.
Reasons to use this site:
▪ Each lecture contains a variety of accents
▪ The resources are downloadable and a script is full script is available in most cases
▪ The subjects are very relevant to academic English
▪ Although not updated any more, this site links to many other free English listening resources on the BBC website for Business English, etc.
6. ESL Cyber Listening Lab
The original online ESL listening resource (this site has been going strong since 1998); still worth a mention after all these years. Teacher Randall Davis put together this very impressive site, filled with listening quizzes.
Reasons to use this site:
▪ There are quizzes divided into Easy, Medium and Difficult levels
▪ Each quiz comes with a pre-listening activity, a multiple-choice quiz based on the listening and post-listening activities that include vocabulary exercises
▪ A wide range of ready-to-use listening activities for any level
▪ Good to assign for homework
7. Newsy
Newsy features short news segments on a wide variety of topics including business and entertainment, as well as international and US news.
Reasons to use this site:
▪ Provides real-life listening practice on topical themes
▪ Each video is posted with a transcript of the news report, giving ESL learners the choice of just listening, or listening and reading
▪ Great for learners who need something a bit more challenging
▪ The site offers an app for iPhone, iPad and Android
8. Voice of America
Voice of America is a multimedia platform that delivers news to English learners across the globe.
Reasons to use this site:
▪ The site offers a Mobile Wordbook that teaches learners how to say and use a word in a sentence
▪ Each video is less than three minutes long and includes subtitles
▪ The audio and video are public domain, which means you can legally use the files in the classroom and also download them
▪ Downloads are in video format and as MP3 files that learners can listen to anywhere
▪ There’s app for iPhone and Android
9. Talk English
Talk English has a great range of listening lessons (hundreds of dialogues at different levels) for Basic, Intermediate and Advanced learners.
Reasons to use this site:
▪ The site offers multiple choice quizzes and learners can also read a script of the audio
▪ Teachers and learners can use the website online for free; alternatively you can pay a small one-time fee for unlimited downloads
▪ There’s an app for iPhone and Android
10. ESL Fast
ESL Fast offers a copious number of short stories with audio and text for intermediate learners; the sheer number of stories available is quite ridiculous!
Reasons to use this site:
▪ There’s a vocabulary list for each listening, plus a variety of exercises, including dictations
▪ The site also offers easy conversations for beginner ESL learners
▪ ‘Mike the Robot’ is a cute character who replies to questions and statements learners type into a dialogue box, creating an a kind of virtual dialogue with learners