Listening

There are many listening websites available on the web these days, especially those that are geared towards English language learners. To access the listening material your computer will need to have either Real Player or Windows Media Player installed.

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab

This website contains many listening quizzes on a range of topics and is graded at three levels: easy, medium and difficult. Transcripts of each listening quiz is available to students who want to check on difficult vocabulary.

English Listening Language Lab Online

This is an online listening resource with activities designed especially for English language learners. Most listening activities include images, an interactive quiz, transcripts of the audio and downloadable mp3s. Listening activities are updated on a weekly basis and contain a variety of accents.

English Online - Interactive English Listening Exercises

This website contains a variety of interesting listening exercises, some of which require a fast internet connection as you are required to download rather large video files. By far the best listening activity there is the fairy stories text reconstruction exercises which require language learners to listen and type in the words they hear until they complete the story.

BBC Four - A-Z interviews

This site contains a large collection of short interviews of famous people such as Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean fame), Pele and Steven Spielberg just to name a few. The interviews are organised in alphabetical order and each one is broken into small chunks of a few minutes, making it easier to listen to.

Learning English with CBC 

This site contains various listening exercises developed by CBC Ottawa which are aimed at a range of English second language learners. Language learners can choose clips based on their interest in a topic or on the level of difficulty. 

English Media Lab - Listening

This site contains links to listening exercises on a range of topics including daily activities, a job interview and buying a train ticket. Many of the listening texts are aimed at elementary learners.

English Trailers 

This is a fun website aimed at English language learners consisting of a variety of listening exercises based on movie trailers. To watch the trailers, you need to have Quicktime installed (which is available for free).

BBC Video Nation 

An excellent collection of short videos on a variety of topics that reflect life in the United Kingdom. New videos are featured on a regular basis and anyone can create and submit their own video to the website.

PBS Frontline

This site consists of a collection of streaming videos which were broadcast by PBS on television. This website is not aimed at English language learners and is therefore challenging. It is recommended for learners who have a high level of English. Transcripts of the videos are also available.

NPR (National Public Radio)

This link takes you to an archive of the latest radio programs from NPR. There are transcripts available with some programs and there are downloadable podcasts. The language used in the extracts are not graded and is therefore quite challenging. This is a useful site for advanced learners of English.

Breaking News English

This site contains downloadable podcasts on a topic from the news. Stories are updated daily and can be listened to on the website or downloaded to be played on an mp3 player. There are two levels available for lower and higher intermediate levels and listening activities including true or false questions and vocabulary exercises. Lessons can also be printed out.

English Listening Lounge

This website contains passages with people speaking in English about their interests. The passages range from easy for beginners, and more difficult passages for advanced students.

Interesting things for ESL students: Listening

This website contains links to listening quizzes such as dictation and "listen and answer", which allows students to listen to a sentence and select an appropriate response. Recommended for students at lower levels of English.