Free listening resources (for both teaching and testing)

This document has been divided into the following sections:

- For learners of all ages

- If you teach young learners
- If you teach teenagers
- If you teach CLIL (with children or teenagers)
- If you teach adults
- Other ideas

For learners of all ages

https://www.audio-lingua.eu/?lang=en – Short audio clips recorded by volunteers in

different languages and sorted into levels. Using the Advanced Search function you
can choose audio suitable for your students.

If you teach young learners

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/listen-watch - This link will bring you

directly to the audio and video resources, but it’s worth exploring other sections of
this website too (e.g. reading practice, grammar). There is also a YouTube channel
linked to this website: https://www.youtube.com/user/BritishCouncilLEKids

https://www.eslfast.com/ - There are a few sections of this website which are suitable
for children (Start Reading for Children 1 - 2 - 3). Each short story is read very slowly
and includes a cloze task and key vocabulary.

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/storyteller-videos and http://www.storylineonline.net/

These are useful if you teach advanced children (e.g. in a bilingual school). If your
pupils like stories, you can also check out the website of The Hands Up Project
(suitable for teenagers too), combining storytelling, drama and English language
learning (https://handsupproject.org/). Also, you can look for stories for children on
YouTube, there are a lot of dedicated YouTube channels, such as the following:

Pink Penguiny
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZkcykp9VHdz0ZRF-2yu4zA

Story Time with Ms Becky

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5viuqo241Zs3fEZ4Q0oxDg

Books read aloud for children

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVRxOtQqiFoWEaQ_uTKe4jw
If you teach teenagers

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice - This link will

bring you directly to listening skills practice, but you can find lots of valuable
materials on this website for other skills too. They also have a YouTube channel
here: https://www.youtube.com/user/BCLearnEnglishTeens

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround - If your students are B1 and above this can be

useful, unfortunately most of the videos will be too difficult for A1 – A2 levels.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/education/highlights/curations/zpbdxfr - Tips from teenagers

and experts about school, studying and exams (both as videos and written text). For
advanced learners.

https://www.ted.com/talks?q=tedyouth&sort=newest – TED talks specifically

addressed to teenagers. Suitable from B1 level onwards.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldserviceradio – News and programmes from all over the

world, some designed for teenagers as well. It can be useful to train students to
understand different accents (including non-native accents). There are videos and
audios with subtitles and some use a very easy language (for example the Outlook
inspiration 2018 series), which makes them suitable for students from A2 level
onwards.

If you teach CLIL

(with children or teenagers)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/curations/bitesize-on-cbeebies - Short animations

aimed at younger children. Please note, the language has not been calibrated for
ESL learners, but some of the videos might be suitable for the end of primary school.

https://www.bbc.com/education - Video lessons for primary and secondary school

children. Again, the language has not been calibrated for ESL learners, but some of
the videos might be useful to link language learning to different subjects.

https://ed.ted.com/lessons - Short lessons on a wide range of topics, with activities

and suggestions to learn more.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education - National Geographic Education

website, with teaching resources suitable for listening and reading skills.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/shows/horrible-histories - Popular CBBC program for

children. There is also a YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw9mXdTejPuOhE7eHSWLIKA.

https://www.youtube.com/user/havefunteaching - YouTube channel with fun songs

linked to different subjects.
If you teach adults

(most of these resources can suit secondary school students as well)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish - A lot of different programs and language

courses, most of them offer also ready-made activities that you can easily adapt for
your students. Suitable for all different levels. There is also a YouTube channel
linked to this website that you might find useful:
https://www.youtube.com/user/BritishCouncilLE The British Council also has several
other YouTube channels, often linked to specific countries. You might find a lot of
interesting materials there as well.

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/learning-english/activities-for-learners - These
activities are designed as additional practice for Cambridge English exams, including
(but not limited to) listening practice for different levels of the CEFR. You can select
the skill you want to practice, the level and the length of the activity.

http://lessonstream.org/lessons/ - Lesson plans and teaching activities for listening

and other skills by Jamie Keddie. Most of the lessons are suitable for adults or young
adults, but you can select the age of your learners and there are materials suitable
for teens and children as well (possibly with some adaptation).

https://www.ted.com/talks and https://www.ted.com/watch/tedx-talks - These are

useful especially to practice extended listening, some of the talks resemble mini-
lectures, so if you are preparing students for university this can be very useful.

If you are interested in academic listening and lessons, you can find a lot of material
on YouTube (these videos can be very long, so you might not want to use whole
videos but just short sections). Many universities have their own YouTube channel
and upload academic lessons and other videos. If you are preparing students for
studying in an English speaking country, these channels often have a lot of other
videos about different aspects of students’ life that might also be interesting for you.
These are some channels you might start with:

Oxford University Department for Continuing Education

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M14ReHfPFUw

Oxford University
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK8f1CUe8y403u3b0gCINww

Cambridge University
https://www.youtube.com/user/CambridgeUniversity

The University of Edinburgh

https://www.youtube.com/user/EdinburghUniversity

Yale Courses
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4EY_qnSeAP1xGsh61eOoJA
MIT Open Courseware
https://www.youtube.com/user/MIT

Harvard University
https://www.youtube.com/user/Harvard

The University of Melbourne

https://www.youtube.com/user/unimelb

University of Auckland
https://www.youtube.com/user/UNIofAUCKLAND

http://www.esl-lab.com/ - Listening quizzes with pre- and post-listening activities,

including vocabulary and grammar exercises. Divided into three levels (easy,
medium and difficult).

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/ - News and language lessons from beginner

level to upper intermediate. Each story includes a quiz and some key vocabulary.
Transcriptions are also provided.

http://www.elllo.org/index.htm - Audio and video materials of different levels featuring

a variety of different accents, with listening exercises, printable worksheets and
lesson plans.

http://www.talkenglish.com/listening/listen.aspx - Listening lessons (dialogues) for

basic, intermediate and advanced level. They all include a quiz and transcription of
the dialogue.

https://www.eslfast.com/ - Short stories and dialogues for beginner and intermediate

level. Each audio track includes a cloze task and key vocabulary.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldserviceradio - News and programmes from all over the

world. It can be useful to train students to understand different accents (including
non-native accents). There are videos and audios with subtitles and some use a very
easy language (for example the Outlook inspiration 2018 series), which makes them
suitable for students from A2 level onwards. As BBC World Service offers news in 39
languages, you can also ask your students to compare a certain piece of news in
English with the same topic in their own language (or another language they learn). It
can be a useful exercise to see how things are discussed in different languages.

https://breakingnewsenglish.com/index.html - These are current news stories for

different levels with ready-made teaching activities. Useful for mixed ability classes if
you have a linguistic lab (the audio file is different as well, not just the teaching
activities). Under ‘Multi-speed listening lessons’ you will also find the same news
stories recorded at different speeds.

If your students like listening to the news, you can also have a look at these
dedicated Youtube channels (most of them suitable for B2 and above, only a few for
B1 and B1+):
BBC News https://www.youtube.com/user/bbcnews

BBC Click https://www.youtube.com/user/ClickBBC

BBC Newsbeat https://www.youtube.com/user/Radio1Newsbeat

Other ideas

Explore websites of publishers and exam boards, look out especially for specimen
and free materials.

Subscribe to newsletters from publishers – for example, Oxford University Press

regularly send additional teaching materials suitable for those who use their books.
And even if you use different books, you might find something useful.

Other useful websites, although not specific to listening are:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
http://esol.britishcouncil.org/content/teachers
https://www.britishcouncil.org/english/learn-online
They are all worth exploring.

You can also have a look at podcasts, such as these:

https://esl.culips.com/
https://player.fm/podcasts/Efl
https://www.podcastsinenglish.com/
These contain free sample materials (but some materials might be available only
with a subscription, which might not be free).

Generally very good are podcasts from BBC World Service and BBC Learning
English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts (or use any podcast app on your device).