Listening can be a challenge even for experienced ESL students. Scoring high on a grammar quiz may be a piece of cake, but it’s not always easy to make out every word a native speaker says - especially when that speaker is talking at normal speed, without pauses between words. Even so, listening is a crucial component of modern ESL teaching, right up there with grammar, speaking, and writing. If you want to teach your class effectively, you need to teach them listening.
The question of how, exactly to approach that, though, isn’t always clear. Some teachers sit at the front of the classroom and speak in slow, measured tones, as the students write out every word they say. Others bring in CDs or play online videos, and ask the students to transcribe as many words as they can catch. Still others encourage their students to speak naturally with each other, and write down what their partners say. Many teachers try to combine all these approaches, so students will get the most varied listening exposure possible.
Whatever your approach - or set of approaches - to listening exercises, BusyTeacher.org has worksheets just for you. Our 2,950 listening worksheets will provide your class with all kinds of opportunities to work with spoken English in all its forms, and gain exposure to a variety of regional accents, speaking speeds, and topics. By the time you’ve gone through a few of these worksheets with your class, you’ll start to see distinct improvement in many of your students’ listening skills.
The exercises offered on our listening worksheets come in a wide range of formats - from exercises in which students transcribe interviews with celebrities, to ones in which they listen to popular songs or even read-aloud poems. Some are targeted at lower-level students, and just ask the listeners to fill in the missing words from a short sample of dialogue. Others are targeted at higher-level students, and encourage them to write or talk about their reactions to the themes and ideas presented in a longer conversation.
No matter which level or style of exercise you use, you can be sure that it’s already been tested and found to work in a classroom like yours. That’s because every worksheet on BusyTeacher.org has been created by ESL teachers just like you, and used in real classrooms all over the world. As a matter of fact, if you’ve created a worksheet that’s worked well in your own classroom, our community would love for you to share it - just click the “Submit a worksheet” button at the bottom of this page, and send it our way!
As you browse down this page, you’ll notice that all the worksheets are visible in a small thumbnail view, so you can get a general idea of what each one looks like before you download it. This time-saving twist lets you glance over all our worksheets, and just grab the ones that interest you the most. Plus, every one of our 2,950 listening worksheets is completely free to download, print, and use in your classroom. So scroll on down, print some out, and give them a whirl in your classroom today!
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A conversation and lesson about getting in shape while stuck inside. A YouTube video with vocabulary, expressions and conversation starters to talk about the current global pandemic. Being produc ...
This worksheet is useful when working with younger children. It's visual. No words. The idea is to captivate student's interest and work on vocabulary and comprehension activities after watching ...
This handout is for the 2005 movie based on the book, Pride & Prejudice. This worksheet has listed vocabulary and definitions for each of four scenes. There are a few questions for each scene ...
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I just love the song Nothing Breaks Like a Heart - Miley Cyrus and Mark Ronson and I had to do a worksheet. There are different while-listening activites (order the lines, choose the correct word ...
This 26 minute Frosty the Snowman animated video is a classic from 1969. This worksheet is for pre-intermediate and up. It's in eight parts with each part's approximate start and end time listed. ...
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This is designed for a two-hour class. I first use the quiz to see what the students know about Thanksgiving. Then they read the text and work on the questions. At the end, we work on the two sho ...
First, students have to guess/look up the meaning of some words connected to Halloween or scary things. Then they have to complete the lyrics of the theme song of The Addams Family with those wor ...
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Don't stress about lesson preparation! My 1 HOUR lessons use short English TV video clips and cover speaking, listening, vocabulary and comprehension. Download the lesson for cl ...
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