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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'Have you ever?' by Brandy is the best song I have found so far with the continual use of the present perfect tense throughout the song. It is at a reasonable speed and sung clearly to allow inter ...
"Smooth" is a collaboration between Santana and Rob Thomas of the rock group Matchbox Twenty. The song was written by Rob Thomas and Itaal Shur and sung by Thomas. Originally conceived by Shur as ...
The activity is based on the episode called "Lisa's first word". It's an easy activity. There are: match the columns, answer the question and "who says what" exercises. Elementary and pre-intermed ...
This is a video activity about an episode of Friends. The name of the episode is Unagi and it is on the 6th season. The exercises are short, but the language isn't very easy. There are true or fal ...
A video activity using the beginning of one episode of the simpsons. There are vocabulary activities and activities to explain a situation. The activity isn't easy, I needed to explain many parts ...
The yellow submarine by the beatles is completely a special one if put together with some TPR ... It helps the teacher recycle the smartest way & not the hardest way... it's one of the oldies ...
Great song, My students loved it... It's great to introduce the concept of IDIOMS and discuss a few. I prepared this class for spanish-speaker students who can easily find equivalents in their m ...
Great Song! This worksheet will add to your lessons if you are discussing FEELINGS & EMOTIONS... Good for practising ADJECTIVE + PREPOSITION collocations and at the same time having fun with s ...
This worksheet deals with Simple Present (routines) Good to revise/practise spelling and frequency adverbs and expressions. First students fill in the gaps, then they listen and check and finally ...
I used this worksheet after reading Rumpelstiltskin with my 10-12 year old sts. Can you imagine their excitement when they realized Rumpelstiltskin and Shrek met! What's the matter with Shrek? Wha ...
This 12-page worksheet here contains 4 full tests: Vocabulary, Phrasal Verbs, Structure Test and Listening (no audio though, sorry!).
Each test is pretty big and takes several pages. I would say ...
This is an alternative worksheet for the song 'baby' by Justin Bieber. The other worksheet for this song (on this website) is primarily a gap-fill/listening exercise, this one has a gap-fill as we ...
I've used this after reading the story of King Arthur. This worksheet includes various activities to do before and after watching "The Sword in the Stone"( matching, gap-filling and answering q ...
This is another option if you want to have a 'fix you' lesson (there's already a very good lesson on this website for this song). This lesson is aimed at the lower spectrum of students compared to ...
This worksheet includes various activities to do before and while listening (gap-filling, re ordering sentences, correcting mistakes. I've used it with teenagers at elementary level and it worked ...
This worksheet is to be used with a snippet (scene 5) from Ice Age. Intended for kids who had a movie project going on, it teaches the words for the animals in the video and recycles "talking abou ...
This worksheet refers to the Global Deejay's song "Sound of San Francisco", but the video contains nudity scenes. It's a simple quick listening for details task. There's a list of cities and stude ...
To be used with the video clip for Nickelback's hit "Photograph". Intended for teens. The worksheet starts with a discussion of their childhood, recycling "used to" and teaching some related to ex ...
I'd strongly advise against showing the video clip to a group of teens because it shows drugs and other non PC stuff. However, the song is fine, and this worksheet is intended for that age group. ...
This worksheet is for the Rembrandt's "I'll be there for you", best known as the theme song for the sitcom "Friends". It focuses on reported speech for advanced learners, but it also works on the ...
A major hit with adults, this worksheet is for Frank Sinatra or Liza Minelli's "New York, New York". It starts with listening for the gist. Then it works on the meaning of some expressions from th ...
This worksheet is for Ne-Yo's hit "So sick". It basically works on the vocabulary the lyrics bring up, but with a focus on collocations and with expressions that denote impatience. Intended for teens.
This worksheet is for Supergrass's song "Alright". It was intended as a brief lead-in to the topic of ages. Before the discussion, students work quickly on the lyrics by replacing words for their ...
This worksheet is to be used with Mariah's Carey song "Shake it off". it focuses on multiword verbs. First, it works on the concept of "off" in multiword verbs. Then it asks the student to substit ...
This worksheet contains activities for you to work with kids after watching Madagascar 2. Students will work with vocabulary of wild animals, their physical description, adjectives to describe per ...
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