Exercises
Randall’s Cyber ESL Listening Lab at https://www.esl-lab.com
This offers a variety of exercises by level and topic, with audio or video, and with pre-listening, listening, and post-listening activities. This is a good model to follow if you are creating your own audio- or video-based exercises.
Breaking News English at http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/
This has lesson plans for teachers, as well as exercises for listening and reading and speaking activities for classroom use. There are hundreds of high-interest topics.
Listen and Write at https://www.listen-and-write.com
This website contains dictation exercises, mostly on current topics. It can be used as a self-study tool.
Listening and Skill Practice at https://esl.about.com/od/englishlistening/
Exercises for beginning, intermediate, and advanced learners; quizzes, lesson plans, and podcasts
ESL Video at https://www.eslvideo.com/
Videos with exercises; register to create your own
VOA Learning English at https://learningenglish.voanews.com/
Videos arranged by level and topic; beginning lessons are very basic.
Audio material
National Public Radio Podcasts at https://www.npr.org/podcasts
Huge library of National Public Radio (American English) podcasts on a variety of topics.
American English Online - Office of English Language Programs athttps://americanenglish.state.gov/
This includes links to songs, audio books, and more.
BBC podcasts at https://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/
Podcasts on a wide variety of topics.
Storynory at https://www.storynory.com/
Audio books for children.
LearnEnglishKids (BBC) at https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/listen-and-watch/
Links to songs and audio books for children.
Video: Ted Ed at https://ed.ted.com/
Short talks with exercises. See a sample at https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-americans-vote-on-tuesdays and https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-americans-and-canadians-celebrate-labor-day-kenneth-c-davis
For teachers
Dictation as a Language Learning Device at http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Alkire-Dictation.html
This article from ITESL-J gives some useful suggestions for using dictation to build listening skills.
Listening Activities for Effective Top-Down Processing at http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Lingzhu-Listening.html
This ITESL-J article offers suggested activities for building top-down listening skills.
VLC Media Player (download) at https://www.videolan.org/vlc/
This free program plays a variety of media. It can also slow down (or speed up) audio that it is playing - very helpful in teaching with authentic material. Test it by slowing down Supertalents, in the attachments below.
Green Tea Communication Skills OER
Open Educational Resource (OER) for an intermediate communication skills class - listening, speaking, and pronunciation. Quite a comprehensive collection of material that teachers can draw from freely; just credit the site. Many thanks to Portland Community College teachers for this resource!
Speaking practice
Voicethread at https://voicethread.com
Commercial product with a yearly or monthly license. Use a picture or other object as the focus, then ask learners to comment on it. Listen to everyone's comments at the end. See a sample at https://voicethread.com/share/3073977/
Podomatic at https://www.podomatic.com
This is a podcast site. You can have a class podcast page or ask students to create their own page. You need to create the audio file ahead of time; this site lets you upload audio, not create it. A page can have one recording or a series of recordings. You can listen without logging in, but you need an account to upload audio. Free or paid versions.
ESL Galaxy at https://www.esl-galaxy.com/speaking.html
Worksheets and games in PDF format for speaking.
Voki at https://www.voki.com
Create your own avatar. You can use text to speech, record your voice, or upload a file. Not for pronunciation, but lots of fun.
Recording programs
Vocaroo at https://vocaroo.com/
Record online and download the recording or email the link. Recordings are stored online only for a limited time, no longer than a few weeks. The easiest choice. See information about using Vocaroo (PDF).
Audacity - download from https://audacity.sourceforge.net
This is an audio recorder and editor. Edit digital recordings so that you’re focusing on a specific element in a long audio track; have students record themselves and email you their recordings or create podcasts; add audio comments to audio recordings from your students (a bit more complex). See information about using Audacity (PDF).
For teachers
Conversation Lesson Plans for English Learners athttps://www.thoughtco.com/top-esl-conversation-lessons-plans-1210391
This site contains several lesson plans for conversations; it also has a link to a page that contains many more.
Teaching Speaking: Activities to Promote Speaking in a Second Language at http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kayi-TeachingSpeaking.html
This ITESL-J article offers a number of useful techniques and activities.
Assessment with rubrics at http://rubistar.4teachers.org
Green Tea Communication Skills OER
Open Educational Resource (OER) for an intermediate communication skills class - listening, speaking, and pronunciation. Quite a comprehensive collection of material that teachers can draw from freely; just credit the site. Many thanks to Portland Community College teachers for this resource!
Exercises and activities
Authentic American Pronunciation at https://evaeaston.com
Extensive lessons and information. Learners need to know what they want to improve.
Sounds of English - Pronunciation at https://www.soundsofenglish.org/sounds
This website contains teaching tips and exercises for teaching pronunciation including word stress, stress and intonation, and how to pronounce specific words.
BBC - Pronunciation Tips at https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron
Find quizzes, radio programs, activities, and lessons on this website. An extensive collection!
Sounds of Speech at https://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/home
Also available as an app. These Flash-based web pages show areas of articulation and how to pronounce consonants, vowels, and dipthongs.
YouTube videos about pronunciation at https://www.youtube.com/user/evaeaston
Many videos that teachers or students could use.
Portland Community College resource page: https://www.pcc.edu/staff/sbanke/call/
Videos from PCC - scroll down the page to Mirror Pronunciation. It's got a focus on numbers and sounds.
For teachers
Pronuncian - Pronunciation Podcasts at https://www.pronuncian.com/Podcast
This website contains a number of podcasts about teaching pronunciation and pronouncing American English words.
Teaching Pronunciation at https://www.eslflow.com/pronunciationlessonplans.html
This website contains handouts, pronunciation exercises, and teaching tips.
Teaching Pronunciation by Eva Easton at https://evaeaston.com/links.html
YouTube videos and links to sites focused on teaching pronunciation.
Rebecca Linguist's American Accent Videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/rebeccalinquist/videos
Extensive collection of pronunciation-related videos; teachers can pick and choose the appropriate video for individual students. Includes some tips on pronunciation for speakers of individual languages.
Praat: Doing Phonetics by Computer at https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/
Download Praat from this site. It is a comprehensive tool for phonetic analysis, designed for those who are serious about research in linguistics. Help is available on the site, as well as user's manuals to download. This is an amazing program, especially since it's free.
12-step Pronunciation Program at https://www.deborahhealey.com/138/12steppronunciation.html
The first step is admitting that you have a problem. A series of steps for personal change.
Green Tea Communication Skills OER
Open Educational Resource (OER) for an intermediate communication skills class - listening, speaking, and pronunciation. Quite a comprehensive collection of material that teachers can draw from freely; just credit the site. Many thanks to Portland Community College teachers for this resource!
After you try each tool, write down when and how you might use it. What tasks would you give students?
You can download the Program Checklist and Planning Tool.doc file (in Files below) to your computer.
©2024, Healey. Last updated 3 April 2024. Teachers are welcome to use this site as long as the copyright information remains intact.