When learning a foreign language, we pursue two main goals: to understand someone else’s speech and to be able to speak it. To do this, we learn vocabulary and master grammar, but understanding the language will not be perfect if we do not conduct listening tests in English for beginners. Listening to foreign speech is an important factor, because we speak and listen much more often than we write. When and why you should include audio lessons in your schedule, as well as how to conduct such classes correctly, we will tell you in today’s material.
Since school, we have become accustomed to the fact that English lessons involve working with texts and grammar. Many students have become victims of this standard: they have knowledge, but the language is perceived only in writing, i.e. the person himself does not speak English, and cannot understand the speech of a foreigner. To avoid this state of affairs, it is imperative to include listening in the teaching methodology.
Listening is listening to various audio recordings in order to develop an understanding of a foreign language, as well as improve related skills. Simply put, this is all the information that we perceive by ear: audio books and dialogues in English, songs, TV series, lines of characters in games, etc. What does this method of study give us?
- ability to understand “live”, spoken speech;
- quick memorization of vocabulary;
- improving your own pronunciation;
- development of “linguistic” conjecture.
A linguistic guess is an understanding of the meaning of an unfamiliar word based on the perception of the rest of the context.
In addition, listening is one of the mandatory elements of the language exam. Without this skill, you will not be able to obtain a certificate and document your level of knowledge.
Now, having dispelled all doubts about the significance of this educational element, let's talk about when to start such classes. The answer is simple - from the very beginning level. Today you can easily find English audio dialogues for beginners and materials that help with listening for children. And if such learning is within the power of a child, then even more so for adults. The main thing is to approach the organization of the lesson correctly.
How to conduct listening tests in English for beginners?
Where to start classes, how a listening lesson should be taught and examples of materials - you will find all this in this section.
Preparation
Whether you are explaining English to children or just starting to learn it on your own, in any case, before you start audio lessons, you need to do some preparatory work.
The most important thing is to choose the right material. Audio recordings must fully correspond to the student’s level of preparation. If you are a beginner and learning English for beginners, then when choosing lessons, pay attention to the following points:
- Vocabulary – for comfortable listening you need to know at least 90% of the words.
- Speed and clarity of pronunciation - for beginners this is a very important point, because... It is difficult for them to perceive a fast pace of speech or listen to a recording with noise and defects.
- The topic is that many do not pay due attention to this point, and in vain. Uninteresting material will not be perceived or remembered at all. Or it may even play a bad joke, completely discouraging the desire to engage in listening. Therefore, try to choose audio recordings on topics close to you.
- Duration – the optimal duration of one dialogue for beginners does not exceed 5 minutes. For the first lessons, it is better to select several recordings, each of which lasts 2-3 minutes. For children, audio with dialogues usually lasts 1-2 minutes.
Other English topics: Learn to count in English from 0 to 1,000,000 with translation and pronunciation
Also, do not forget that listening does not necessarily have to be based on educational materials. Listen to interesting podcasts, favorite songs, delve into the dialogues of TV series characters, work with audio books, and, if your level of knowledge allows, you can even communicate “live” with native speakers.
Conducting a lesson
Listening in English for children and beginners requires maximum concentration. Therefore, it is better to conduct the first classes in a calm home environment. When working with your child, also try to neutralize all factors that distract his attention: TV, toys, telephone, etc.
Before you start recording, prepare a pen and paper to write down unfamiliar words and make notes on the content. But don’t rush to pause playback when you hear a new expression. First listen to the end of the recording, it is likely that you can guess its meaning based on your understanding of the overall context.
After listening to all the material, find out in the dictionary the meaning of words and expressions you do not understand. You can check their spelling with the text version of the entry. Having eliminated the gaps in knowledge, listen to the lesson again and check how much you have now mastered the content of the topic presented.
The same plan is used to conduct audio classes for children. Just don’t forget that English is taught to children in an entertaining and playful way, so it’s better to use colorful videos with English voice acting.
Materials
Armed with all the tips presented, let's try to conduct the first practical lesson.
For adults
StudyOffice
A series of funny videos from the life of office workers will help you get started with speaking English. We present the very first of them. Please note that you first listen to only English speech, then a brief explanation of difficult vocabulary, and finally the dialogue is repeated, but with subtitles.
Other English topics: Audiobooks in English for beginners: 8 adapted books for easy learning
An easy and understandable video made according to all the canons of listening lessons - just what those who are trying their hand at listening comprehension for the first time need.
Going on holiday
A short video about preparations for a planned trip. The material uses popular basic vocabulary, and most sentences are constructed in the Present Continuous aspect. The video is provided with text, but unlike the previous video, here you have to work with unfamiliar words on your own. But this is not bad, because writing out and searching for translations allows you to quickly remember new words and expressions.
Remember when we said that listening material can be very different? So, we invite you to try your hand at listening to audiobooks. As an example, here is a video with an English short story, adapted for an initial level of knowledge. The video provides the text, as well as translation and transcription of words that may cause difficulties.
For children
Three cats
A colorful video about a girl and her kittens will help teach English to children. A small task has been added to the lesson, which is voiced by the announcer in Russian, so that the children will understand exactly what they need to do. And additional pictures with captions of the main words will easily help children cope with the task. Self-testing was also not ignored: at the end of the video, full answers to the questions posed are given.
AttheZoo
With this funny cartoon, kids will repeat and remember vocabulary on the topic “animals”, as well as become familiar with adjectives and verbs. The kids will definitely not get bored while watching it, because this is a full-fledged cartoon with various colorful characters. You don’t have to worry about understanding the essence of the video either, because... The video sequence allows you to intuitively understand even unfamiliar phrases and words. The video is also accompanied by subtitles: if you encounter an unfamiliar word, press pause and rewrite the written phrase.
Timetable
This video is suitable for elementary school students. The video talks about the list of planned tasks and the time of their implementation. Simple vocabulary is used, but there will be no difficulties even with new words: their meaning will be clear from the accompanying video. At the end of the video there are also several practice tasks with answers.
Good luck in your studies and see you again!
Why is listening so important? Because for successful communication you need to speak and hear. If you understand everything, but don’t speak, you can still be perceived as a pleasant interlocutor. But if you only speak and do not understand at all what is being said to you in English, it is worth improving your listening skills.
It happens like this: you have a vocabulary, you know how to speak (with the teacher in class), you know grammar, but when faced with a foreigner you cannot make out a single word. Either his accent is outlandish, or his pronunciation is bad, or his rate of speech borders on the speed of light. You frantically remember a story wandering around social networks about a Chinese teacher who taught students a fictitious language for six years. Don’t panic, this doesn’t mean that you learned the wrong language, it’s just that your listening skills are not developed. The ability to perceive English speech by ear also needs to be trained. We offer you a selection of resources for such training.
Level Elementary or A1
You know a few words in English.
| Podcast | Description |
| British Council resource for beginners. The good thing is that the announcers speak live English, clear diction |
|
| The resource will help you practice pronunciation, improve vocabulary and grammar, listening |
|
| Audio recordings for listening and assignments on various topics |
|
| Podcasts no more than 10 minutes, the material is dictated very well |
|
| Podcasts with a slow reading pace, which are suitable for beginners |
Level Pre-Intermediate or A2
You understand something in English and can even carry on a conversation.| Podcast | Description |
| Get to know the pronunciation of native speakers, learn idioms and necessary phrases in English |
|
| Classic training course from the Air Force. The course is centered on a story from dialogues, whose development is interesting to follow |
|
| The resource contains materials on 8 main topics, having studied which is much easier for you will perceive English-language information aurally |
|
| American media resource, where you can find Learning English Broadcast – section for those who have started learning English. The speaker has clear diction and a slow pace of speech. |
|
| The resource contains a huge amount of materials with various types of pronunciations. |
Intermediate or B1 level
You are already watching TV series in English, but with subtitles for now
| Podcast | Description |
| The resource provides examples American English |
|
| A selection of materials from the BBC, every podcast - no more than 6 minutes |
|
| Luke Thompson - comedian teacher from the UK. He discusses interesting topics on his website. Listening to Luke is fun and exciting, and most importantly - useful. |
|
| A selection of news for everyone, who is learning English |
|
| Lots of interesting podcasts in mp3 format |
Upper-Intermediate or B2 level
You understand almost everything you hear in English
Advanced or C1 level
You are a Jedi in English, but you don't want to stop there.
We wish you successful immersion in English! Friends, if you see that there are not enough podcasts and you need to improve your English at school, go to our section and choose the best one for yourself.Learning English is a complex process. Along with face-to-face lessons at school, university or courses, it is convenient and easy to learn English one-on-one with a teacher via Skype in an online school. But for curious students and those who like to learn new things in an interactive and entertaining way,
Internet sites for learning English are an indispensable part of learning. And if tasks for Reading or Writing are always in textbooks and are not difficult to find, then you need to look for resources with scripts for the formation of skills and the development of listening skills, that is, Listening. I propose to make a brief overview of sites for listening in English, to which you can always return. Review the list, listen to tracks on one site, go to another, combine different sites for listening while learning a language. After all, regular listening to English speech is the key to your fluency in speech.
So, for the development of Listening Comprehension skills, the following resources are indispensable assistants for both the teacher and the student:
- Digital Trends - short, bright videos with scripts.
- ESL Cyber Listening Lab - audio recordings are divided into 3 levels of difficulty: beginner, intermediate and advanced. The site presents a system of listening tests with answers, testing knowledge on various lexical topics.
- BBC Podcasts - the best audio from 21 UK radio stations. Everything is easy to download and listen offline at any time.
- 6 Minute English is a modern audio site rich in topical topics, where all audio tracks are 6 minutes long. Download and listen!
- Videojug - a variety of videos that are more entertaining than educational.
- 1-language.com - 52 educational audio tracks with scripts and exercises. The audio recordings are based on dialogues between American students.
- - a huge collection of audio and video recordings on a variety of topics. Free Reads, by James Patrick Kelly, a science fiction writer, uploaded to the Open Source Audio collection site may be of interest to many.
- LinkEngPark is one of the most useful and easy to use sites in my opinion, since audio and video materials are presented with scripts.
- VOA Learning English - Free scripted videos and audios presented in American English.
- English Club - videos with a ticker.
- BBC Learning English is an archive of educational videos with scripts.
- Learn out loud is an excellent collection of English audiobooks and podcasts for children and adults.
Listen to original English speech on listening sites in good quality, create a background wherever you are through podcasts, videos and audio recordings, improve your English every day.
Write in the comments about those sites for listening in English that you think deserve attention. Let's listen together!
Useful articles for developing listening skills:
Interview in English with native speakers:
Songs in English with translation and exercises.
One reader of the Lingualeo blog suggested a cool idea - to write an article with interesting audio recordings in English for beginners. We immediately included this in the plan.
The reason for such haste: we believe that it is important to devote time to developing listening skills and regularly practice understanding English speech. But they also wrote that you need to use audio of your level, where ≈ 80% of the vocabulary is clear.
That's why we've put together simple podcasts and conversations to give beginners some training material.
Audio: English for beginners listen online for free
Our article includes 10 audio files for English levels from beginner to pre-intermediate. By listening to recordings of simple dialogues from typical life situations, you will learn to understand English by ear and remember useful phrases for maintaining a conversation.
1. Humble Beginnings, or English Listening for “first graders”
A trip abroad is approaching, and you haven’t started learning the English alphabet yet? Does the conversation of foreigners resemble continuous noise with rare fragments of familiar words? Short dialogues from englishspeak.com will help you introduce yourself in English and tell about yourself.
Conclusion: English texts with audio accompaniment for beginners
We've shared some cool materials for English listening, now it's up to you! We prescribe 15 minutes of listening to English speech daily with a gradual increase in difficulty - and success in conquering the English language is guaranteed (if you try the same in reading, speaking and writing, of course).
By the way, useful information about “upgrading” other skills: we have already written about how we compiled a selection of books for and, shared a list of and talked about the best ways to study and.
If you also have a topic for a blog article, write in the comments! We will fulfill your wish. 🙂 Bye!
It often becomes a stumbling block that prevents you from achieving understanding with a foreign interlocutor.
It seems that so much information has already been learned, but as soon as you turn on a video from a blogger from the USA or “dare” to call a native speaker on Skype, the question immediately arises: why is nothing clear?
Calm down, friends! This is fine. It happens that people who study English are divided into those for whom listening is easy, which cannot be said about speaking, while for others it is the other way around. So, difficulties happen to everyone, and they can be solved with daily practice.
Now the good news. There are thousands of materials on the Internet (videos), by regularly listening to which you will gradually improve the quality of your listening comprehension of English speech.
We offer seven interesting resources with materials for beginner, intermediate or advanced English language students.
ESL Cyber Listening Lab
The service offers dozens of thematic audio dialogues and recordings, which are divided into three levels: easy, medium, difficult. Each recording looks like a full-fledged English lesson: there are tasks for discussion, listening to audio, questions for understanding. The lessons are accompanied by a script, a list of new expressions with explanations, examples and practical tasks. The materials presented on this site will definitely last a long time.
EnglishClass101
The resource is a database of audio and video materials for all stages of learning English. There are open lessons on the site, plus you can subscribe to the daily “word of the day” newsletter with examples, but for full training it is useful to have a subscription. Here the student builds his own route from the lessons and goes through it step by step. The lesson is accompanied by a downloadable PDF file with texts and words from the lesson. Additionally, the site’s authors offer tests, questions, their own word bank, and teacher feedback.
TalkEnglish
The recordings on this resource are suitable for daily practice of English by ear and are divided into three levels: for beginners, for intermediate, for advanced. The instructions on the site suggest first listening to the audio recording, and then reading and answering the questions asked. You can listen to the recording again and only then view the audio script and listen again, following the text.
StoryNory
Do you like fairy tales? This site contains fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Perrault; myths of Ancient Greece and Scandinavia; stories from China, Japan, Ireland; classics (Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling). Each story contains audio recording and text.
ELLO
ELLLO is a real library of audio and video lessons in English, because there are more than 2500 of them! Select your language level and you will be offered a list of suitable podcasts, videos, interviews recorded by native speakers of foreign languages (the country flag is indicated next to each lesson). Most lessons come with not only a script and test tasks, but also lists of new words with examples and voiceovers.
Business English Pod
If you're learning English to work with English-speaking colleagues, this podcast will help you prepare to communicate in business English in relevant situations. In each episode, a native speaker speaks on a business-related topic: meetings, telephone conversations, presentations, interviews, negotiations. Additionally, a speech script is included in the form of a presentation and practical tasks to consolidate new words and understand the episode. Only a portion of the lessons on the site are open for free training. This is enough to try and decide whether to buy a subscription.
EngVid
This resource brings together the efforts of professional teachers and native English speakers from the UK, USA and Canada. The authors record short lessons where they talk about the nuances of the English language in an easy-to-follow manner and with humor. Choose your level of knowledge (beginner, intermediate, advanced), topic (business English, culture, exams, slang, grammar, etc.) and go! After each video there is a test to check your understanding of the topic.
- Start with simple materials and choose resources where you can print an audio or video recording script.
- Download the materials to your phone and listen in your spare time.
- Listen first without text, then with text. Learn new expressions.
- Take your time. If you now understand 50% of what was said, then it will take time to understand 70% or more (subject to regular study, of course).
- Dilute your materials: videos, audio, YouTube channels, podcasts, TV series. So you definitely won't get bored!
Thus, there are enough resources online to take your English comprehension to the next level. Choose interesting topics, a suitable format of materials and move forward to a brilliant understanding of English speech!
