A selection of English ESL listening printables

9 tasks based on a song. Includes activities on metaphors, similes, and listening skills.

Song: I believe I can fly; Listening, metaphors, similes

The objective is to make your students show general understanding of the song, learn new vocabulary and have fun. I use this song to practice the present continuous tense. It's an awesome song and kids love it.

Listening: Lemon tree by fools garden. Worksheet. Present Continuous

Containing questions both on and beyond the chosen YouTube video, the following LC Task aims at training pupils' receptive skills at level B2 on the topic "Music / Correlations between Music and "Smartness"".

Correlations between Music and "Smartness" - Listening Comprehension + Speaking (B2)

Containing questions both on and beyond the chosen YouTube video, the following LC Task aims at training pupils' receptive skills at levels B2+ and C1 on the topic "Obsessive Self-Love / Narcissism".

Obsessive Self-Love / Narcissism - Listening Comprehension + Speaking (B2+, C1)

A very interesting video about an airline exclusively for pets. Have your students watch the short video (url included)then have them answer the questions. Then the students can give their opinions. This is a perfect addition to lessons on animals, pets or a filler at the end of a lesson.



Pet Airways- A listening and speaking activity. (answers included)

Containing questions both on and beyond the chosen YouTube video, the following LC Task aims at training pupils' receptive skills at level B2 on the topic "Mosquitoes".  

Mosquitoes and their Hunting Habits - Listening Comprehension + Speaking (B2)

You can use it to practice listening, teach idioms, phrasal verbs, metaphors. It is also possible to use it to raise a discussion about depression among young people. 

Listening activity with "Lovely" by Billie Eilish feat. Khaled

An easy-listening Christmas song that should work for A1 students and higher. You can let students read lyrics before and after listening to the song, mark down words they're not sure how to pronounce, etc.

Winter Wonderland (She & Him version) - Christmas song listening practice

My student really wanted to learn this song by Celine Dion, so I came up with a listening exercise for her. It's a universal worksheet that can be used for any levels and any ages, quite a fun meter raiser, I must say :)



Of course, you have to play a song along with it. First, let your students read the worksheet and suggest what should be in the gaps. Then play the song (you might pause after each line or verse, depending on your students' level) once or twice, and check the answers one by one, line by line. 

My heart will go on - Fill the gaps (Listening)

In this listening task the ss have to match the topics to the steps. You can find here the task, the solution, the text and the reach of the listening material (youtube video). There are similar tasks like this in lots of language exams. If you want your ss to do it online, you can find an online version from this among my printables. Hope you like it and find it useful. Hugs, Zsuzsapszi

Listening (2) - How to eat healthy on the road?

This word document comes with a ready-made listening lesson plan along with some additional activities. Pre-listening activity includes various questions which you can use as a warm-up, to get the students to speak about the subject in question; but most importantly to contextualize the subject before you play the recording. That way, I believe the students will be more engaged and immersed in the listening text, which would benefit you, as a teacher, to have a more productive listening exercise compared to listening immediately without no context whatsoever. I've put the source of the listening text inside the document. I also have two post-listening activities. These entail one collocation activity, collocations which took place in the listening text; and one simple past (mainly) irregular verb activity, irregular verbs which, again, were used in the listening text given. I also gave some advice for a follow-up speaking activity.



To supplement the listening activity, you can use ''Martin's Vacation'' as a reading activity, which you can also find on this website.

Listening Test - What Did You Do Last Summer + Exercises

This is my 4th listening task. In this the ss have to fill in the sentences with the correct words while they are listening the recording. Here you can find the task (level B2), the solution, the reach of the recording (youtube) and the text. I hope you find it useful and download it. Have a nice day.

Listening (4) How to build self confidence in others?

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

3,447 Listening English ESL worksheets pdf & doc