Help Your ESL Students Improve Their Listening: 7 Ideas that Really Work

Listening with a Purpose

A student puts on a pair of headphones and hits “play” on the computer screen. He/she is sitting down
to watch a movie – in English – in order to improve his/her listening skills. What’s the purpose of this
exercise? While “improve listening comprehension” sounds like a good purpose, it’s not. Students need
specific exercises, each with a specific purpose that goes beyond mere “listening”. They can listen to a
podcast with the purpose of identifying three future online shopping trends. They can listen to a
conversation with the purpose of identifying the speaker’s vacation plans. But there should always be
a purpose to the listening exercise. Be sure to communicate what it is.

From Passive to Active

In the above situation where the student sits back and just listens, there is a misconception that he/she
will passively improve his/her listening skills – just by listening. Students must be active in their
listening exercises. They must be thinking of answers, options or ideas.

Give them questions to answer or information to find out, and have them report back their findings.
Separate them into groups and have one group listen for one set of information and the other group
for another, and then get together and share. Just make sure they are not simply “sitting and
listening”!

Clear Instructions

Do they have to complete a True/False exercise after the listening? Fill in blanks as they listen? Write
down the answers to the questions, or raise their hands and say them out loud? Students must be
absolutely clear on what is expected of them.

Use Variety

Do you always give your class song lyrics with gaps they must complete? Add some spice to your
listening exercises and mix it up! What if you give two different groups two different sets of
worksheets where the gaps are different? Students in Group A must then work with students in
Group B and ask each other questions to find out the missing information. The class listens to the song
at the end to confirm that the answers are right.

Keep it Real

We’re all more than familiar with the handy little audio CDs that come with our beloved course book.
You should absolutely take advantage of the amount of listening material you have available there,
but don’t forget to use some real audio from time to time. Now, movies, TV shows and songs are what
usually comes to mind, but what about TV commercials, weather reports or podcasts? There are
many more sources of real audio out there, most of which are not too hard for students if they are
approached correctly.

Do the Work

If students are really committed to improving their listening, they must understand this one crucial
fact: they gotta do the work. This usually involves doing at least one short listening exercise, several
times a week – even every day. They can watch a short video on YouTube or CNN.com every
morning. Or listen to an audio book for 10 minutes every day. In class, be sure to give them listening
comprehension exercises every day, maybe even several in one class. The more work they do, the
faster they’ll improve.

Teach Them to Check

Just as essential as understanding when they listen is the checking for comprehension or asking for
clarification. If students learn to ask someone to clarify a point, they’ll increase their odds of
improved communication – what they didn’t get at first, they may understand the second time
around. Be sure to teach them to:

o Check for meaning: He said he was feeling blue. Does that mean he was feeling sad?
o Ask for clarification: What did he mean when he said he was feeling blue?
o Re-phrase: He said he was feeling unhappy and sad, right?