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Business English Listening Exercises: 9 Best Websites and Resources
Having good listening skills is important for any business environment.
In this guide, I’ll share 9 of the best websites that you can use for listening exercises that will help you level up your business English skills.
If you’ve been struggling with your listening abilities in English, then business English listening exercises can be a great way to improve your comprehension.
Contents
- 1. Business English Pod
- 2. FluentU
- 3. British Council
- 4. Business English Site
- 5. ESL Lounge
- 6. Macmillan Education
- 7. TalkEnglish.com
- 8. Anglo-Link
- 9. Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab
- How to Be an Efficient Listener
- And One More Thing...
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
1. Business English Pod
If you swear by audio-based learning and enjoy listening to audiobooks and audiobooks, why not combine the two for effective practice in business English?
Business English Pod is one of the best audio-based resources out there and covers almost every aspect of business English in an easy-to-understand manner.
Each episode or lesson comes with an MP3 audio file, PDF transcript, a lesson module and a quiz to test your learning. Check out their listening quizzes in the “learning section,” where you listen to a conversation and answer three questions. You can subscribe to them for free via Apple Podcasts or even via email.
2. FluentU
FluentU is an immersive language learning program that uses native English videos to teach the language naturally.
This program has a wide variety of videos for all learners, like movie clips and music videos. It also has an entire category for “business,” where you can find hundreds of videos on various industries, tips for business owners, inspirational talks from well-known CEOs, insider reports from popular companies and much more.
- Thousands of learner friendly videos (especially beginners)
- Handpicked, organized, and annotated by FluentU's experts
- Integrated into courses for beginners
FluentU’s videos are meant for native English speakers, but they come with learning tools to make it possible for you to follow along, no matter what level you are.
3. British Council
British Council is a great source of learning materials for English learners, and it also features a section dedicated to B2 or intermediate learners who want to improve their business English listening skills.
The aim of the activities is to help you understand extended speech about business-related topics, featuring lessons such as “A Business Interview” and “A Lecture About and Experiment”.
In each lesson there is a preparation task, followed by the audio recording about a business situation. There are then two tasks you can do to help ensure that you understood everything in the lesson.
4. Business English Site
This website includes options for vocabulary training, grammar quizzes and listening and reading comprehension questions.
Their listening section has both audio and video-based exercises. Intermediate and advanced learners can check out the activities that accompany the videos, where you watch a short video clip and answer the questions that follow. The videos vary in content from business commercials to interviews to tips for those trying to get a foot in the business world.
- Interactive subtitles: click any word to see detailed examples and explanations
- Slow down or loop the tricky parts
- Show or hide subtitles
- Review words with our powerful learning engine
Meanwhile, beginners might start with the audio-based exercises, which are designed for all levels and will specifically help you improve your pronunciation.
5. ESL Lounge
As well as having exercises for beginner, intermediate and advanced students, ESL Lounge also has learning activities specifically to help you improve your business English listening skills.
Each lesson features a short audio file, followed by listening quizzes in which you check your comprehension of the audio file.
Once you’ve answered all the questions, you can click “mark answers” to find out how well you did. Quizzes feature topics like “Scenes from an Office” and “Seeking Capital,” so they will help you prepare for a range of scenarios that feature business English.
6. Macmillan Education
Macmillan is a trusted name when it comes to learning, and they’ve published an excellent range of business English books. For example, their text “In Company” provides a student workbook and audio for students to work on listening exercises offline.
Through their skills-based units, you’ll get exposure to grammar in a business context and lots of new business vocabulary terms.
7. TalkEnglish.com
Another great resource, TalkEnglish.com is packed with free listening and speaking exercises, a business English section, grammar information and idioms and phrases. It makes for ideal self-study material.
- Learn words in the context of sentences
- Swipe left or right to see more examples from other videos
- Go beyond just a superficial understanding
They have a number of listening exercises, categorized under “basic,” “intermediate” and “advanced” levels. There are over 30 exercises for each one, and you even have the option of downloading conversations for later listening as well.
8. Anglo-Link
Anglo-Link is a brilliant self-study resource that comes with a free trial. It includes written and oral exercises, video lessons and interactive, one-on-one sessions with specialists.
Their video lessons are carefully curated and cover pronunciation, conversations and grammar, which are often animated. In case you choose not to sign up for their language teaching services, you can access their videos for free via their YouTube channel.
9. Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab
ESL Lab has a huge list of activities that include listening exercises for English for academic purposes and a variety of other topics like daily activities and vocabulary lessons.
Moreover, unlike other websites, their listening exercises come with fact files, helpful tips, vocabulary and grammar activities. They even have questions you can think about or debate with a friend and online activities that you can do. For starters, check out the activities to help you prepare for a job interview and job hunting.
In short, these will improve your listening skills and general knowledge. They will also help you develop your critical thinking skills and make you a proactive and self-reliant business associate.
How to Be an Efficient Listener
Listening (as opposed to mere hearing) is a skill like any other, and can be mastered if you’re prepared to work for it. These quick tips will show you how to get there.
Start building sentences.
- FluentU builds you up, so you can build sentences on your own
- Start with multiple-choice questions and advance through sentence building to producing your own output
- Go from understanding to speaking in a natural progression.
- Don’t interrupt when someone is speaking. Not only is it very rude, but you also interrupt the speaker’s line of thought and can possibly derail an entire conversation.
- Think about what you’re listening to. Don’t just passively listen to your colleagues. If someone is talking about changes in a business framework, think about whether these changes are plausible and effective in the current situation.
- Ask for clarification politely. If you’re genuinely confused about something the speaker said, ask for clarification in a polite and diplomatic way.
- Make eye contact with the speaker. Don’t look distracted. Let the person know they’ve got your full attention and that they’re important.
- Pay attention to body language. This is for both you and the speaker. Make sure you’re not in an awkward or slouching position. Hand movements emphasize what the speaker is trying to say. Nod to show that you’re following the thread of the conversation.
Finally, always remember that practice makes perfect.
Developing efficient listening skills in the business world takes time. But if you’re dedicated, you’re bound to see results soon.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
And One More Thing...
If you like learning English through movies and online media, you should also check out FluentU. FluentU lets you learn English from popular talk shows, catchy music videos and funny commercials, as you can see here:
If you want to watch it, the FluentU app has probably got it.
The FluentU app and website makes it really easy to watch English videos. There are captions that are interactive. That means you can tap on any word to see an image, definition, and useful examples.
FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities.
For example, when you tap on the word "searching," you see this:
FluentU lets you tap to look up any word.
Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. Learn more.
The best part? FluentU remembers the vocabulary that you’re learning. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You have a truly personalized experience.
Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
