13 Unique English Dictation Resources for Honing Your Listening Skills

You can give your English skills a serious workout with English dictation exercises.

Even though they’re hard work, English dictations are enjoyable and totally rewarding.

And with these 13 online resources below, they’ll never get boring. These online dictation exercises cover all kinds of English communication, learning levels and practice styles.

Contents

• 1. ToLearnEnglish: A Great Starting Point for English Dictation  
• 2. Agenda Web: Four Levels to Master Dictation 
• 3. FluentU: Fun Dictations with Real English Videos
• 4. Daily Dictation: A Massive Library of Exercises
• 5. ESL Fast: English Practice for the Whole Family
• 6. Speechling: Quick and Convenient
• 7. Breaking News English: English Practice Plus Current Events
• 8. Learn English Through Dictation: Punctuation and Spelling Practice 
• 9. Teacher Joe: Five to 15 Words Per Dictation
• 10. Lingua: User-Friendly Listening
• 11. Listen A Minute: A Precious Minute of English Practice
• 12. English Club: Beginner to Advanced  
• 13. Learn American English Online: Dozens of Dictations
• Why Use Dictation to Practice English?
• At Least One Dictation a Week 

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1. ToLearnEnglish: A Great Starting Point for English Dictation  

This is a good online dictation resource for beginners. You’ll listen to an audio clip or watch a short video, then complete dictation tasks below.

Sometimes you’ll have part of the text and will need to fill in the gaps with correct words. Other times you’ll need to type out everything you hear.

2. Agenda Web: Four Levels to Master Dictation 

On this site, there are four levels with different English dictation exercises.

On the first level, you’ll either dictate single sentences or fill in the blanks of a text after listening to the audio.

On the second level you have the same type of dictation exercises, but they’re a little longer. You’ll also get the option to slow down the audio on some of them, to help you really hear what’s being said.

The third level has the same tasks as the previous level, except for the fact that the sentences might be longer and there’s no slow audio option. The fourth level offers medium and long dictations.

All these activities train listening comprehension of English and help you pay more attention to spelling and punctuation.

3. FluentU: Fun Dictations with Real English Videos

Want to practice English dictation with superhero movies, hilarious YouTube clips or inspiring English speeches?

You can get it all with FluentU! Each video comes with tons of learning tools, but first let’s explore how to use them for dictation.

The videos are organized by genre and learning level, so it’s easy to pick one that interests you. Once you start a video, you can turn the English captions off and write down what you hear while you watch. Pause at any point by simply moving the mouse over the video screen.

Once you’ve written some words or sentences, check your work by turning the English captions back on. Are there any words you don’t recognize? Click the word and FluentU will instantly give you a definition, picture and pronunciation!

Each video also comes with a full transcript and vocabulary list, as well as flashcards and exercises to make sure you remember new words when you’re done watching.

4. Daily Dictation: A Massive Library of Exercises

Daily Dictation is an English dictation resource that you have to bookmark it has more than a thousand dictation exercises. These range from daily conversations and even common English names to challenging material from the TOEFL and TOEIC.

The exercises are also well-organized. Sometimes there are even illustrations and hints included, and you can go over the individual pronunciation of each word.

For more listening practice, check out their listen-and-read exercises too, where the words flash on the screen while an article is read out loud.

You’ll never run out of material with this!

5. ESL Fast: English Practice for the Whole Family

Here you can take dictation in English online and practice not only your listening but also your reading skills. There are two levels: elementary and intermediate. There’s no window for text typing, so you’ll need to write down what you hear somewhere in a document on your computer or by hand in a notebook.

Then you can compare your notes with the text below and check if you wrote everything correctly.

Beginners and kids can also practice their language skills with the help of the sections “Speaking is Easy,” “Easy Conversations” and “Start Reading for Children.”

You’ll find audio recordings and simple texts with short sentences or dialogs. You’ll be able to listen, follow the text and then repeat the phrases you hear with the right pronunciation.

6. Speechling: Quick and Convenient

This resource offers a wide range of short sentences for dictation. There’s a window for text typing and it’s also possible to choose the speed of the audio playback. So, for example, you can listen to the text at a normal tempo and then choose the slow reading mode when you start writing.

To test yourself, you’ll need to click the “Check Answer” button.

If you don’t get the sentence, you can click the “Give up” button to see the written sentence and even mark it for review to try again later.

One more bonus of this resource is that you can record yourself saying anything and then get pronunciation feedback from a native speaker within 24 hours for free. Isn’t that cool? Totally worth trying!

7. Breaking News English: English Practice Plus Current Events

On this unique site, you can practice English while keeping up with the news. And this means that you’ll not only improve your English but also expand your horizons.

At the same time, the texts don’t consist of dry phrases, but of vivid sentences that’ll help you develop your own speech and make your vocabulary richer and brighter.

You’ll also get little stars that serve as clues, showing you how many letters are in each word and how many words are in each sentence.

8. Learn English Through Dictation: Punctuation and Spelling Practice 

Learn English Through Dictation has more than 25 beginner and intermediate dictation exercises. Each dictation comes with two versions–slow and regular–and you can download all of them for offline listening.

While you have to manually check your dictation yourself, the website’s scoring system encourages you to pay attention to punctuation too! Punctuation and grammar guides are available in case you need a refresher.

A unique section would be its quick dictation tests, which consist of spelling exercises with themes like adjectives, shopping and work.

9. Teacher Joe: Five to 15 Words Per Dictation

This resource is created for students with different levels of training and knowledge. There are three stages:

• The first stage includes short dictations for beginners, each containing five to seven words.

• The second stage offers medium-length dictations with more challenging sentences from eight to 10 words.

• The third stage is for more experienced students and advanced speakers. The dictations in this category are the longest. They consist of 11 to 15 words and are the most challenging for comprehension by ear.

It’s important to be as precise as possible, but you don’t have to be upset if you can’t guess all the words. You can just type an X instead of the word you don’t get.

Teacher Joe assures that it’s enough to listen to these dictations several times, and the words won’t seem difficult for comprehension and learning anymore.

10. Lingua: User-Friendly Listening

Lingua offers dictation exercises for all levels, and they have a really convenient format. Each sentence is read out loud twice–first at a normal place, then more slowly. This way, you can type them out continuously while listening, without having to pause the audio.  

In case you miss some words, you can just click a button to rewind to 10 seconds back.

Once you submit your dictation, the website gives you instant feedback–punctuation correction included.

A few dictation exercises are available for free, but you’ll need a monthly subscription to access all 60+ dictation exercises. On the plus side, this also comes with hundreds of reading, listening and grammar exercises too!

11. Listen A Minute: A Precious Minute of English Practice

This dictation resource (from the same team behind Breaking News English) is excellent for learning English both alone or with a teacher. What’s special about it is that the duration of each audio file is only one minute.

All dictations are sorted alphabetically and each of them has practical activities. So, after listening to the dictation you’ll have to fill the gaps in sentences, correct the spelling and unjumble the words.

If you’re taking lessons with a teacher, the “Homework” part will also come in handy. You can find it on the very bottom of the page of each dictation, along with other exercise tasks. This will help you to solidify the results and knowledge you gained.

12. English Club: Beginner to Advanced  

English Club features diverse exercises for elementary, intermediate and advanced learners.

Elementary dictations consist of only a sentence, with topics like simple questions and commands. With intermediate, you practice with more complex sentences, such as directions and popular quotes.  Finally, the advanced exercises cover at least one paragraph–you’ll be working with literary passages and speeches here!

Each exercise comes with two recordings: one at normal speed, and another slowed down.

English Club also has tons of other listening resources, including excerpts from children’s stories with transcripts and quizzes.

13. Learn American English Online: Dozens of Dictations

There are six levels of dictation exercises on this site. Each level has several different audio recordings, and there are 10 dictation sentences within each recording.

So if you’re looking for a huge supply of dictation audio, you’ve found it!

You’ll need to type or write what you hear on a separate page, and they’ve provided the full answers so you can check all your work.

Why Use Dictation to Practice English?

Dictation is a simple English practice method. You’ll listen to an English audio clip and your goal is to write down exactly what’s being said. It’s a highly effective way to improve English listening comprehension.

Dictations force you to think about every word and sound that you’re hearing. You’ll write down what you heard and then check your answers to conveniently see what you misunderstood.

You’ll also learn new grammar constructions, words and expressions, while reinforcing the ones you already know. This will help you to integrate them into your own speech or writing.

Finally, online English dictation is a great way to work on your written English and spelling.

At Least One Dictation a Week 

Try at least once a week to set aside some time for English dictation practice. On most of the resources above, you’ll find short texts to work with, so it won’t be difficult to find time.

Weekly dictations can help you develop an English-practice routine, which will lead to fluency faster.

When you start your weekly dictations, try writing an outline of the text after listening to the audio. This will get you familiar with the process and make the full dictation easier.

As you advance you can skip to writing down exactly what you hear.

I hope you’ll find your favorite resources for online English dictations here. And I hope that your learning process becomes even more interesting and diverse!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)