Practicing your English listening skills is easy when you have the right tools for the job.
Whether you’re looking for an on-the-go app, the perfect podcast for your interests or a way to practice your listening and reading skills at the same time, we have some great recommendations for you.
Divided into five categories (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, British and American English), this app is fantastic if you want a daily dose of English listening.
It includes listening comprehension exercises, vocabulary lists and subtitles, among other cool features.
The English Listening Lesson Library Online (ELLLO) is a wonderful place where everything revolves around practicing your English listening comprehension.
There are over 3,000 audio clips divided into seven big categories. Among this huge collection, you’ll find audio lessons with native speakers, short audios with foreign learners speaking English, audio-based grammar lessons and idiom lessons.
esl-lounge.com includes hundreds of listening comprehension exercises divided into five categories: Beginner, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Advanced and Business English.
Once you choose your category, you’ll see a list of audio lessons. They each come with a brief description, the grammar used and the type of English used in the audio.
For each lesson, you can choose to listen while reading the transcript or listen and take a quiz.
Sometimes, all you need is a lot of short stories read by native speakers in “slow-but-not-very-slow” English—which is what the listening section of Learnenglishfunway.com has to offer.
You won’t find much besides the audio and the transcript here, but if you want to learn more English, you can visit the other sections on the site.
TalkEnglish offers three levels (Basic, Intermediate and Advanced) with 34 audio lessons each.
Each lesson is divided into three easy steps: listen to the dialogue, answer the quiz questions and read the dialogue (if you want the extra practice).
If you think dictations are boring, wait until you try Speechling.
In the Settings box right under Dictation Practice, choose the variety of English you want to practice, the gender of the speaker and the category/level/topic you want.
The best part is you get immediate feedback after each short dictation.
This superb website is a listening lab for everyone whose main learning focus is listening to English.
All the activities included on the site are audio-based. You can choose among different levels of difficulty, as well as categories such as culture, vocabulary and academic English.
The International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA) is not created for learners of English. Instead, it’s an encyclopedia of English dialects and accents from all around the world.
I recommend this site for advanced learners looking for a real challenge. The site includes hundreds of native and foreign English speakers who speak different dialects and accents of English.
If you’re an advanced English learner looking for listening exercises designed specifically for your level, the English Grammar site will be your new favorite place.
Choose the type of listening exercise you want to do and pick a topic from the list.
If you want to practice listening to the British accent while you learn about hundreds of interesting topics like food, stress, new technologies, mermaids, space or fashion, this app is for you.
All you need to do is go to the website (or wherever your get your podcasts) and set aside six minutes of your time.
Podcastsinenglish.com is a collection of hundreds of downloadable podcasts created for learners of ESL (English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students.
Each episode is a natural conversation between two native speakers about a random topic. The conversation usually lasts about three minutes.
Rough Translation is a podcast for the brave, both psychologically and linguistically speaking.
In other words, this is a podcast for advanced learners who want to practice their English skills while listening to people from all backgrounds talking about social issues and hardships.
With nearly 700 episodes, the Adept English Podcast is focused on teaching people English through listening.
Although many episodes cover everyday topics such as gardens, travel, spring and marathons, some discuss more challenging subjects like mRNA, space, autism and psychology.
The podcast also includes many episodes on English grammar, idioms, phrasal verbs and pronunciation.
While this podcast is great for all levels, complete beginners might find some episodes hard to follow unless they check the transcripts.
A podcast for curious minds, Stuff You Should Know will tell you everything you’ve always wanted to know but never thought to ask about random things—from alligators, the Statue of Liberty and free speech to sarcasm, hurricanes and ketchup.
Better@English is a podcast created specifically for ESL and EFL students.
Even though the aim is to improve your listening comprehension, you’ll actually improve your other English skills as well if you use all the free features of each episode.
This podcast is mainly for intermediates, but there are materials for beginners and advanced learners on the site, too.
This is a very good place to practice English listening comprehension while you build up your vocabulary. The hosts do an excellent job of including useful words and phrases related to the topic of each episode.
The audios can be downloaded for free, but you have to subscribe if you want the transcriptions.
You Are Not So Smart is a podcast that is hard to put into any specific category.
Learn about reason, decision-making, vaccines, judgment, intelligence, narcissism (excessive love of the self) and a whole lot of other super interesting topics.
A podcast about design and architecture is not what you normally listen to when you try to practice your listening skills, but that is why I am including 99% Invisible on this list.
If you’re an advanced English learner and want to push your limits, give this challenging podcast a try.
The Scientific American journal has tons of podcast episodes on every scientific topic you could imagine.
Most episodes last between 10 to 20 minutes, but there are some that are only a couple of minutes long. There are transcripts available if you want to follow along more easily.
One of the most popular podcast programs for English learners is EnglishClass101 by Innovative Language. It has over 1,500 video and audio lessons to teach you English, in the style of podcasts.
These podcasts are hosted by native English speakers and come with interactive learning tools so that you can practice your English with relevant activities.
This is one of the best British comedies which aired on BBC Radio 4. It follows the adventures of a small airline.
There are only four characters (and one of them is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch). The episodes are each 30 minutes long, so you can listen to one or several at a time.
You can listen to a sample (with a transcript!) on YouTube.
No matter what type of show you prefer, there’s a good chance you can find it on this popular streaming platform.
The great thing about Netflix is you can change the audio and subtitle settings. That means you have the option to change the language as it’s spoken on the show and the language it’s being translated in the captions.
Beginners can watch their favorite show in English with subtitles in their native language, while advanced learners can watch the show entirely in English without subtitles.
I get it–learning English isn’t always a walk in the park. But it doesn’t have to be a boring, tedious, or hair-pulling experience either. In fact, making it fun is key to your success!
With FluentU, you can learn English naturally by turning any YouTube or Netflix video with subtitles into an interactive language lesson. I’m talking about language immersion from the convenience of your device.
Plus, you can import your favorite YouTube videos into your FluentU account to learn from them using the app or website. Or browse our curated library of videos handpicked for beginners and intermediate learners.
While you watch a video, FluentU’s interactive subtitles let you tap on any word for an instant definition, example sentences, images, and audio. No more pausing and searching for translations—everything you need is right there!
It's all built to help you learn how to use words in real contexts. For example, if I tap on the word "viral," this is what pops up:
Learn even faster with built-in quizzes that reinforce vocab from every video. FluentU tracks your progress, gives you extra practice with tricky words, and reminds you when it’s time to review—so your learning is always personalized and effective.
Hulu is another streaming platform that lets you watch some of the most popular movies and TV shows today.
The only downside is that Hulu is only available in the United States and Japan. If you’re able to access it, it can be a great supplement to the likes of Netflix.
Like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video hosts a ton of TV series, movies and more. They even have exclusive content, meaning there are some videos that you can only watch on the platform and nowhere else.
If you download the app, you can watch the videos offline on your device, so you do not have to worry if your internet connection is weak or nonexistent.
Disney is known for movies that have captivating stories, catchy songs and unforgettable characters.
Whether you’re someone who grew up on their 2D animated features or the more recent 3D films, you’ll find them all on this platform. You’ll also find live-action shows that Disney helped produce like the Marvel superhero movies.
English Club TV is an educational channel that focuses on teaching English through TV programs.
There are thousands of videos you can watch if you buy a subscription. You can also check out these three livestreams that cover topics for kids and adults of all levels.
Imagine attending a real British language school from the comfort of your home.
You can do that with Oxford Online English, a YouTube channel created by real teachers where you’ll find hundreds of videos that are great for grammar-oriented listening sessions.
If you enjoy listening to full audiobooks, you’ll love this app.
The selection of books is fantastic, as there are thousands of them! But that’s not the only thing Audiobooks has to offer.
The app also allows you to download your favorite audiobooks so you can listen to them offline. If you have no time to listen to a full story, you can always visit the Podcasts section.
