Guide to listening practice

Developing listening comprehension in English is something that can be particularly

challenging for Spanish speakers given the lack of a one-to-one correspondence between
English spelling and pronunciation (e.g. the word house has 5 letters but only 3 sounds /haʊs/
- the consonants /h/ and /s/ and the diphthong /aʊ/).

Since the Spanish and English phonological systems are so different, it is very important
that you work your oral comprehension daily. Associating certain spellings with pronunciation
can seem hard at first (e.g. the word gauge pronounced as /ɡeɪdʒ/); however, it is by exposing
ourselves to the language that we become used to listening different sound-letter combinations and
associating them to their meaning.

When listening to English audios/videos, you should not get frustrated if at first you do not
recognise certain words. It will be impossible for you to ‘identify’ some words when you hear
them if you have not seen those words before. For example, it would be absolutely normal if
you heard the word gauge in a listening activity and you do not understand the word the
speaker has said. If you have not seen the word before, you cannot possibly know what the
word means. Likewise, you will probably be unable to write it down by simply listening to it
(but don’t worry, sometimes even native speakers find this difficult!).

Listening tests require you to understand the meaning the speakers are trying to
convey, do not worry too much about understanding (or ‘identifying’) every word you hear at
first. If there is a word you do not understand, try to infer its meaning from the context, but
do not fixate on that word or you may skip the rest of the listening.

By practising your listening skills you will be able to improve your comprehension and
your pronunciation. You should mostly focus on meaning, but you are also encouraged to pay
attention to the way native speakers pronounce English (the way English sounds are
pronounced – as we will see, they are different from the Spanish ones; the way speakers use
intonation to divide thought groups; how speakers reduce sounds in order to help English
rhythm flow, etc.).

In order to develop your comprehension skills, you should try to listen to at least one
recording a day. I have divided this document into three parts:

Jonás Fouz González

 1. Resources for autonomous listening practice (with answers): These links include a
wide range of listening tasks with activities to check comprehension.
2. Extra listening practice: These are links to websites with numerous listening
activities. Even though they do not always include comprehension checks, they are
a very good way of practising your listening comprehension with recordings aimed
at B2 level students.
3. Podcasts: these are recordings from well-known broadcasting companies (BBC,
CNN, etc.) that offer free scripts of all the recordings.

How should you practise your listening skills in this course?

I strongly encourage you to explore all the websites that are provided below and on the
virtual campus. They include different kinds of practise, with recordings on a range of topics.
Try to do at least four tests from the first section every week (resources for autonomous
listening practice) and combine this with audios from sections 2, 3 and 4. Audios in that first
section are very similar to what you could find in an exam situation, but since they are limited
to some extent, you should also exploit other resources. Please, explore the different
websites. In sections 2 and 3, I have only included the link to the general site, but they have a
wide range of activities if you follow that link.

1) Resources for autonomous listening practice (with answers)

Exam English. Practice listening at B2 level (on different topics). General site:
http://www.examenglish.com/B2/B2_listening.htm
- Education: http://www.examenglish.com/B2/b2_listening_education.htm
- Accommodation:
http://www.examenglish.com/B2/b2_listening_accommodation.htm
- Leisure: http://www.examenglish.com/B2/b2_listening_leisure.htm
- Tourism: http://www.examenglish.com/B2/b2_listening_tourism.htm
- Travel: http://www.examenglish.com/B2/b2_listening_traffic_report.htm
- Health: http://www.examenglish.com/B2/b2_listening_health.htm
- Environment: http://www.examenglish.com/B2/b2_listening_environment.htm
- Describing places:
http://www.examenglish.com/B2/b2_listening_describing_places.htm

FCE listening - main website: http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fce_listening.html ⇒ This

site includes practice with the four activities from the listening test in the FCE exam. For

Jonás Fouz González

each listening, you will be able to get immediate feedback on your response or even see the
written script of the recording in case you cannot follow the speaker. On the right side of
the screen you will be able to see that there are links to the other parts of the test as well as
four different tests.
- Part 1: http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fce_listening_part1.htm
- Part 2: http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fce_listening_part2.htm
- Part 3: http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fce_listening3.htm
- Part 4: http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fce_listening4.html
- Part 1, test: http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fce_listening_part1_test2.htm
- Part 2, test: http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fce_listening_part2_test2.htm
- Part 3, test: http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fce_listening3_test2.htm
- Part 4, test: http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fce_listening_test2_part4.html

Listening practice by the British Council. This is the general site for the B2 level but it also
includes practice with A1, A2, and B1, in case you need to start from a slightly lower level
(http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice).
These are the activities included for the B2 level:
- Listening 1: Boy Bands: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-
skills-practice/boy-bands
- Listening 2: High-achieving teenagers:
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/high-
achieving-teenagers
- Listening 3: How to study: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-
skills-practice/how-study
- Listening 4: My hero: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-
skills-practice/my-hero
- Listening 5: New inventions:
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/new-
inventions
- Listening 6: Sports interviews:
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/sports-
interviews
- Listening 7: The best job in the world:
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/best-job-
world
- Listening 8: The Maasai and the lions:
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/maasai-and-
lions

Jonás Fouz González

 - Listening 9: Unusual British festivals:
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/unusual-
british-festivals
- Listening 10: What’s in a name?:
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/whats-
name
English aula (around 10 activities for each part of the FCE test):
http://www.englishaula.com/en/cambridge-first-certificate-in-english-fce-exam-
listening.php
English for all (numerous activities with listening practice for FCE):
http://javiaguera.com/category/listening/b2-listening/
FCE listening tests (6 full FCE listening tests - with the four tasks):
https://virtuaule.com/en/fce-listening-practice.html

2) Extra listening practice

FCE listening practice (15 activities with answers): http://www.clgranada.com/area-
padres/recursos/cambridge-esol-exams-pce/
Talk English (listening and comprehension activities):
- Advanced: http://www.talkenglish.com/listening/listenadvanced.aspx
- Intermediate: http://www.talkenglish.com/listening/listenintermediate.aspx
Additional test: http://www.english-
online.org.uk/fcefolder/fcelisten.php?name=The%20Listening%20test

More practice and tests:

• http://www.esl-lab.com/
• http://www.ompersonal.com.ar/firstcertificate/contenidotematico.htm
• http://www.saberingles.com.ar/listening/index3.html (B2)
• http://www.saberingles.com.ar/listening/index.html (A2, B1 and B2)
• http://englishexamhelp.com/fce-listening/
• http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=fce-listening-part-2
• http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/pages/level2.shtml
• http://www.teachenglish4u.com/listening.htm (this site contains listening tests at
the top and activities for practice below)
• http://www.agendaweb.org/listening/upperintermediate.html
• http://martateacher3y5.wikispaces.com/Listening+B2 (downloadable as pdfs)
• More practice and activities (downloadable in pdf - not exactly the Cambridge
format) by Hancock http://hancockmcdonald.com/materials/15

Jonás Fouz González

 • Listening practice at a B2 level with activities (not exactly the Cambridge format)
http://www.teachya.com/listening/listening_exercises/upper_intermediate.php
• http://www.mansioningles.com/listening00_niveles.htm
• Listening practice with downloadable worksheets (activities have to be downloaded
as pdf files - they have the answer key)
http://www.getenglishlessons.com/category/listening-actvities-fill-in-the-blanks/
• http://tunein.com/radio/B2--upper-intermediate-p399854/
• http://www.ejerciciosinglesonline.com/exercises-and-theory/listening/

3) Websites with free podcasts

In these websites you will find an incredible range of podcasts on a wide variety of topics.
Even though they do not have activities to check comprehension, they are an excellent way
to help you get used to listening to English and to associate sound to meaning. Please try to
listen to at least one a day.
All these podcasts include downloadable audio files and scripts in pdf. I would
recommend you to try to listen to them without reading the script first. If this is too hard at
the beginning, start using the scripts and then progressively move to listening to them without
the script.
BBC:
• 6 minute English:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/
• Talk about English:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/talkaboutenglish/
CNN podcasts (only audio, no scripts): http://podcast.cnn.com/
ESL podcast: https://www.eslpod.com/website/
• Listening practice (choose level and topics)
https://www.englishlistening.com/index.php/listen-to-passages/
• http://www.elllo.org/
• http://www.learning-english-online.net/listening-comprehension/speeches/
• Some more practice B2: (free listening - not automatically corrected)
http://lawebdelingles.com/listening-nivel-b2-ingles/

Jonás Fouz González