Listening seems like a passive activity.

ESL teachers know better than anyone — that’s not exactly true.

Language learners need to actively develop their listening skills.

Listening is every bit as vital to learning as reading, writing and speaking.

But it often slips through the cracks in the classroom.

Listening exercises are regularly brushed over, confined to the dreaded audio CD that accompanies the textbook.

You yawn as you press play.

And then you start listening to the slow, staged dialogues involving Mario and Margaret’s outing to the store. You know the ones, right?

One thing’s for sure: if you’re bored, your students definitely are.

Whether you’re using a range of audio resources or you’re simply getting students to speak to each other, listening is a great opportunity to expose students to a variety of accents, as well as to have fun whilst learning.

So hold onto your seat belts, it’s time to make listening practice awesome!

10 Awesome Activities to Improve Intermediate ESL Students’ Listening

The ten activities listed below aim to get your students thinking, moving and working together.

And, of course, a competitive element never hurts, does it? The idea is to vary your activities, never allowing for the students to get overly comfortable or familiar with how an exercise is going to look.

Keep it moving, people!

1. Relay the message

This classic game, otherwise known as “running dictation,” is a great active ice breaker, as well as a natural way to introduce a topic.

The game plan:

• Put students in pairs or groups of three, assigning one (or two) as runner and one as writer. Sit the writers at tables at one end of the room.

• Stick pre-printed messages at the other side of the room, one for each group or pair. These messages can be the same or different, easy or difficult, long or short, depending on the level and goals of the class.

• When you shout the word “go,” the runner runs to the message, reading and remembering what they can. This can be as much as a few sentences or as little as one word. The aim is to be able to relay it accurately to the writer.

• The runner goes back to the writer to relay the part of the message that they memorized. The writer (you guessed it!) writes it down.

• Repeat until the message is complete. Teams score points for speed but more importantly for accuracy of spelling and punctuation.

2. Back-to-back interview

What better way to improve listening skills than to listen to each other? This is a great activity for practicing listening without relying on lip reading or actions. It also incorporates speaking practice, thus killing two birds with one stone. You can use this activity to introduce famous people you want to talk about during your lesson.

The game plan:

• Pairs of students sit back-to-back, one as the interviewer with a list of questions.

• The interviewee is given a famous person to role play, with a list of answers. (This can also be done as an exercise to learn more about each other personally. For example, at the beginning of a course when students don’t know each other well).

• The interviewer asks the questions, writing down the answers as they go along.

• The fastest interviewer to work out who they’re talking to wins!

3. Follow the directions

This activity provides excellent practice which will prepare students to ask for directions in a foreign country. It allows students to gain audio rather than visual practice with receiving directions, giving them the ability to understand step by step instructions.

The game plan:

• Provide students with a street map, either a real one or something tailored to the activity and their level. You can even go crazy and create a big one for the classroom floor!

• Split the students into teams, and have one person go at a time.

• Read instructions for the student to follow, such as “go straight two blocks.” To win a point, the student must successfully navigate the map until they find the right store, the lost friend or the buried treasure.

4. Telephone

In this game, students are responsible for listening carefully to their peers as well as successfully relaying a message. It encourages students to determine similar sounding words from one other, and can be used as a starter activity to introduce any topic.

The game plan:

• Create two teams of students and set up both teams in lines. The end of each team line should be at the whiteboard.

• Whisper a word or sentence to the student farthest away from the whiteboard, and then have them whisper the message they heard to the next student. Each student whispers to the next until the end of the line.

• The last student writes the message on the board. The winner is the team with the most accurate spelling, pronunciation and content, although bonus points for originality and hilarity may be awarded!

5. Minimal pairs card hold-up

Improve your students’ knowledge of proper pronunciation with this quick-fire game, which is good for reinforcing phonics lessons.

The game plan:

• Give a set of pre-prepared word cards to each team (there can be as many teams as you want, depending on how many card sets you have). Go here for a useful list of minimal pairs.

• Students spread the word cards out on a table.

• Call a word out. For example: “feet!” The students have to search their decks and hold up that word’s card as fast as possible.

6. Movie clip quiz

You can incorporate movies into just about any lesson, giving students a welcome moment of relaxation and respite from learning (or so they think!). Movies and TV shows provide a more authentic speed of real world speech.

Need inspiration for videos to use in class? Check out FluentU’s ever-growing collection of English language videos taken from real-world sources like children’s shows, Disney movies, music videos, funny YouTube videos, inspiring talks and more. We’ve got plenty of bite-sized clips which are perfect for in-class activities.

Using FluentU, students will be more engaged in this activity and they’ll learn the material even better. Not only does FluentU offer video, but it offers scaffolding that isn’t available anywhere else; students will find authentic content approachable, interesting and totally within reach. Plus, with such a diversity of great content you’re guaranteed to find something that your class will love.

The game plan:

• Give students a question to answer, dividing them into teams.

• Begin watching the clip. To play, students must pay close attention and stand up when they hear the answer to the question. Pause the movie and see if the first person who stood up knows the correct answer.

• Ask the second question. Repeat. Alternatively, you can give the students a list of questions to answer and allow the clip to play through entirely. Then you see who has the most correct answers at the end.

7. Song gap-fill

Songs are a great way to engage reluctant listeners, as they can be tailored perfectly to fit the preferences of the students. Why not use the latest pop song? Lyric repetition is welcomed here!

The game plan:

• Give each student/pair the song lyrics with some words missing. To make it easier you can put the missing words in a box at the top of the page.

• Play the song, pausing if necessary. The aim is for the students to fill in the missing words.

• Once at the end, go through the answers to see which student/pair got the most correct.

8. Order-the-lyrics

This activity is a variation on the above, giving students practice in noticing the subtle differences between lyrics in music.

The game plan:

• Pairs get a set of the song lyrics cut up into lines.

• As they listen to the chosen song, they have to put the lyrics in the right order on the table. Repeat the song if necessary. You can always have a sing-along after the activity is completed!

9. Listen and throw

Of course, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t go back to your trusty textbook audio CD. Go ahead, and spice up the accompanying activities to make this CD even more valuable as a learning tool. In this exercise, students are listening for a specific answer to a question in an audio dialogue.

The game plan:

• Sit the students in a circle and split them into three or four teams.

• Give each individual a piece of paper that’s their team color. Have them scrunch the paper into a ball.

• Place three baskets in the middle of the circle, each with a possible answer written on it.

• Ask a question relating to the listening exercise — this should preferably be something that appears near the end of the dialogue. For example, “Whose birthday is it?”

• Students listen to the dialogue and throw their paper ball when they know the answer. Count the colors in the correct basket to determine the winner.

10. Slap the picture

This activity uses friendly competition to encourage sharp listening and quick reaction times. A good activity for when students are getting tired or losing concentration.

The game plan:

• Students sit opposite each other in pairs, with pre-prepared words in between them. There should be no more than eight words, and students should look at them first to familiarize themselves.

• As they listen to a chosen dialogue, they have to slap the correct word when they hear it. Fastest slap wins a point! They can keep a tally as they go along to see who the winner is.

Whatever the activity, whatever the age or level, the most important thing is for your students to stay engaged by being challenged, doing something new and having fun.

And One More Thing…

Searching for fun, authentic videos to boost your students’ English listening skills? Check out FluentU!

It’s got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you’re looking for songs for in-class activities. You’ll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids’ singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.

On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.

For example, if a student taps on the word “brought,” they’ll see this:

Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like “fill in the blank.”

It’s perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it’s guaranteed to get your students excited about English!

The full FluentU video library is available on any computer or tablet, and users can even download the app at the iTunes and Google Play store.

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.

Your adult students crave conversation more than anything else.

Career-minded businesspeople, retirees and young adults itching to travel, immigrants living in a new country—they all want practical English that will keep them involved a meaningful discussion and not sidelined by the inability to engage.

A bit of conversation in the classroom goes a long way.

Listening, developing responses and putting critical English thinking caps on are among the trending skills that adult ESL students really want.

These are the skills that will let them get out there, survive on their own, navigate new places, meet new people and get anything done.

Give your adult students what they yearn for by utilizing a few, or all, of these fetching adult conversation lessons!

What Sets Adult Conversation Lessons Apart?

It is simple. Adult ESL lessons are often geared toward learning English for a specific purpose.

Career advancement is often the most common reason adult ESL learners will fill the seats of your classroom. There is usually a balance of these ladder climbers and general English learners (learning for learning’s sake) coupled with those who need English for conversation with family, friends, partners and natives met during travels.

As noted earlier, the element of travel may definitely be a motive for adults to take up English. You may have a handful of retirees breach your door’s threshold in search of vital travel English for their upcoming trip, or young adults ready to see the whole world.

Yaariyan full movie free download. So, combining the business topics with more general interest topics will give your adult ESL students the essential skills they need to communicate effectively with foreign friends, family, colleagues and/or clients.

When teaching adult ESL students, it is important to focus on practical English vocabulary. You want your adult students to be able to communicate efficiently, be understood and have the vocabulary comprehension to soak up sentences they may have outside the classroom. You may need to introduce a few words or phrases that may not be so grammatically sound, but that is all right for your adult students.

It is also vital to focus on practical conversations in your adult ESL lessons. Think about your own personal conversations with colleagues, clients, friends and family. What do you talk about? What type of language or tone do you use in different conversational settings? Recording a few of your daily conversations could make a great deal of difference to you and your adult students when reviewing native English conversations in class.

How to Develop Conversation Skills with English Levels in Mind

During your career as an ESL teacher, you may find a myriad of diverse adult students, with diverse skills and needs, filling the spaces around your classroom table.

The degree of challenge you will implement in your adult conversation lessons will most certainly depend on your students’ levels.

The differences in vocabulary may not be so different, but the sentence construction and focus on grammar might be. For example, while focusing on the words “job” and “work” with your students, the context, depth and sentence structure for each word may vary. For example:

• For beginner adult students: What is your job?

• For intermediate adult students: Do you enjoy your job?

• For advanced adult students: What is the single greatest joy of your current job?

You can see the difference in how you would interact with your students in conversation.

Regardless of the level of language you are teaching, the emphasis on introducing vocabulary with context and practical usage for the future is quite possibly the most foundational aspect of teaching adult ESL conversation lessons.

Let’s take a look at five wonderful ways to converse effectively with your adult students of different English levels using various topics.

1. Talking Jobs

This conversation lesson is exceptional for your beginner adult students. It implements key vocabulary that is easy to follow while discussing the target topics of work, jobs, likes and dislikes. The essential ESL skills that are built during this lesson include reading, listening, communication, informative discussion, vocabulary and developing questions and answers that bolster practical conversation.

You will first focus on the reading and listening comprehension involved in this activity. Your beginner students will read a short text, after you read it out loud first in order to develop listening skills vital to conversation.

Sample Text:

Tom is a banker. He works banking hours, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the National Bank of Ohio. Tom truly likes his job and attended university for his degree in finance and accounting. Tom really likes his colleagues. He likes working with them, and he likes discussing their weekend experiences on Monday morning with them too. Tom also likes the people who come to the bank, especially his regulars.

Sample Comprehension Questions:

• What is Tom’s job?

• Where does he work?

• What does he like about his job?

• Did Tom go to university for his job?

• What did Tom study?

The simplicity of the comprehension questions is important for your beginner students. You want to keep them engaged without discouraging them with challenging questions right out of the gate. Here are a few more examples for this beginner conversation lesson here.

Now that your students have a handle on Tom’s job and can answer questions relating to it, open the floor for them to discuss their work. This is when the practical conversation comes into play.

Ask them about their work. Even if you have already discussed these topics, your students are much more warmed up this time around. You can also record the follow-up discussion and discuss that with your students later.

Sample Conversation Questions:

• Would you like Tom’s job? Why or why not?

• Do you like your job? Why or why not?

• What do you like about your work?

• What don’t you like about your work?

• What are some different jobs done by your colleagues?

2. Grocery Shopping

Conducting a grocery shopping ESL lesson with your adult students may seem elementary, but it is a daily task that is actually a large part of how your student may navigate simple conversation.

If your students begin to doubt your abilities when you mention this lesson, thinking it seems like far too simple a topic to need covering in class, take those students to the grocery store—or make up a faux grocery store in your classroom with printed pictures and food items—and begin asking them multiple questions in English. They will soon find the importance of such a seemingly simple lesson.

For this conversation lesson, you will need to build a dialogue surrounding grocery shopping. Maybe you could even record your next shopping experience with a friend or family member to get some more creative ideas as well, capturing things that naturally unfold during a routine shopping trip.

Communication, dialogue, vocabulary building and snappy English thought are all ESL skills represented in this wonderful conversation lesson for your adult students.

Sample Dialogue:

A: What do we need to get?

B: I forgot our shopping list at home.

A: Are you serious? Don’t joke with me.

B: I did, I am really sorry. Can’t believe I did that again.

A: Well, I think we need carrots, chicken, butter…

B: And milk and eggs, don’t forget those.

A: Right!

B: Should we get ice cream?

A: Remember the last time we got ice cream? It was delicious, but we ate too much!

The value of this example dialogue is to show your students how many questions and answers are commonly found in English conversation. People will often ask you things, from the small to the very, very big.

It also highlights areas of not so proper grammar, but is still how many native English speakers converse.

Sample Comprehension Questions:

• What are these people doing?

• What did they forget to bring to the store?

• Have they forgotten the shopping list before?

• What did they need to buy?

• Do they want ice cream?

Once you and your students have built a solid foundation of understanding with these questions, practicing with a few great dialogue scripts, like this similar example you can also use, takes it all to a real-world level.

As suggested before, at this point you could accompany your students to a grocery store or create a pretend grocery store in your classroom. Either way, this is a great environment to begin a natural, free-flowing discussion surrounding shopping, cooking, what they eat normally or any other related topic that comes to mind.

Sample Conversation Questions:

• What do you normally get for food?

• Do you buy everything for the week? For the month? Or do you shop daily? Why?

• How do you choose your carrots, peppers, chicken?

• Do you normally shop alone or with someone? Why?

• Have you ever talked to anyone at the grocery store, and what did you talk about?

3. Superstitions

This conversation lesson has plenty of discussion opportunities built into it.

Discussing superstitions, especially the bizarre ones, can bring about all sorts of colorful conversations. This lesson is excellent for your intermediate adult students with a focus on new vocabulary, discussion, reading, listening, opinions, storytelling and creative English expression.

First, you will want to set the stage for the superstition communication to take place. It is possible that your students know what superstitions are, but have never known the word to describe them until now.

Sample Conversation Questions:

• Do you believe in superstitions?

• Do you believe in luck?

• Are there certain people, places, things or events that are lucky or unlucky?

• Do you believe in ghosts or spirits from another dimension?

• What are some superstitions from your culture?

• What is the most strange, unbelievable superstition you have ever heard?

Since superstitions are rarely discussed in English classrooms, the vocabulary and conversation will evoke some serious English brain fuel to get things moving in the right direction. However, once it does, everything will begin to flow smoothly and so will the conversation!

Once the concept of superstition is developed, begin introducing some new superstitions that will provoke more discussion between students.

Pair your students up and give each pair a worksheet with several superstitions and their meanings. Each superstition will have a few questions your paired up students can utilize to spark up practical and inventive conversation.

Sample Conversation Questions Based On Common Superstitions:

• It is bad luck to put your hat on a bed. Have you ever put your hat on a bed? Do you do that a lot? Do you believe in this superstition? Will you put your hat on a bed now that you know about this superstition?

• To avoid bad luck, you should knock on wood when good fortune is brought up. Have you seen anyone do this? Have you done this before? What would you knock on if you can’t find wood? Do you believe in this superstition?

• A ringing ear means someone is thinking about you. Do you think this is true? How will this change your perspective when your ear rings?

• Breaking a mirror is seven years bad luck. Have you ever broken a mirror? Do you believe in this superstition? Why or why not?

You could even fold a personal writing activity into this lesson, having students dictate their conversation partners’ answers to the questions. You can utilize these great superstition examples for developing this lesson plan further.

4. Career Cache

This lesson is similar to the beginner lesson previously discussed. However, this lesson is more concentrated for listening comprehension, a valuable ESL skill in communication, and wonderful for your intermediate adult students.

The ESL skills involved in this conversation lesson include listening, communication, English thought and expression when answering questions during discussion.

For this lesson, you will need to develop a few short paragraphs explaining different people’s careers, similar to the previous beginner conversation lesson on jobs and work, but more robust in description.

First you will read the short career captions, having your students listen only. This will allow them to hone those vital listening skills! There are plenty of excellent examples you can draw from on the Internet, like this one, to make this lesson a home run for your adult students.

Sample Text:

Copyright © 2016 lesterbanks all rights reserved. Maya vray materials. I will show you how to use reflection and refraction parameters inside the V-Ray Material and will show you what the important checkboxes like Fresnel and IOR are doing For the most part, the is fairly straight forward and being a monolithic physical shader is capable of mimicking any surface from glass to metals, to wood.

Harry is a firefighter and he loves his demanding job. Harry wakes up very early in the morning, at around 5 a.m. on the days he works and drives 30 minutes to the fire station in downtown Los Angeles. He needs to know a lot about different firefighter techniques and tools. He also needs to have basic medical knowledge for emergencies. He really likes his fellow firefighters, especially Larry, his best friend. They completed firefighter training together. Harry works 24 hours straight and is then off of work for two days.

Sample Comprehension Questions:

• What does Harry do for work?

• Does he like his job?

• What does Larry do for work?

• At around what time does Harry need to get up on working days?

• Does Harry like his colleagues?

• What skills does Harry need to perform his job effectively?

• How long is Harry’s shift at the fire station?

You can develop several of these career-minded paragraphs and comprehension questions. After a few, let your students develop a short paragraph about their careers and have them read them out loud to you or to partners.

Break them down into pairs (if they are not already in pairs) and have them listen to each other’s job descriptions while they read them aloud again. Then they should take turns asking each other questions about those job descriptions.

Then your students can ask you a few comprehension questions to spark more conversation during this communicative conversation lesson.

5. Coffee Table Controversy

This conversation lesson is perfect for your advanced students ready to discuss current events that may be controversial and trending on various news outlets.

The ESL skills your advanced adult students will gain from this exceptional communication building lesson are reading, listening, English expression, critical English thought, vocabulary and advanced grammar. You may even find it useful to add a few idioms or phrasal verbs as well, depending on your students’ comfort levels.

First you will need to find a controversial issue that may be of importance to your students. It is always a wonderful idea to find a topic that relates and/or will be of interest in order to keep your class engaged. You can use utilize the below example or check out this link for more great ideas.

Sample Text:

The overfishing of the Pacific Ocean has become a very serious debate over the last few decades. Asian countries have been the brunt of much negative press after fishing vessels in the Pacific pull up giant whales for the fishery market. Many North American and European activists are wholeheartedly against the business of catching and killing whales for food. However, many Asian countries maintain that it is part of their culture and subsistence practices.

Sample Conversation Questions:

• Does your culture eat any food that may be controversial to other cultures? What kind of food? Have you had this experience?

• Do you think it is right for whales to be killed for food and/or science? Why or why not?

• What are your thoughts about other countries trying to stop the Asian fish industry from catching whales? Do you think it is just, or is it an intrusion on their culture?

• Do you think catching whales for food is the same as beef markets in North America and Europe?

Developing conversation lessons for your adult ESL class is essential to the growth and success of your students, both in language learning and professionally.

They will have the exceptional support and knowledge of you while they navigate practical adult conversations that will keep them in the discussion at work with colleagues and clients.

Your students will also develop faster response times to questions and begin honing their listening skills as conversations happen in real time, just like a native speaker.

And One More Thing…

Searching for fun, authentic videos to introduce your students to English conversation? Check out FluentU!

It’s got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you’re looking for songs for in-class activities. You’ll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids’ singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.

On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.

For example, if a student taps on the word “brought,” they’ll see this:

Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like “fill in the blank.”

It’s perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it’s guaranteed to get your students excited about English!

The full FluentU video library is available on any computer or tablet, and users can even download the app at the iTunes and Google Play store.

Stephen Seifert is a writer, editor, professor of English and adventurer. With over 8 years of teaching experience to students worldwide, he enjoys the many aspects of culture and traditions different from his own. Stephen continues his search for writing inspiration, boldly enjoying life to the fullest.

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.