Take advantage of free English listening and speaking practices online. If you’re an ESL or EFL student, these free websites will help you improve your listening and speaking skills in English.
One of these is also very helpful for improving your vocabulary.
If you’re an English tutor, you can use the websites for your lessons.
- Breaking News English
- ESL LAB
- Talk English
- Other websites
Websites with free listening and speaking practices
These three websites I’m giving particular mention are the ones I highly recommend to my students. In the chart, Innovative Language is also one I particularly recommend for learning English and many other languages because it offers a free lifetime account.
Breaking News English is a great free website for all skills—reading, listening, writing, speaking, and vocabulary development.
It has so much to offer for ESL learning. Here, I have taken screenshots of a sample text for reading and listening. I’ve also included the 5-speed listening files and the dictation exercise. Lastly is a sample set of discussion questions for speaking practice with a tutor or a speaking partner.
ESL Lab is another good free website for listening. It has quizzes for basic, easy, intermediate, and advanced levels. Moreover, the site provides scripts for reading while listening. To maximize learning, do the given activities. Answer the pre-listening questions, read the idioms, and do the vocabulary practices. Do also the dictation, post-listening, and online investigation activities.
Additionally, if you speak or mimic what you hear while reading the script, you will improve your fluency in English speaking.
Talk English is an excellent site because it has exercises for listening, speaking, and pronunciation. It’s also free.
The best for me is the interactive practice where you can have the computer as your speaking partner. In most other exercises, you can practice shadowing. There are also instructions on how you can have optimal use of the website.
List of websites you can use for English listening and speaking practices
| Audio/ Video | Levels | Quiz | Gap Fill | Dictation | Transcript/ Text | Others | |
| BBC Learning English | audio and video | basic, intermediate (3) | yes | yes | grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation | ||
| Breaking News English | audio | 1-6 | yes | yes | yes | yes | vocabulary, ESL discussion |
| British Council | audio and video | beginner, intermediate (3), advanced | yes | grammar, vocabulary, free online English level assessment, business and general English, IELTS | |||
| Ello | audio and video | 1-7 | yes | different accents, grammar | |||
| English Central *You need to sign up. | video | beginner, intermediate, advanced | yes | grammar, pronunciation, business and general English, adults and kids, test preparation | |||
| English Class 101 | audio and video | beginner, intermediate, advanced | yes | iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps, audio books, ibooks, free lifetime account, paid premium membership | |||
| English Club | audio | beginner, intermediate (3) | yes | yes | yes | grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, discussion | |
| ESL Fast (Rong-Chang) | beginner, intermediate | grammar, writing | |||||
| ESL Lab (Randall’s) | audio and video | basic, easy, medium, difficult | yes | yes | yes | yes | vocabulary |
| ESL Video | video | beginner, intermediate, advanced | yes | yes | yes | ||
| Listen and Write | audio and video | 1-29 | yes | ||||
| Lyrics Gaps | video | easy, medium, hard | yes | ||||
| Lyrics Training *You need to sign up. | video | beginning, intermediate, advanced, expert | yes | yes | |||
| Many Things | audio and video | beginner, intermediate | |||||
| Sounds of English | audio | pronunciation | |||||
| Speech Yard *You need to sign up | audio and video | vocabulary, grammar, community | |||||
| Story Corps | video | ||||||
| Talk English | audio and video | basic, intermediate, advanced | yes | yes | interactive practice, pronunciation, grammar | ||
| USA Learns *You need to sign up. | video | beginning, intermediate | |||||
| VOA News Learning English | audio | beginner, intermediate, advanced | yes | vocabulary |
Some Final Words
Most of the above are for listening except for Talk English. However, I’d like to repeat that your pronunciation and speaking fluency will be greatly improved through listening. To maximize learning, speak what you hear.
Lastly, it is still advisable to have private lessons with an English tutor or have a speaking partner. At the moment, I am with Babbel and ABA English.
English Class 101 also offers private lessons through the Premium Plus Membership account which is very affordable at $23 per month. What are you waiting for? Visit Innovative Language or English Class 101 now and get a free lifetime account.
