Listening Activities
A collection of 40 lessons designed to help learners build essential listening comprehension skills through focused practice with everyday English.
Table of contents
What are Listening Activities?
The Listening Activities series is a collection of lessons designed to help learners build essential listening comprehension skills through focused practice with everyday English. These lessons provide carefully structured opportunities to hear authentic-sounding dialogues and monologues, enabling learners to develop the ability to recognize sounds, understand key information, and follow real-life conversations.
Target students
The Listening Activities series is designed for early-stage learners who need structured practice to improve their comprehension of spoken English. It is particularly useful for students who struggle to connect written grammar and vocabulary knowledge to real-world listening situations.
The lessons are organized from Beginner (CEFR A1, WIDA 1.0 Entering) to Upper Beginner (CEFR A2, WIDA 2.0 Emerging) levels, making them an ideal foundation for learners at the start of their English journey.
Key features
All Listening Activities feature:
- Clear focus on listening skills: Activities designed to improve sound recognition, comprehension, and contextual understanding.
- Gradual progression: Lessons build listening ability step by step, from individual words to sentences and short dialogues.
- Integrated grammar and vocabulary: Listening tasks reinforce the key structures and lexis introduced at each stage.
- Practical topics: Everyday contexts help learners connect their classroom learning with real-life communication.
- Flexible use: Standalone lessons allow teachers to target specific listening skills or supplement other lesson series.
Lesson details & links
The lesson name (with link) and objectives are listed below for a quick overview of each lesson. Click a lesson name to launch it directly from this article. To see a spreadsheet of all Off2Class lessons, click here.
| Lesson & Link | Objectives |
| LA001 - Hello-and-Good-Bye | To introduce basic greeting vocabulary (e.g. hello, good-bye, good morning, bye, see you tomorrow). To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA002 - Giving-Your-Name-and-Personal-ID | To demonstrate the spelling of names and pronunciation of numbers when providing personal information. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA003 - Names-and-Personal-Information | To demonstrate the spelling of names and pronunciation of numbers when providing personal information. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA004 - What’s-and-It’s | To demonstrate the spelling of names and pronunciation of numbers when providing personal information. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA005 - To-Be-and-Yes-No-Questions | To demonstrate the use of to be in yes/no questions, including short answers. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA006 - Present-Simple-Daily-Routine | To demonstrate the use of the present simple to talk about daily routines and habits. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA007 - Present-Simple-Negative-and-Short-Answers | To demonstrate the use of the present simple negative form and present simple short answers. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA008 - Present-Simple-Information-Questions | To demonstrate the use of the present simple in information questions. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA009 - Present-Simple-About-Yourself | To demonstrate the use of the present simple to talk about ourselves. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA010 - Present-Simple-Likes-and-Dislikes | To demonstrate the use of the present simple to talk about likes and dislikes. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA011 - There-Is-There-Are-In-My-City | To demonstrate the use of there is and there are, including positive, negative and questions forms. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA012 - Some-A-Lot-Of-A-Couple-Of | To demonstrate the use of some, a lot of and a couple of. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA013 - Timetables-and-Schedules | To demonstrate the use of present simple to talk about timetables and schedules. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA014 - Present-Continuous-Answering-Machine | To demonstrate the use of the present continuous to talk about events happening now and around now. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA015 - Present-Continuous-Making-Conversation | To demonstrate the use of the present continuous to talk about events happening now and around now. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA016 - Want-Need-Have-To-Going-Shopping | To demonstrate the use of want, need and have to in everyday spoken English. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA017 - This-That-These-Those-Making-Choices | To demonstrate the use of this, that, these and those when making choices in everyday spoken English. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA018 - Can-and-Can't-In-My-Town | To demonstrate the use can and can’t in everyday spoken English, in the context of activities to do in your hometown. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA019 - Nation-Nationality-Language | To demonstrate the use of words that describe nations, nationalities and languages. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA020 - Past-Simple-To-Be | To demonstrate the use of to be in the past simple, including positive and negative forms. To provide controlled and free tasks to promote listening skills. |
| LA021 - Past-Simple-Pronunciation-of-Ed-for-Regular-Verbs | To model the pronunciation of –ed for regular verbs in the past simple (regular base verbs ending in /p/ /f/ /s/ /sh/ /tch/ /k/ > /t/; regular base verbs ending in /t/ and /d/ > /ɪd/; other regular verbs > /d/). To promote naturalness and fluency in the past simple. |
| LA022 - Past-Simple-Recounting-an-Event-in-the-Past | To practice the various pronunciations of –ed in regular verbs in the past simple. To practice the use of regular verbs to recount an event in the past. |
| LA023 - Past-Simple-Introduction-to-Irregular-Verbs | To introduce past simple irregular forms. To provide practice using the past simple in positive and negative forms. |
| LA024 - Past-Simple-Practicing-Irregular-Verbs | To introduce past simple irregular forms, including several commonly used irregular multiword verbs. To provide practice using the past simple in positive and negative forms. |
| LA025 - Past-Simple-Further-Practice-of-Irregular-Verbs | To introduce past simple irregular forms, including several commonly used irregular multiword verbs. To provide practice using the past simple in positive and negative forms. |
| LA026 - Past-Simple-Negative-Pronunciation | To model the pronunciation of past simple negative forms in everyday spoken English. To promote naturalness and fluency with these forms. |
| LA027 - Past-Simple-Questions-and-Short-Answers | To introduce past simple questions. To introduce short form answers for verbs other than to be. To introduce negative past simple questions, to confirm the speaker’s expectations about something. |
| LA028 - Present-Simple-Yes-No-Questions-To-Be | To provide further practice of present simple questions with to be. To introduce present simple negative questions, to confirm the speaker’s expectations. |
| LA029 - Present-Simple-Yes-No-Questions-Do-Does | To introduce the present simple question form for verbs other than to be, by using do insertion. To promote naturalness and fluency with these forms. |
| LA030 - Adverbs-of-Frequency-Habits-and-Habitual-Actions | To introduce common adverbs of frequency with habits and habitual actions. To ask ‘how often’ questions. |
| LA101 - Intensifiers-Very-Really-Pretty-So | To demonstrate the use of common intensifiers in informal spoken English. To promote naturalness and authentic spoken English by using these forms. |
| LA102 - Going-To+Verb-Pronunciation | To demonstrate the pronunciation of going to + base verb in everyday spoken English. To promote naturalness and fluency in these forms. |
| LA103 - How-Much-How-Many-Expressions-of-Quantity | To demonstrate how much + uncountable nouns and how many + countable plural nouns. To introduce common expressions of quantity. |
| LA104 - When-Things-Don't-Work-Returns-and-Repairs | To provide appropriate language to talk about faulty or broken items. To promote naturalness and fluency when requesting an exchange or repair. |
| LA105 - Can-Can't-Could-Couldn't-Ability-Permission-Probability | To demonstrate can, can’t, could and couldn’t for ability permission and probability. To promote naturalness and fluency in these forms. To introduce the idiom can’t stand. |
| LA106 - Have-To-and-Must-Obligation-and-Necessity | To demonstrate the use of have to and must for obligation and necessity. To demonstrate the difference in meaning between have to and must. To demonstrate the use of don’t have to as the negative form of have to and must |
| LA107 - Multiword-Verbs-Using-Common-Prepositional-Verbs | To introduce the most common prepositional verbs in spoken English. To demonstrate the use of an object with these verbs. To promote naturalness and fluency with these verbs |
| LA108 - Object-Pronouns-Practice-After-Prepositions | To practice the use of object pronouns after verbs and prepositions. To promote naturalness and fluency when using object pronouns |
| LA109 - Indefinite-Pronouns-Everyone-Everybody-Everything | To introduce the indefinite pronouns everyone, everybody and everything. To demonstrate the use of the plural pronoun their in spoken English when referring back to these pronouns. To promote naturalness and fluency with these forms |
| LA110 - Would-Like-Polite-Requests-and-Offers | To introduce would like and ‘d like in spoken English, for polite offers and requests. To promote naturalness and fluency of these forms |