Category Archives: Listening

The best IELTS Listening practice test?

Posted on 08/04/2025 by alexcase

An IELTS Listening practice test wish list, then two candidates for the prize. The perfect IELTS Listening test would have: It would also be nice to have a flowchart in Part 3 to tie in with Writing Task 1, even … Continue reading →

Posted in IELTS, Listening | Comments Off on The best IELTS Listening practice test?

Australian Broadcasting Corporation free podcasts

Posted on 28/12/2013 by alexcase

I’ve been recommending these Australian radio podcasts to my IELTS students for years, as many of them have problems with the Aussie accents in the listening paper. They are also worth a look for students who find BBC podcasts difficult … Continue reading →

Posted in Listening | 2 Comments

Testing and teaching detailed comprehension

Posted on 15/10/2013 by alexcase

Can’t remember how I got it into my head to write an article about such a huge and complex topic, but hopefully managed a mix of a summary of well-known but frequently ignored advice plus a few of my own less conventional ideas … Continue reading →

Posted in Listening, Reading | Comments Off on Testing and teaching detailed comprehension

The most useless listening exercise in the whole of TEFL?

Posted on 22/07/2013 by alexcase

There’s quite a lot of competition for this prize, but the task I’m talking about is astounding not only for it being almost impossible for students to either learn language or improve their listening skills from it, but also for … Continue reading →

Posted in Listening | 3 Comments

Does reading help speaking more than listening does?

Posted on 04/05/2012 by alexcase

… because that is what I told one of my students in a one to one class the other day. I then wondered where on earth I got that idea from – as I don’t remember ever having consciously coming … Continue reading →

Posted in Listening, Reading | 6 Comments

Live Listening quotes and links

Posted on 07/03/2010 by alexcase

“Live listening is where students are listening to people in a face-to-face situation – or whom they can physically see (such as in the theatre, etc). Different from listening to RECORDED EXTRACTS.” (definition from the ELT Wiki live listening page). … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative teaching techniques, Listening, Skills | 3 Comments

The complete guide to ELT Jargon Part 26

Posted on 20/11/2009 by alexcase

Update: Complete collection now here. Chat bots- Teachers who are reduced to automatic expressions of “interest” by a student who keeps on going on and on Cognitive strategies- Ways of avoiding having to think in class Connectionism- Knowing enough people … Continue reading →

Posted in Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, Listening | Tagged , | 6 Comments

New TEFL articles etc April 2009

Posted on 23/04/2009 by alexcase

No messing, no pointless attempts at humour (for once), just links to more serious stuff I’ve been publishing elsewhere: 15 ways of combining listening and reading – LINK FIXED 15 fun activities for practising a, an and the – LINK FIXED The … Continue reading →

Posted in Classroom management, Classroom routines, Determiners and articles, Ending lessons, Grammar, Grammar games, Interactive whiteboard, Learner motivation, links, Listening, Mixed ability classes, pre-school/ kindergarten/ very young learners, Reading, reported speech, Skills, Staging, Teaching mixed level classes, Teaching young learners, Technology, TEFL, TEFL games, Using a whiteboard, Usingenglish | 6 Comments

The most overrated things in TEFL Part One

Posted on 19/04/2009 by alexcase

Preteaching vocabulary The case for the prosecution: – I’ve had to train people on a “CELTA equivalent” course to teach three to five pieces of vocabulary, but if they ever asked why it couldn’t be two or zero I had … Continue reading →

Posted in Lesson planning, Listening, Pre-teaching vocabulary, Reading, Skills, Staging, TEFL, Vocabulary | 11 Comments

Listenings – why bother?

Posted on 29/03/2009 by alexcase

A guest piece by Andy Mallory “‘Doing a listening’ is a bit of TEFLese that has all but dropped out of my vocabulary of late. It’s still a staple of coursebooks, usually accompanied by a little cassette symbol (maybe a … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative teaching techniques, ELT publishing, Listening, Materials, Technology, textbooks | Tagged | 11 Comments