Recommended Website of the Week: Randall's Lab

Listening can be one of the hardest skills to train for English learners, since we cannot always have as much exposition to the language as we actually need. One of the best recommendations to keep on improving your listening skills is to have short practice sessions, if possible every day, so that you can train your ears to identify the different sounds of English. Always remember it's not necessary to understand %100 of the information you listen to, but at least you should get the main idea and identify some specific, relevant information.

For your daily or weekly practice, we recommend you a website that you'll find very practical and useful: Randall's Lab (www.esl-lab.com). Here you have listening exercises for elementary, intermediate and advanced levels, in addition to material for learners who are getting prepared for international examinations and listening resources for ESP (English for Specific Purposes) courses. One limitation this website has is that all the listening exercises are only multiple choice instead of offering a wider variety of activities for comprehension.

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Something really nice about this website is that it also offers you study tips that you'll find very useful, in addition to the vocabulary quizzes that, of course, will help you understand what you'll listen. As a teacher or as a student, you can explore the many resources it has for all of you!

If you really want to improve your listening skills, here's a challenge for you: you may set a specific time of the week for your listening practice (at least once) and choose a weekly topic so as to work on the necessary vocabulary. Make sure you check the pre-listening questions, which will help you prepare and predict the possible information you'll find out. Then have a go with the listening activity (select a topic according to your level) and, once you get your score, reinforce your skills with the vocabulary activities offered. Make the most of your experience on this website!

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Have you tried Randall's Lab before? Can you tell us about your experience on this site or about any other website you know to practise listening? Have you got any other extra tip to improve one's listening skills? Please have your say and leave your comment!