Listening & Reading Practice

Why listening and dictation practice works

Dictation is one of the oldest – and still one of the most effective – ways to train English listening. When you type exactly what you hear, you cannot skip the small words that carry grammar: articles, endings, prepositions and weak forms like “of” and “to”. Regular dictation sharpens your ear for connected speech, fixes your spelling, and quietly reviews grammar at the same time. It is the closest thing to a listening gym.

What you can practise here

Our listening section combines video-based exercises with type-what-you-hear dictation at different levels. You listen to a short recording, type it, and the checker highlights every difference between your answer and the original – instantly, word by word. You can replay each sentence as many times as you need and slow the audio down while you are learning. Everything is free and runs in your browser with no sign-up.

How to practise effectively

Little and often wins: ten minutes of dictation a day beats an hour once a week. Listen to the whole sentence first, then type – don’t pause mid-phrase, because real listening happens in chunks. When you make a mistake, say the sentence aloud correctly before moving on; connecting your ear, hand and mouth is what makes it stick. When an exercise feels easy at normal speed, move up a level.

I understand recordings but not real people. Why?

Real speech is full of linked and reduced sounds – “want to” becomes “wanna”, “did you” becomes “didja”. Dictation trains exactly this: after a few weeks you will start hearing the words that used to disappear.