Songs for Listening Practice

Music can be a very motivating way for students to improve their listening comprehension, but not every song lends itself well to a listening activity. Lyrics can be extremely difficult to understand (even for native speakers sometimes!) and they often use poetic language that isn’t phrased the way people usually speak. 

And of course you want to share songs with lyrics that are appropriate to your learners (for many contexts it may be best to steer clear of suggestive themes or strong language). It can take a bit of digging to find songs that work well as listening comprehension activities! 

When choosing a lyric video to share with your students, you also need to take into consideration how readable the lyrics are, which depends on the font, text and background color, text animations, how many lines of text appear on the screen at a time, etc.

I’d like to share three songs with you that I have used successfully for listening activities in my own classes. My students and I enjoyed working with these songs, and I hope you will enjoy trying them out with your students! 

What a Wonderful World - Louie Armstrong

You can’t go wrong with this classic! Although Louie doesn’t have the clearest pronunciation, the words move slowly and have good separation, which make them easy to understand.

Activity ideas:

• Talk about the poetic word order used in “trees of green,” “skies of blue,” etc. What would be a standard way to describe these colors? (Green trees, blue skies, etc.)

• What other exclamations could you express with “What a ___!” Explain that this is also a poetic way of expressing wonder and isn’t used often in normal speech, but you can say things like, “What a gorgeous sunset!”, “What a cutie!” (for a baby or small child), or “What a delicious meal!” Have students suggest other possibilities and discuss in which situations they might be appropriate.

• What do you think the line “they’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know” means? What does the ‘ll in these words represent?

• After students have had a chance to listen a couple of times following along with the lyrics, give them a cloze activity. Copy lyrics into a document from a lyrics site and delete important words that you think students will be familiar with (or ones you will focus on in class prior to this activity.) Have students listen to the song (audio only) and fill in the missing words.

• Give students a writing assignment or conversation activity to talk about what they can see out of a window at home. How does the scenery change throughout the year in different seasons?

I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash

This is a fun song to listen to on a rainy day! The relaxed pace of the music makes the lyrics easy to understand.

Activity Ideas:

• Talk about the poetic word order used in “gone are the dark clouds.” What would be a standard way to say this phrase? (The dark clouds are gone.)

• What are some different situations when you could say, “I can see clearly”? (I can see clearly when I wear my glasses, I can see clearly during the day, I can see clearly when I read close to a lamp, etc.) What are some situations when you can’t see clearly?

• Look around the room–what are some obstacles you would encounter if you couldn't see? 

• What is straight ahead of you right now? What are some things that are all around in the room?

• Give students a writing assignment or conversation activity to talk about common obstacles to learning English.

My Favorite Things - Julie Andrews

I recommend watching the movie clip from The Sound of Music first to give students better context, then use the lyric video to focus on vocabulary.

Activity ideas:

• What are some of the things that help you feel better if you’re feeling down? It could be things, people, animals, or activities!

• How would we say “I simply remember” in normal, everyday language? (just instead of simply)

• Have students ask each other “Have you ever been bitten by a dog? Have you ever been stung by a bee?” Ask students who said yes to tell the story of what happened. 

• Talk about the foods apple strudel and schnitzel with noodles. Explain that this movie takes place in Austria and these foods are traditional Austrian foods. Talk about “comfort food,” which is often the foods that we grew up eating as children that bring back good memories. Which foods are “comfort food” for you? How does eating these foods make you feel?

These three examples are just the beginning–the sky’s the limit when it comes to songs used as listening practice! The best part is the way they can serve as inspiration for lots of fun conversation topics. 

I encourage you to find your own songs to share with your class–the best songs to use are the ones you love yourself, since you will communicate that joy and enthusiasm to your students.