ESL Baby Listening

On this ESL baby listening page there are listing tasks for you to do so you can practice listening to spoken English. Trying to understand spoken English is often hard for English learners, and this page will help you practice doing this.

For each of the tasks on this page there is a recording of the baby vocabulary being used by a native English speaker. You need to listen to the recordings and then do the tasks. When you see the answers to the tasks you will then be able to see how well you understood the spoken English. You can listen to the recordings as many times as you need, until you are able to understand them. If you are not sure how any of the baby vocabulary should sound when being spoken you can go to the ESL baby vocabulary page that has a recording of a native English speaker pronouncing the words.

There are four ESL baby listening tasks on this page as follows:

• Identification of spoken word order.
• Identification of spoken definition.
• Listening comprehension passage.
• Dictation passage.

ESL Baby Listening Exercises

Exercise 1 – Identification of Spoken Word Order

In this ESL baby listening activity you need to listen to the following recording and then decide which option (A-D) in each question has the word in the same order as in the recording. When you have finished you can see the correct answers by using the get score button.

ESL Baby Identification of Spoken Word Order

Listen to the recording of the five groups of five words each given above and decide which option (A-D) in the five questions in this test has the correct order.

1) Which is the correct order for group of words one?

    A) Cry, Drink, Baby lotion, Baby wipes, Nurse
    B) Cry, Nurse, Baby lotion, Drink, Baby wipes
    C) Baby lotion, Nurse, Cry, Drink, Baby wipes
    D) Baby lotion, Baby wipes, Drink, Nurse, Cry

2) Which is the correct order for group of words two?

    A) Hospital, Night, Scratch, Soft, Sink
    B) Hospital, Sink, Scratch, Night, Soft
    C) Scratch, Sink, Hospital, Night, Soft
    D) Scratch, Soft, Night, Sink, Hospital

3) Which is the correct order for group of words three?

    A) Highchair, Asleep, Cuddle, Point, Slide
    B) Highchair, Slide, Cuddle, Asleep, Point
    C) Cuddle, Slide, Highchair, Asleep, Point
    D) Cuddle, Point, Asleep, Slide, Highchair

4) Which is the correct order for group of words four?

    A) Pedal, Cradle, Baby, Noise, Solid
    B) Pedal, Solid, Baby, Cradle, Noise
    C) Baby, Solid, Pedal, Cradle, Noise
    D) Baby, Noise, Cradle, Solid, Pedal

5) Which is the correct order for group of words five?

    A) Drink, Bath, Nappy, Pushchair, Bedroom
    B) Drink, Bedroom, Nappy, Bath, Pushchair
    C) Nappy, Bedroom, Drink, Bath, Pushchair
    D) Nappy, Pushchair, Bath, Bedroom, Drink

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 2 – Identification of Spoken Definition

For this ESL baby listening task you again need to listen to the recording and this time decide which option (A-D) has the word that matches the definition form the recording. Then you can use the get score button to see the correct answers.

ESL Baby Listening Identification of Vocabulary Meaning

Listen to the recording of the meanings of the five vocabulary words given above and decide which word out of the options (A-D) in each question matches the meaning.

1) What is the meaning of the first definition in the recording?

    A) Bounce
    B) Hold
    C) Bottle
    D) Dummy

2) What is the meaning of the second definition in the recording?

    A) Stagger
    B) Slide
    C) Wheels
    D) Weigh

3) What is the meaning of the third definition in the recording?

    A) Paediatrician
    B) Nightlight
    C) Highchair
    D) Newborn

4) What is the meaning of the fourth definition in the recording?

    A) Hospital
    B) Sink
    C) Toys
    D) Distress

5) What is the meaning of the fifth definition in the recording?

    A) Personality
    B) Rock
    C) Health visitor
    D) Pacifier

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 3 – Listening Comprehension

For this ESL baby listening exercise you need to listen to the recording of the spoken comprehension passage and then answer the questions. You might need to listen a few times to fully understand the passage. Then once you have finished you can check your answers by clicking the get score button.

At the end of this page there is a link you can use to show the full text of the passage so you can check your understanding.

ESL Baby Listening Comprehension

Listen to the recording of the passage about baby above and answer the following five questions.

1) Why do two and three year olds want to make their own choices?

    A) They want to be naughty.
    B) They want to annoy their mother.
    C) They want to show their independence.
    D) They want to go to school.

2) How do they express their frustrations?

    A) They have tantrums.
    B) They laugh.
    C) They run about.
    D) They sit down and read a book.

3) In what other way do they express their disappointments?

    A) They shout.
    B) They hit somebody with their fists.
    C) They refuse to eat.
    D) They burst into tears.

4) How is 'quiet' time at the end of the day enjoyed?

    A) Sharing a book with an adult.
    B) Dancing.
    C) Playing football.
    D) Eating lots of food.

5) What do some children take to bed with them?

    A) A drink of water.
    B) A toy or comfort blanket.
    C) A football.
    D) A sweet lollipop.

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 4 – Dictation

In the final ESL baby listening exercise you need to listen to the recording of a spoken passage and then write it down exactly as it is said. The recording has the passage spoken twice: the first time at a slow speaking speed and the second time with pauses after every few words and the punctuation included.

At the end of the page there is a second link that you can use to show the full text of this passage. You can use this to check your answer and see how much of the passage you wrote down correctly.

Listening Comprehension Passage
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Dictation Passage
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