ESL Banking Listening

This page contains ESL banking listening exercises to help you get better at understanding spoken banking vocabulary.

All of the exercises on this page are linked to the banking vocabulary, so if you need help understanding any of the words you can see that page, which also has the spoken banking vocabulary so you can listen to the pronunciation. 

This page has the following exercises:

• Identify the order of a group of spoken banking vocabulary items
• Identification of the meaning of a spoken definition from the banking vocabulary list
• Listening comprehension passage with questions
• Dictation passage

ESL Banking Listening Exercises

Exercise 1 – Identification of Spoken Word Order

This exercise has 5 questions with 5 vocabulary words in each question. Listen to the recording of the 5 words for each question and then choose the option (A-D) that has the words listed in the same order as they are spoken. You can pause the recording after each group of words if you need to, and listen to it more than once if needed.

ESL Banking 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) Bank manager, Credit card, Payee, Debit card, Counter
    B) Counter, Payee, Bank manager, Debit card, Credit card
    C) Debit card, Payee, Credit card, Bank manager, Counter
    D) Bank manager, Debit card, Payee, Counter, Credit card

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

    A) Borrow, Interest, Standing order, Loan, Overdraft
    B) Overdraft, Standing order, Borrow, Loan, Interest
    C) Loan, Standing order, Interest, Borrow, Overdraft
    D) Borrow, Loan, Standing order, Overdraft, Interest

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

    A) Branch, Current account, ATM, Bank statement, Account
    B) Account, ATM, Branch, Bank statement, Current account
    C) Bank statement, ATM, Current account, Branch, Account
    D) Branch, Bank statement, ATM, Account, Current account

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

    A) Transaction, Cash, Debit card, Bank card, Overdraft
    B) Overdraft, Debit card, Transaction, Bank card, Cash
    C) Bank card, Debit card, Cash, Transaction, Overdraft
    D) Transaction, Bank card, Debit card, Overdraft, Cash

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

    A) Paying-in slip, Advisor, Payee, Deposit, Credit card
    B) Credit card, Payee, Paying-in slip, Deposit, Advisor
    C) Deposit, Payee, Advisor, Paying-in slip, Credit card
    D) Paying-in slip, Deposit, Payee, Credit card, Advisor

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 2 – Identify Meaning of Spoken Definition

Listen to the recording of the definitions of 5 vocabulary items and identify the matching word (from options A-D in each question). 

ESL Banking 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) Balance
    B) Branch
    C) Cash
    D) Counter

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

    A) Account
    B) Main branch
    C) Guard
    D) Advisor

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

    A) Deposit
    B) Identification
    C) Passbook
    D) Loan

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

    A) Transaction
    B) Withdrawal
    C) Cash
    D) Counter

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

    A) Interest
    B) Open an account
    C) Standing order
    D) Bank services

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 3 – Listening Comprehension

In this exercise listen to the recording of the passage “How Banks Work” and answer the 5 questions. You can listen to the passage a few times if you need to, but not too often. Try to get the answers quickly. Possibly read the questions first.

I have also included the text of the spoken passage after the questions if you get stuck and need to read it. It has been hidden and you need to click the button to display it.

ESL Banking Listening Comprehension

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

1) What are the two basic types of customers of a bank?

    A) Savers and lenders
    B) Savers and borrowers
    C) Borrowers and lenders
    D) Lenders and hoarders

2) One way of paying money into an account is by visiting the branch, what is the other?

    A) By post
    B) By online banking
    C) By couriers
    D) There is only one way

3) What are the two ways mentioned to pay into an account when using a bank teller?

    A) Cash and cheque
    B) Cash and wire transfer
    C) Electronic transfer and cheque
    D) Electronic transfer and wire transfer

4) Which of the following is something that limits how much money you can borrow, according to the passage?

    A) Your savings
    B) Your future earnings
    C) How much you can pay back each month
    D) How much you have borrowed in the past

5) Why do banks need savers and borrowers?

    A) To have money to lend to the borrowers
    B) To get loan interest payments to pay savers
    C) To be able to make a profit
    D) All of the above

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 4 – Dictation

The following recording is of a letter written by a customer to a bank to complain about a problem. Listen to the passage and try to write it down exactly. The recording has the passage spoken twice: the first part has it spoken at a slow reading speed and the second has pauses so you have time to write (this one also has the punctuation included). If you need to, listen to the recording twice.

The text of the dictation passage is included below but is hidden at the moment. Click the following button to see the text once you have finished the dictation so you can see how much you got correct.

Listening Comprehension and Dictation Passages

Listening Comprehension Passage
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Dictation Passage
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