TOEFL iBT® Listening Course
Build the listening skills the test measures with real English: short lessons, videos from teachers and universities, podcasts, and famous speeches, each with questions that explain every answer. Your answers and notes are saved in this browser; when you are signed in, the lessons you complete are saved to your account too.
Ready to practice the test itself? Go to the TOEFL iBT Listening sets.
Unit 0
Welcome and the Listening section
The four tasks, the two modules, timing and scoring, and how to use this course.
Unit 1
Active listening toolkit
Predicting, key words, connected speech, stress and intonation, signposts, note-taking, and the accents you will hear.
- Predict before you listenUse the setting line and your own knowledge to guess what you will hear. 25 minB1-B2
- Key words and fillersStressed content words carry the meaning. Fillers like "um" carry little content, but they tell you something is coming. 35 minB1-B2
- Connected speechLinking, weak forms and reductions like "gonna" and "wanna": why real speech sounds different from the textbook.Members
- Stress and intonation: hearing attitudeThe same words can mean different things. Stress shows the point; the rise and fall of the voice shows the feeling.Members
- Signpost languageThe words lecturers use to show where a talk is going: the map of every academic talk.Members
- Note-taking that helpsShort notes, symbols and a clear layout, then practice on a real five-minute talk.Members
- Accent tour: UK, Australia, CanadaThe TOEFL uses speakers from North America, the UK and Australia. Get used to each one.Members
Unit 2
Listen and Choose a Response
Question types, indirect replies, and the five traps in the answer choices.
- Question types and indirect repliesWhat kind of line did you hear? The answer decides what a good reply looks like.Members
- The five trapsThe wrong choices are built in predictable ways. Learn to spot them fast.Members
Unit 3
Listen to a Conversation
Find the problem, follow the decision, understand what people really mean.
- The problem, the decision, the next stepCampus conversations follow a pattern. Follow it and the questions become predictable.Members
Unit 4
Listen to an Announcement
Purpose first, then the changes, instructions and deadlines.
- Purpose, changes and instructionsOne speaker, one message: why are they speaking, what changed, and what should you do?Members
Unit 5
Listen to an Academic Talk
How lectures are built, and the five kinds of question they bring.
- How talks are builtTopic, definition, example, contrast: follow the map and take notes that answer the questions.Members
Unit 6
Real-world listening library
Podcasts, talks, short videos and a famous speech from the US, the UK, Australia and Canada, with questions.
- Podcast: How do we describe smells?BBC 6 Minute English (UK). A conversation about why English has so few words for smells.Members
- Talk: The stars we are losingAustralian astrophysicist Kirsten Banks on light pollution and 65,000 years of Aboriginal astronomy.Members
- Talk: How trees talk to each otherCanadian forest scientist Suzanne Simard describes an experiment that changed how we see forests.Members
- Speech: "We choose to go to the Moon"President Kennedy at Rice University, Houston, 1962: purpose, reasons and persuasion in a famous public-domain speech.Members
- Video: Make a strong passwordA short Canadian government video on passphrases and keeping passwords safe.Members
- Talk: Earthquakes in AustraliaTwo speakers from Geoscience Australia on the national earthquake alert center and why earthquakes make news.Members
- Science update: A year at YellowstoneA US government scientist reports a year of earthquakes, ground movement and geysers at Yellowstone.Members
- Video: Why prices feel different to youStatistics Canada explains the Consumer Price Index through a story about a mother and her son.Members
Unit 7
Test-day plan and review routine
Checklists for the days before, a routine for each task, pacing, guessing and staying calm on test day, and a four-step review that turns every mistake into practice.
- Before the test: your test-day planThe week before, the night before and the morning: checklists, a warm-up and the rules to check.Members
- During the section: a routine for each taskFour simple routines, the traps to watch for, smart guessing and a reset for hard moments.Members
- After practice: how to review a setAn error log and a four-step review, so every mistake teaches you something.Members