Listening to a language you are learning is a difficult activity. It is one of the skills that my English language learners take the longest to master, and for good reason. One way that I try to help my intermediate and advanced ELLs practice their listening skills is through TED Talk listening comprehension assignments. TED Talks are perfect because they are available on every topic you can imagine, not too long, and generally include a lot of academic vocabulary. This type of assignment is especially important for our older learners who wish to complete a college or university education in English. In order to be successful in this goal they will need to be able to listen to, and comprehend, lectures with little visual support. TED Talks give them the perfect opportunity to practice doing this in a low-stress environment. I also appreciate how TED does such a great job of providing a checked and verified translation of the transcript and closed captioning in so many languages. This added support is important for lower intermediate proficiency students.

This product contains a link to the talk on the TED website and questions for the students to answer. I stress to my students that questions must be answered in their own words, copying from the transcript will not be tolerated. An answer key follows each comprehension exercise.

I prefer to assign these TED Talk comprehension guides via a digital means, so students can click the link to go to the video. This allows them to be opened on virtually all devices and the Word format means students can type directly onto the document, making for easy digital assignments (or quick conversion to Google Docs, if you prefer). If you prefer to give them a paper copy I would advise also providing them with a direct link to the video.

The specific talk this guide is for is Five Ways To Kill Your Dreams.

For more information on how I use these guides, and other resources, see my blog post: Authentic Listening Practice.