ESL Sport Listening

This page about ESL sport listening will help you get better at understanding spoken sport vocabulary. This will help you when you need to have a conversation with someone as you will be able to understand what they say.

If you need any help to understand the vocabulary used on this page you can revise the list of words on the ESL sport vocabulary page. That page also has a recording of the vocabulary list so you can hear the correct pronunciation from a native English speaker.

There are 4 exercise on this page in which you will need to listen to spoken sport vocabulary and then answer questions or do a task. The 4 exercises are as follows:

• Identification of spoken word order
• Identification of the meaning of a spoken definition
• Listening comprehension
• Dictation

ESL Sport Listening Exercises

Exercise 1 – Identification of Spoken Word Order

For this ESL sport listening exercise the recording below has 5 groups of 5 words each, and you need to decide which option (A-D) in each of the questions has the words written in the same order as they are spoken in the recording. Listen to the recording several times if you need to. Once you have finished just click the get score button to see the answers.

ESL Sport 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) Playing field, Captain, Away, Play, Fun
    B) Fun, Playing field, Play, Away, Captain
    C) Playing field, Captain, Away, Fun, Play
    D) Playing field, Play, Fun, Away, Captain

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

    A) Ice-hockey, Opponent, Playing field, Ground, Cycling
    B) Cycling, Ice-hockey, Ground, Playing field, Opponent
    C) Ice-hockey, Opponent, Playing field, Cycling, Ground
    D) Ice-hockey, Ground, Cycling, Playing field, Opponent

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

    A) Stadium, Sport, Crowd, American football, Bat
    B) Bat, Stadium, American football, Crowd, Sport
    C) Stadium, Sport, Crowd ,Bat, American football
    D) Stadium, American football, Bat, Crowd, Sport

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

    A) Ground, Participants, Opponent, Net, Skis
    B) Skis, Ground, Net, Opponent, Participants
    C) Ground, Participants, Opponent, Skis, Net
    D) Ground, Net, Skis, Opponent, Participants

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

    A) Football, Hockey, Swim, Boxing ring, Coach
    B) Coach, Football, Boxing ring, Swim, Hockey
    C) Football, Hockey, Swim, Coach, Boxing ring
    D) Football, Boxing ring, Coach, Swim, Hockey

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 2 – Identification of Spoken Definition

For this ESL sport listening task you need to look at the 4 words (options A-D) in each of the 5 questions and decide which one matches the definition in the recording for each question. Once you have finished you can see how many you got correct by clicking the get score button. 

ESL Sport 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) Captain
    B) Athletics
    C) World Cup
    D) Car racing

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

    A) Golf
    B) Gymnastics
    C) Baseball
    D) Manger

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

    A) Darts
    B) Match
    C) Coach
    D) Snooker

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

    A) Helmet
    B) Basketball
    C) Home
    D) Motorsport

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

    A) Supporter
    B) Pole-vault
    C) Player
    D) Diving

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 3 – Listening Comprehension

This task has a recording of a spoken passage that you need to listen to and understand before answering the 5 questions that follow. Listen to the comprehension passage several times if you need to. Then click the get score button to see which questions you got right.

At the end of this page there is a link that you can click to show the full passage so you can read it and see what was being said. Only look at it once you have finished the task and not before.

ESL Sport Listening Comprehension

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

1) Which one is a team sport?

    A) Golf
    B) Skiing
    C) Football
    D) Snooker

2) What is the name of the designated person who leads the team when playing a match?

    A) Manger
    B) Player
    C) Captain
    D) Spectator

3) What is the responsibility of the manager?

    A) Drive the players to the game.
    B) Decide on the tactics for the game.
    C) Prepare half-time refreshments.
    D) Look after the pitch.

4) What is a team sport considered to be?

    A) More demanding
    B) Easier to perform
    C) More expensive
    D) Less equipment is needed

5) Are most sports played as a team or individually?

    A) Individually
    B) Neither
    C) As a team
    D) Both

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 4 – Dictation

This ESL sport listening task is a diction exercise where you need to write what the passage is exactly. Listen to the recording and write down what you think is being said. In the recording the passage is read twice. First it is read at a slow speaking speed and then in the second there are pauses after every few words and the punctuation is included. Listen several times if you need to. Then use the link at the end of this page to show the original so you can see which bits you got correct and where you made any mistakes.

Listening Comprehension Passage
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Dictation Passage
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