For a long time now I’ve had these two playlists of audio lessons on my Spotify – one for Korean and one for Japanese. Finally I’ve had the chance to compile more for different languages. So it’s a good time to discuss how to use audio lessons for language learning.

First of all, the playlists. I’ve compiled 49 playlists on Spotify for 49 languages packed with free audio lessons.

Here’s the French one to give you an idea of what they’re all about:

To take a look and save the ones relevant to you, see the full list here.

I feel for audio lessons for language learning. My heart goes out to them. They’re probably the most misunderstood language resource out there.

This isn’t some kind of “Listen in your sleep and boom, you’re fluent!” kind of witchcraft and wizardry. Nope.⁠

But there’s still a lot of scope for them to actually be useful. So how can you make the most of these bumper resources?⁠
⁠

1. Listen in the background when studying for the ultimate all-round study session!

⁠
These playlists make a great passive addition to a focused study session.

The aim here isn’t to be listening and taking everything in ready to regurgitate it fluently. Instead, it’s about exposing yourself to as much of the spoken language as possible when your mind’s already tuning in.⁠
⁠
Related: How to Use Spotify for Language Learning
https://www.lindsaydoeslanguages.com/how-to-use-spotify-for-language-learning/

2. Hit play in the car, on the bus, on your daily walk.

⁠
Repeat out loud in the car, under your breath on the bus, and either out loud or under your breath on your walk depending on where you live, I guess…⁠
⁠
Whichever option you go for, listening, and audio lessons in particular, are one of the easiest things to do in different places.

Related: How to Stay Home, Learn Languages and Exercise
https://www.lindsaydoeslanguages.com/how-to-stay-home-learn-languages-and-exercise/

3. Take one of the shorter lessons and challenge yourself to write as much as you can.

⁠
Perfect spelling? Nah, not the aim with this activity. We’re focused on improving our active listening by giving ourselves a task to do.

Keep the audio lesson (or extract of a lesson) short and you can really aim to write as much as you can without exhausting yourself.⁠

4. Shadow everything.

⁠
Listen and repeat, listen and repeat, listen and repeat. Say stuff out loud as you hear it on the track.

Get your mouth muscles used to forming those shapes and sounds because, yup, that’s a thing that we often don’t practise enough.⁠
⁠

5. Make sentences from the vocab only lessons.⁠

⁠
There’s a whole mixture of lessons on these playlists (some better than others, I’ll admit!) but most have some classic “here’s a word in one language…here it is in another” style lessons.

Take these new words and put them into context right away. Say them aloud, write them down, think them in your brain. Give them a home.⁠
⁠

6. Re-write dialogues for you.

It’s great that Mr Smith is arriving in Moscow for a business trip in that audio lesson. Good for him.

But what if you’re arriving in St Petersberg for tourism?

Re-write (or “re-speak”!) dialogues you hear from audio lessons to make them more applicable for you.

Not only does this give you a chance to spend more time with a dialogue, but it also encourages you to learn what I call your personal vocabulary.

Related: The Essential Vocabulary to Learn in Any Language (Your First 200 Words…ish!)
https://www.lindsaydoeslanguages.com/essential-vocabulary-to-learn-in-any-language/

7. Clap Attack.

Another creative idea that’s useful if you’re quite tactile is this one. Pick a word, phrase, or something else you want to listen out for (such as nouns, or a politeness element). Every time you hear it, clap. That’s it. Simple, right?

But by giving yourself something to listen out for, you’ll be focusing more on what you’re hearing without the stress of sitting in an empty room forcing yourself to “listen better” and ending the activity feeling stressed and frustrated that you “can’t” listen. You can, you were just trying too hard.

8. Draw What You Hear.

Give your hands something to do with purpose. Get yourself a blank, unlined notepad and draw as you listen.

I’m not talking about a pretty little house with some flowers outside. Draw whatever you feel like that’s associated with what you’re hearing. You can include words too if you like!

If you find listening on its own a difficult task, by adding a tactile element, you could be helping to focus your attention more on what you hear.

Adding in a tactile element to listening mirrors the teaching methodology Total Physical Response (TPR) too. This is based on the idea of combining a physical action with language to help solidify the language for you.

9. Police Report.

When you’re done listening to something in full, a great way to consolidate it all is to write a full summary of what you’ve seen or heard.

How detailed you make the summary is completely up to you. As with everything you produce, if you’d like to get it checked, it’s a good thing to share with a tutor or language exchange partner.

10. Take Note.

A simple active listening activity is to jot down the words you know as you hear them. You don’t need to write the same word twice, instead make a tally next to each word you hear more than once, which will also help you to notice frequency and realise which words are perhaps more important to learn well and use yourself.

This can be as simple as that.

More Ideas with 100 Creative Ideas

That should help get you started! If you’re after more creative ideas to use across all your language learning, then you are exactly the language learner I made 100 Creative Ideas for Solo Language Learners for!

This ebook and digital content gives you an abundance of inspiration when it comes to making language learning a little less tedious and, well, a lot more fun.

Learn more and get your copy here.
⁠
I’d love to know how you use audio lessons too – DM me and let me know over on Instagram.

And if you want to become a better language learner, then be sure to join me in Language Life, my program for language learners seeking a brave, bold, and balanced approach.