Create Listening Practice Audio with ElevenLabs

1. Go to elevenlabs.io and click Sign Up
2. Create a free account with your email
3. You'll land on the main ElevenLabs dashboard

What you should see: The Text to Speech interface on the main screen, with a large text input area and a voice selector.

Before using ElevenLabs, you need text to convert. Use Claude or ChatGPT to create it. Good ESL listening texts include:

• Two-person dialogues (ordering at a restaurant, making a doctor appointment, asking for directions)
• Short announcements (bus schedule change, community event notice)
• Telephone messages (voicemail from a doctor's office, employer, school)
• News-style sentences for dictation practice

Example prompt for ChatGPT: "Write a short dialogue (8 exchanges) between a patient and a doctor's receptionist. The patient is calling to make an appointment. Use clear, simple English at A2 level. Include natural filler phrases like 'Um, sure' and 'One moment, please.'"

Copy the generated dialogue text, you'll paste it into ElevenLabs.

In ElevenLabs, click the Voice dropdown above the text input box. You'll see a list of available voices with names like "Rachel," "Adam," "Bella," etc.

Click the play button next to each voice to preview it. For ESL teaching, choose:

• Voices with clear articulation and standard American or British English pronunciation
• A moderate speaking pace, not rushed
• For dialogues with two characters, you'll need two voices. one for each speaker

What you should see: A voice library with multiple options. "Rachel" and "Dorothy" (for female) and "Adam" and "Arnold" (for male) are commonly clear options. Preview 3-4 before choosing.

1. Click in the large text input box
2. Paste your ESL listening text
3. Click Generate (or the play button)

What you should see: ElevenLabs processes your text and plays the audio. A download button appears below the audio player.

Troubleshooting: If the audio sounds rushed, add punctuation (commas, periods) to your text. ElevenLabs pauses at punctuation marks. If a word is mispronounced, try adding phonetic spelling in brackets in the text, or slightly alter the spelling to get the correct pronunciation.

For dialogues, record each character's lines separately:

1. Paste only Character A's lines → Select Voice 1 → Generate → Download
2. Paste only Character B's lines → Select Voice 2 → Generate → Download
3. If you have audio editing software (Audacity is free), combine the two recordings alternating lines. If not, just play both files alternating manually during class.

Simpler approach: Use ElevenLabs' Projects feature (available on paid tiers) which lets you assign different voices to different speakers in the same script.

Click the Download button (down arrow icon) below the audio player. Save the file to your computer or Google Drive.

In class:

• For listening activities: play the audio while students complete a worksheet
• For dictation: play once for gist, replay slowly for dictation
• For self-access: share the audio file via Google Classroom so students can replay at their own pace