About 123 Listening
123 Listening is a free ESL listening resource created by two teachers who met online and built something neither could have made alone.
How it started
In 2009, Matt was just beginning to make songs and chants for young English learners. He had built a few chants to match the vocabulary sets on MES English and reached out to Mark to share them. That message started a conversation - and a friendship - that eventually led to this site.
Over the years the two met several times in Fukuoka and Tokyo, Japan. They talked about the gaps in classroom listening resources - specifically that most ESL curricula focus on and require writing, leaving teachers without ready-made materials to assess whether beginner students were actually understanding what they heard.
123 Listening was the answer. Mark brought the web architecture, graphic design, and curriculum materials. Matt brought the recording studio, the musical training, and the audio production. Together they recorded and built a library of downloadable audio files with matching printable worksheets - the first free ESL listening resources of its kind.
Why image-based listening worksheets?
Most listening assessments require students to write - which means a student who heard and understood correctly can still fail because their spelling or writing is behind. This is especially common with young learners, children in mixed-ability classes, and students in the early stages of a new script.
The worksheets on 123 Listening separate listening comprehension from writing ability. A beginner can circle a picture or draw a line - demonstrating they understood - without needing to produce a single written word. As students develop, the worksheet formats gradually introduce writing, so the same core activity grows with the class.
The goal is simple: give teachers a clean way to know whether students understood what they heard, at every level from the very first lesson.
The people behind 123 Listening
Mark
MES English | Saku City, Japan
Mark has been teaching English in Japan since 1999 and building free ESL resources online since 2002. What started as classroom materials for his own students grew into a network of sites used by teachers and parents around the world.
He is a web architect, graphic designer, and curriculum and materials creator. His flagship site MES English hosts thousands of free flashcards, worksheets, games, teaching tips, and classroom resources covering the core vocabulary of his Speaking First ESL Curriculum. His network of web properies includes worksheet makers, certificate generators, phonics workbooks, medical English resources, student learning center, and fun/enaging classroom activites to acquire language skills - all built and maintained for teachers to use free of charge.
On 123 Listening, Mark built site architecture, developed the worksheet generator system, created the 2k+ library of images, and designed the ready-to-print materials that pair with Matt's audio files.
Matt
Matt is a musician, songwriter, and English teacher who began teaching young children in 2007. Trained in music at university, he brought a professional approach to ESL audio that was rare at the time - real songs and chants composed and recorded to match the vocabulary teachers were already using in class.
In 2009 he began publishing his songs on YouTube. The Dream English Kids channel now has over 4 million subscribers. He has performed live Dream English shows in the United States, Japan, Thailand, France, Italy, Spain, and Morocco.
Matt has published textbook series, guides for teaching English, and children's books, and continues to create resources for young English learners through Dream English.
On 123 Listening, Matt composed, recorded, and produced all of the audio files - building natural-sounding listening scripts across 28 vocabulary topics at multiple difficulty levels.
free audio files | worksheet makers | MES English | Dream English
