Prepare a number of short speech clips for students. You can make them yourself (play a clip of a movie on your laptop in class) or use material from the website English Listening Test. Give students four possible answers, all of which closely resemble what people on the clip are saying, but only one of which is correct. Through this activity, you can test if students are able to listen carefully to a speech -- not just a couple of words -- complete with idioms and sarcastic remarks.
Testing students' spelling skills can also help you check whether they can understand and write down what another person says. Make up an oral conversation and say it out loud to the class. Allow some time for students to write one sentence before moving to the next. Repeat the conversation in whole a little faster, and check whether each student can report what the conversation included.
Use a clip of a person talking continuously, as if he is being interviewed. You can find a number of such clips at the Elllo website, the English Listening Lesson Library. Play a short part of the clip, stop the clip and ask students a specific questions, such as, What is the person's exact age? Because students can't gamble on multiple-choice answers, you can test whether they can focus on a speech. Play only a short part of the clip, to ensure that the challenge is not too tough for students.
Hand out worksheets containing groups of three images. The words for two of them should closely resemble each other when spoken, while the third one is slightly different. For example, you can have pictures of a brush, a blushing child and a brace. Say the word aloud twice, pronouncing them clearly, and ask students to circle the corresponding image.