The purpose of this study is to help the students in middle school improve their English listening comprehension by presenting effective teaching and learning techniques using animation. A good animation provides a self-contained world with language expressed in a virtual context. A few animation such as "Mulan", "The Emperor's New Clothes", and "Gulliver's Travel" are presented. The materials are primarily for English listening comprehension, enhance awareness of American culture and life-styles, and to encourage students' active role in learning English. It is suggested that their use with content-based instruction, where animation provides relevant schema background, makes language relevant and comprehensible. Practical aspects of classroom instruction are discussed, focusing on the adaption of pre-viewing, while-viewing, and post-viewing activities to the selected animation. It is concluded that careful animation selection, purposeful lesson planning, and the integration of pre-viewing, while-viewing, and post-viewing activities into the content-based lesson encourage natural language skills, especially the listening comprehension and students' interest in English.