In this research, three major techniques, shadowing, dictation and reading aloud, which are widely believed to be effective in improving the listening comprehension ability are employed in university English classes and their effectiveness in improving the participants' listening ability is measured and analyzed based on the students' scores in two sets of TOEIC listening tests. In addition, the students' preference for the techniques is analyzed based on a student survey. The statistical analysis suggested that there was a significant difference between the effects of dictation and shadowing. With the fact that dictation achieved a higher score on the post-test than the pre-test while shadowing failed to do so, it is suggested that dictation works better on improving students' listening ability in this study. The survey indicated that all of the techniques are equally preferred thus worth trying in university level English classes.