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Discover the world of podcasts and how they can benefit ESL learning. Learn how to find, subscribe to, and create podcasts for language education. Explore various speaking genres and recording tools. Join us to elevate your teaching experience!
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Developing Students’ Listening and Speaking Skills through ELT Podcasts Paul Sze, Faculty of Ed., CUHK
What are podcasts? Podcasts are audio (sometimes video) shows on the Internet which can be ‘subscribed to’.
Who produces podcasts? • Broadcasting corporations, eg, BBC, CNN, RTHK: Some of their programmes are available as podcasts. • Institutions and Organisations: eg, universities, schools, churches, voluntary organisations • The majority of podcasts are produced by individuals and small groups of people.
Examples of Podcasts • BBC Podcasts • Princeton Univ. Podcast: • Fudan Fuzhong: • SJS Podcasting Club: • “Independent’ podcast: Word Nerds • A teacher podcast: Samantha’s podcast • A student podcast: Podcast for Mr Cosand’s 6th Grade class
For Producers of Podcasts They can be produced easily. They can be put on a podcasting site for free. They can reach out to thousands of listeners. For Listeners There are thousands of podcasts on the Web covering a wide range of topics. They can be listened to on a computer, or downloaded to a portable listening device (eg, MP3 player, iPod, Mobile phone, PDA) for listening while on the move. They can be ‘subscribed to’. Advantages of Podcasts
Task 1 • Browse the following podcasting sites. For each site:(a) on the homepage, try to find the subscription icons;(b) find the latest episode and give it a listen. Does the audio come on quickly (streaming video), or do you have to download the entire file to listen to it (mp3)?
What is ‘subscribing’ to a podcast? • By subscribing to a podcast, you will be notified when a new episode becomes available. If you have several favourite podcasts, subscribing saves you the trouble of checking the individual podcasting sites regularly for new content?
How is ‘subscription’ done? • Open a feed reader account (feed aggregator; podcatcher), such as “My Yahoo”, “Google Reader”, “iTunes”. • Go to the homepage of your favourite podcast, click on the correct subscription icon. • Check your feed reader account from time to time for links to new episodes.
Podcast Directories • General Directories • These cover all topics: entertainment, fitness, education, comedy, religion, etc. • Educational Podcast Directories • These focus on educational podcasts • ESL Podcast Directories • These focus on ESL pocasts
Task 2 • (a) Try some of the podcast directories. Type in a search term (e.g., English; ESL; teaching; vocabulary; talk show), and see what you get. Listen to a couple of them • (b) If you have a “My Yahoo” or “My Google” account, try subscribing to some podcasts.
Using iTunes • A programme which: • Contains a podcast directory, • Allows you to subscribe to your chosen podcasts, • Checks your subscribed podcasts for new episodes and download them to your computer automatically, • Allows you to transfer these new episodes to an iPod within seconds (or an MP3 player within minutes). • To get iTunes: • http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
Task 3: Using iTunes • a) Look for some podcasts through iTunes • (b) Subscribe to one or two, and watch iTunes starting to download the latest episodes. • (c) Listen to the downloaded latest episode.
Using Podcasts in ELT • Students can subscribe to ELT podcasts for extensive listening activities. • Teachers can create their own podcasts to reach out to their students outside of class. • Teachers can use podcasts for oral assignments. • Students can create their own podcasts for additional speaking activities.
A teacher’ experience with podcasts “I have been having my students make their own podcasts lately (their writing assignment is to explain the process!) and it has been going really well. Students are fascinated and highly motivated. They are working in heterogeneous groups, which requires that they use English to negotiate and plan and create…” • >Anthea Tillyer (from a TESLCA-L message)
Task 4: Using ELT Podcasts • Browse some ELT podcasts. • Questions to ponder: • How can you use these podcasts for extensive listening with your students? • How can you create your own podcasts to reach out to your students? • If you get your students to create podcasts, what are some possible speaking genres to attempt?
Some possible speaking genres for student podcasts - short talks; impromptu speeches;- self-evaluation of own talk;- oral assignments, eg., individually, students answer the question posed by the teacher;- panel discussions;- interviews;- radio plays; dramas- reading-aloud: poetry, prose, fiction, Bible, jazz chants- story telling;- presenting the results of a project, survey, etc
Recording a show • Make the voice recording: • Record into an MP3 player, or • Record into a computer using sound recording/editing software, eg., Audacity. • Adding music and/or sound effects: • When the voice recording is done, add music and/or sound effects (eg, using Audacity) • The final recording must be in MP3 format.
Publishing your podcast and posting new episodes • Sign up for a podcast account with a podcast hosting company, eg. PodOmatic. You will be given your podcast URL. • Upload your new episodes, in MP3 format, to your podcast. • Tell other people about your podcast. (You can even register your podcast with a podcast directory.)
Task 5 • Practise making a voice recording with Audacity, and add music to it.
