Podcasts for Language Learning

Since I am teaching a listening and speaking class at the IEI, the use of podcasts for language learning is especially intriguing to me. For the most part, we use videos in class but our students need to listen to two hours of English outside of class. Perhaps some of them would be interested in listening to a podcast. Actually, when I was reading this article, I was thinking about how I could use podcasts in my class. In the future, I would like to create a wiki for students to post podcasts and videos so that they can all have access to these listening texts. I think some of my students do not know where to look for English listening texts. For example, the TED talk podcasts could be really useful to my students. A few of them even have English lessons to go along with the podcast. Below is a screen shot of the TEDxESL website. However, this is rather limited compared to other podcast websites.

In class we looked at BBC Learning English, which was also discussed in the article. I never knew about these podcast websites before this class. I have learned so much about using technological to enhance langauge learning. In addition to that, I have also learned how to use these tools telecollaboratively.

Here is a screenshot of the BBC Learning English website.

References:

Sadler, R. and Nurmukhamedov, U. (2011). Podcasts in Four Categories: Applications to Language Learning. In B. Facer & M. Abdous, eds., Academic Podcasting and Mobile Assisted Language Learning: Applications and Outcomes. Hershey: IGI Global. Available at: