A podcast is an audio file you can download and listen to even if you are offline on your MP3 portable music player! As far as I’m concerned I find podcasts amazing because thanks to this technology you can have contacts with the whole world. I mean, you can watch the news, listen to conferences or lectures, listen to programmes… Moreover, podcasting enables people to express their thoughts: everybody can make a podcast and put it online. Finally, I think that it could be a good technology for blind people. For example, I visited some websites where there was the oral version of many novels. What do you think? I think it’s just wonderful!
Of course, our purpose is to improve our English skills so I think that podcasting can help us for different reasons:
- there are educational sites which offer a wide range of exercises you can do (listening + comprehension activities)
- you can find original materials. I like measuring against “real English/ American” materials because I see if I can understand or not and where my weak points are (too fast? Vocabulary? Grammar structures?)
- you can improve your listening and speaking skills staying at home!
It has been quite difficult to choose the three websites and I browsed the net a lot. I didn’t imagine there were so many things! Here you are my selection:
http://www.eslpod.com/website/index.php
It’s an educational site. English second language speakers are the target audience.
It’s very well-organized. In the main page you will find the latest podcasts. Here you are an example:
Latest Podcasts
FRIDAY - NOVEMBER 16, 2007
ESL Podcast 321 – Buying a Jacket or Coat
Download Podcast
When it gets cold, you need to get a warm coat. Go shopping for one in English in this episode.
Tags: Shopping
As you can see you can listen to it online or download it and there’s the learning guide bottom.
In the learning guide you will find the transcriptions, some additional explanations and tips on improving your English.
http://edition.cnn.com/services/podcasting/
This site offers the possibility to listen to CNN podcasts and programmes. On the main page you can find a short introduction where all the podcasts available are introduced. This is not an educational site so everything you find here come from the CNN newsroom.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/directory/
The site offers a wide range of programmes you can download for free that might be useful for English learners. It’s very handy: all you have to do is to choose your favourite radio station.
There’s a special section which I recommend to you: Editor's podcast picks.
Here it’s just one of the podcasts you can choose:
Africa Today
Podcast
• BBC World Service
• Programme Highlights
• Typical Duration: 15 Mins.
• Latest Episode: Fri, 16 Nov 2007
• Available to all listeners
The latest African news and analysis from the BBC African news and Current Affairs...
Thanks to this schedule you can have all the information you need to choose the podcasts you prefer!
I’m looking forward to know what do you think of podcasts, and let me know what do you think of my choices.
Stefania
Of course, our purpose is to improve our English skills so I think that podcasting can help us for different reasons:
- there are educational sites which offer a wide range of exercises you can do (listening + comprehension activities)
- you can find original materials. I like measuring against “real English/ American” materials because I see if I can understand or not and where my weak points are (too fast? Vocabulary? Grammar structures?)
- you can improve your listening and speaking skills staying at home!
It has been quite difficult to choose the three websites and I browsed the net a lot. I didn’t imagine there were so many things! Here you are my selection:
http://www.eslpod.com/website/index.php
It’s an educational site. English second language speakers are the target audience.
It’s very well-organized. In the main page you will find the latest podcasts. Here you are an example:
Latest Podcasts
FRIDAY - NOVEMBER 16, 2007
ESL Podcast 321 – Buying a Jacket or Coat
Download Podcast
When it gets cold, you need to get a warm coat. Go shopping for one in English in this episode.
Tags: Shopping
As you can see you can listen to it online or download it and there’s the learning guide bottom.
In the learning guide you will find the transcriptions, some additional explanations and tips on improving your English.
http://edition.cnn.com/services/podcasting/
This site offers the possibility to listen to CNN podcasts and programmes. On the main page you can find a short introduction where all the podcasts available are introduced. This is not an educational site so everything you find here come from the CNN newsroom.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/directory/
The site offers a wide range of programmes you can download for free that might be useful for English learners. It’s very handy: all you have to do is to choose your favourite radio station.
There’s a special section which I recommend to you: Editor's podcast picks.
Here it’s just one of the podcasts you can choose:
Africa Today
Podcast
• BBC World Service
• Programme Highlights
• Typical Duration: 15 Mins.
• Latest Episode: Fri, 16 Nov 2007
• Available to all listeners
The latest African news and analysis from the BBC African news and Current Affairs...
Thanks to this schedule you can have all the information you need to choose the podcasts you prefer!
I’m looking forward to know what do you think of podcasts, and let me know what do you think of my choices.
Stefania
7 commenti:
Dear Stefania,
thanks a lot for your last comment! I particularly appreciated your "ps": I'll check my mistakes as soon as possible. Talking about your work I found your English very accurate even if the introductory paragraph is just a bit long; as a matter of fact I think we are all supposed to know what a podcast is especially if we attended the lab lesson last week or if we read mrs Guth's instructions put on our course blog. Anyway, your post is really exhaustive and all links are fully explained...good work! What I found useful is the fact you put not just simple links to specific mp3 files as I did, but to complete lists of podcasts giving to users the opportunity to opt for what they need. Furthermore I absolutely agree with you about the great possibility given to people unable to see; I entered these websites too.
Good job stefania,
See you
alessia
Hi Stefania!
I like your blog because it is very clear and simple. You have suggested three sites and for each one, you have made an example of which kind of article or news you can find there. I am really happy to have found out this new resource of learning, because it is free, useful and you can "exploit" it wherever and whenever you want!
The first site you chose is really good and I've visited it because I knew the others yet...and I am happy to have done it because the subject of the lecture you have underlined is really close to the interests of every woman....shopping!!!It hasn't been difficult to listen to it!!!
Bye bye... see you tomorrow!!
Caterina
Hi Stefania!
You were right when you said that we had chosen more or less the same websites. But, as you know, Sarah told us to search for podcasts on English learning and I think these were the options for everybody.
I appreciated your first website, because, as I wrote in my blog, it's a kind of English course on the net that avoid you to buy an expensive one in a bookshop. We are students and we need to spare money, don't we? ;)
I want to give a suggestion. Why do not put an image next to your post? I noticed you had never posted one. I'm sure they would give a more colorful and visible impact to your blog!
See you next time!
Giovi
Hi Stefania!
I read your post and I found two interesting observations.
The first one regards , as you wrote, “listening to conferences and lectures”. I think that podcasts can be also used in those cases in which students - or persons in general - cannot attend university lessons or conferences. This technology can be exploited to put online materials which people otherwise would miss for various reasons (geographical distance, disease, overlapping of business engagements…).
The second one regards “blind people”. I appreciate the different points of view from which sometimes you see things…I mean, you have a sort of “social” sensitiveness, as when you talked about Halloween (then you wrote: “ at school […] teachers should explain the history beyond Halloween so that a commercial festivity can become a way to know another culture”).
Among your choices, I clicked on the CNN’s site. What this site offers, I think, is clear…So, I focused on a single detail, that is, the terms of use at the botton of the page. I tend to pass over this question but obviously, I should pay more attention to that because, without wishing, I could do something wrong in using the information provided by this tv network!!
Hi girls!
Thanks a lot for your feedback!
stefania
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