Overview
Numerous podcasts are already online and available for students learning
English, but they vary widely. ESL/EFL podcasts can be broadly categorized
into three areas:
- podcasts produced by students for other students (usually as part
of a class), and
- podcasts produced by teachers for students (usually not for
a class, but more for self-study).
- podcats focusing on test preparation (e.g. TOEFL)
Some podcasts focus on learning English through song, some through
listening to news stories, and others through informal conversation. The
most obvious use of podcasting is for helping students improve their
listening skills.
Resources for finding Podcasts
Podzinger
Search for audio and video podcasts on a variety of topics. If you want to look at ESL-specific podcasts, type "ESL" into the search box.
iTunes music store
Search the comprehensive Music Store for podcasts in many languages (including English) Note: You must have iTunes to view podcasts in the iTunes music store.
Englishcaster
This site contains links to a number of podcasts for ESL students who
are interested in self-study. Each podcast is summarized and available
for review by students or teachers who use them.
Gigadial
This is a Gigadial station created for a group of English language teachers
enrolled in the 2006 TESOL Electric Village Online session. It contains links
not only to language learning podcasts, but to other resources on podcasting
as well.
Student-student podcasts/Classroom podcasts
The Bardwell Road Centre
Podcast
This podcast is produced for an English class in England and is primarily
for students in the class rather than language learners who are not in the
class. Most podcasts contain interviews and dialogues by non-native English
speakers in the class.
Campus Beat
This podcast is used in conjunction with Sean McMinn's course that teaches students how to write various styles of texts. One assignment is to write a news article about something on campus; this assignment evolved into the Campus Beat podcast where students report on interesting happenings around their Hong Kong campus.
Theme Tourism Podcast
This podcast is produced by Graham Stanley to be used in conjunction with his Tourism class in Barcelona, Spain. Students look at a variety of themes used to promote tourism and examines them critically.
Teacher-student podcasts
Breaking News English
This podcast features various news stories that are relatively short. The
website also provides a transcript of each story.
English Idioms and Slang (formerly
the Daily Idiom )
These short podcasts focus on a single English idiom or slang
term in each podcast. Students can listen to an explanation of the
meaning of the idiom or slang term, as well as an example in context,
and are also provided with a transcript.
English Teacher John podcast
This podcast is produced by a native English speaker teaching
English in Japan who speaks slowly to help English language learners
follow the podcast. He focuses on topics such as holidays, outdoor
activities, greetings, and often includes phrases and words in other
languages. He usually ends the podcast with an English for helping
with pronunciation, that explains an idiom, that explains compound
adjectives, etc.
ESL Pod
These podcasts usually center around a story or dialog that is presented
twice-once at a rather slow pace, and once at a native rate of speech. Between
readings, some expressions or phrases are explained. Topics range from movies
to vacations to shopping for clothes. View scripts of this podcast.
Flo-Joe Radio
This podcast is specifically designed for advanced-level English students who are preparing to take the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE) Exam. The podcasts compliment a weekly newsletter that students can subscribe to. Sample episodes feature two native English speakers (Peter Travis and and Fiona Joseph) using specific vocabulary items in their spontaneous speech and short lessons addressing exam-related tasks such as writing an article for the CAE.
Learn
English Professionals (the British Council)
There are number of podcasts
here designed for students learning English. Transcripts are available,
and topics range from how students learning English (by students) to a
lecture on business ethics.
Learn a Song Podcast
This
website, by Charles Kelley, contains audio files of traditional, American
songs sung by a native-speaker of English. Some of these files are available
in a podcast format, and some are available as Flash files which allow
students to listen to individual lines of a song or the entire song.
Madrid Young Learner's Podcasts
These podcasts are short dialogues, usually an informal story, a song, or
a news-like story, that are followed by a list of comprehension or review
questions for students to answer after listening. Sometimes, as with a song,
a transcript is provided.
Spendid Speaking Podcast
This podcast is one component of the online Splendid Speaking English self-study course, and is produced by Peter Travis. Episodes contain interviews with, recorded conversations with, or monologues from English learners demonstrating things like asking questions or using anecdotes. All episodes are narrated by a native English speaker.
UgoEigo Podcasts
This video podcast focuses on pronouncing individual sounds that are similar. For example, an episode could cover 'B' and 'P', or 'F' and 'V'. The narrator for the podcast encourages students to listen once and then repeat the sound. Students can view a transcript of the show, which can also help them determine which sound they hear when the narrator reads through a list of minimal pairs (e.g. 'bear' and 'pear').
Word Nerds
Dave Shepherd, Howard
Shepherd and Howard Chang, language or language-arts teachers, regularly
update this weekly podcast about words and language. Podcasts center around
a theme, and contain such features as poems, musings, and rude words of
the week. This podcast is more for native speakers of English but it could
be used for advanced level English learners - especially those who are
interested in idiomatic English.
Test preparation podcasts
ESLPod.com's Guide to the TOEFL Test podcast
These podcasts are for students studying for the TOEFL test, as well as "other, similar standardized tests". There are quite a variety of podcasts here that can on specific parts of the test, e.g. listening, and provide a sampling of questions. This podcast is appropriate for lower-level learners who need speech to be spoken slowly. Higher-level learners may find the speech rate very unnatural rather than helpful.
