Podcasting for EFL Learners

Podcasting for EFL Learners

            Podcasting is an effective and innovative way to teach students specific content and skills through audio or video. This week I discovered a podcast that is catered to English language learners: ESL Pod. It was a pleasant find and I could search through the hundreds of episodes on varying topics that my students could benefit from.  Furthermore, ESL Pod has a “learning guide” feature where lessons are created based on the audio podcasts; although, this is only available through a monthly subscription fee. Nonetheless, the podcast is free, the target vocabulary terms are bolded and teachers can create lesson on their own based on the audios and transcripts, which are available to anyone on their website. ESL Pod is also available on iTunes.

            One podcast I came across was entitled, Parts of a Hospital and I found that it would be a great and relevant topic for my oral skills course, since it consists of all pre-medical and pre-health sciences students. If I were to create a lesson or activity using this podcast, I would first begin the session introducing the target language (i.e. vocabulary terms). The target vocabulary terms in this podcast are: emergency room, trauma unit, heart condition, cardiology, ICU, pregnant, obstetrics, gynecology, neonatal, neurology, oncology, burn unit, look her up, admitted, go out of my mind, and bedpan. I would have images on a slideshow to first elicit the meanings from students and then define words they may not know. Afterwards, my students would go to the CALL (computer-assisted language lab) center and I would have them listen to the entire podcast at their computers individually. Students will then complete a gap-fill worksheet testing their knowledge of all 16 terms. This would be a two-day lesson, so on the next day, I would group students and have them create a short skit, role-playing a hospital scenario in which they would have to use at least 8 of the target vocabulary terms. I look forward to utilizing this new resource and hope to develop my own podcasts in the near future.

Performance Indicators My Students Could Demonstrate from this Podcast:

Performance Indicator- ESL.C.9-12.1.1.7: Students present information clearly in a variety of oral and written forms for different audiences and purposes related to all academic content areas.

Performance Indicator-ESL.C.9-12.1.1.12: Students convey information and ideas through spoken and written language, using conventions and features of American English appropriate to audience and purpose.

Performance Indicator-ESL.C.9-12.4.1.9: Students use appropriate vocabulary, expressions, language, routines, and interaction styles for various audiences and formal and informal social or school situations, noticing how intention is communicated in different ways through language in various contexts.

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