Ever since I have wrote a CALL review 1, which was a few weeks ago, I have learned tremendous amount of CALL resources and tools within classes in terms of teaching vocabulary, listening and speaking. Since I have already discussed about the use of concordances and corpus data in my first review, I would like to elaborate on podcasting resource for teaching listening and speaking, which are for the practical use of language.
Podcasting is quite a useful online resource that can be used when teaching both speaking and listening in and out of classroom settings. So what is a podcast? Even though it has been spreading out as a popular listening material, It is definitely not something popular in Korea. It is a online subscription of broadcasting through a blog or other related platform. Because the word 'podcast' itself is a combination of 'iPod' and 'broadcasting' and iTunes is the most popular podcasting provider in the world, Koreans are not quite familiar with downloading and listening to podcasting. And I think I was one of them. I knew what a podcast is but never thought it could be used for language learning and teaching. I am glad to learn many resources that I could further utilize when I become an English teacher.
The podcast providing resource that I liked the most was "Elllo" (http://www.elllo.org/). Ello offers 6 different categories (Views, Videos, Mixers, Games, Scenes, and News Room) to find the one for your teaching materials and sub-categorized topics. What is good about this website is it provides a detailed script also, so you can explore the further activities or task. Within classroom setting, when connected to internet, the site itself provides a few activities you can do with students such as fill-in-the-blank questions or comprehension quiz. Just like any other podcast providing website, you will find a link to download mp3 files. If you try to seek more an integrative learning experience, You can use Elllo podcast (especially Mixer ones) for teaching speaking. Use the discourse as a fixed script for dialogues for group or pair works. Or use podcast listening materials as a pre-speaking activities and make students speak on their own. The broad spectrum of podcasting materials available online will enable teachers to come up with instruction that follows with their own principles of teaching
Another benefit of using podcast is that there are tremendous amounts of resources on the Internet. Depending on the level of your students' proficiency, You will be able to find the right one even with the consideration of Krashen's i+1 hypothesis. Especially for advanced learners, I highly recommend you utilize iTunes U, which enables you to access to complete courses from leading universities and other schools such as Berkeley, Harvard and etc. The podcasts that iTunes U offers are the listening files of the classes from those prestigious universities. Not only the authentic and meaningful input these can be, iTunes U can give the positive intrinsic motivation to L2 learners.
The best thing about podcasting that other tools cannot even compete with is that with the understanding of Web 2.0 and mobile application, both teachers and students can utilize podcasting everywhere with a help of today's advanced technology. The applications like Good Morning Pops or iListen, students can listen to authentic English wherever they go.
Just because now I know so much about how podcasting works and the true benefits of podcasting, I will, as a continuous L2 learner, use podcasts autonomously for improving my English proficiency of speaking and listening.
