The world of podcasts

Hi guys!

This week we’ve focused on one particular aspect of our English learning process: our listening skills. Understanding everyday spoken English is sometimes hard work. Informal colloquial English is a totally different kind of language from formal written English because you don’t pronounce every word separately and clearly and you use a lot of phrasal verbs, idioms and slang expressions. We always complain that we don’t have a lot of opportunities to listen to English native speakers as we don’t live in an English speaking environment; now we shouldn’t do it anymore. Sarah showed us a useful way for English listening practice that until now most of us didn’t take seriously into consideration: podcasting.

taken from peacecorpsonline.org

What’s a podcast? It is an audio or video file free distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds. You can download it onto your personal computer or your iPod or mp3 player. Using podcasts instead of normal audio files on the Net you have some advantages. First of all, you don’t have to listen to or watch podcasts online. If you don’t simply have enough time to spend in front of your computer or if you spend a lot of money when you’re connected to the Internet, you have the opportunity to upload podcasts onto your mp3 player and listen to them whenever and wherever you want. This semester I’ve gone from Conegliano to Padova by train almost every day to go to university and I’ve sometimes completely wasted my time; from now I could take advantage of the time I spend in train better listening to useful podcasts for improving my English. Secondly, podcasts are a great solution for those who don’t have broadband at home too. You can download the podcast onto another computer with high speed Internet connection and then of course upload it onto your mp3 player.

It took me a while to search the Internet for good podcasts that might interest me; I realize the world of podcasts is big enough to get lost! I tried to be critical and came up with these three websites:

VOA News

This is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government. It offers you the opportunity to download a lot of podcasts about all the news, information, educational and cultural programs it broadcasts every week. It helps you not only learn American English but also learn about American life and keep you up to date with world news. This website has a section with special English programs too; the goal is to communicate in clear and simple English with people whose native language is not English. Even if I prefer listen to genuine speeches at standard English speed these special English programs can help you understand complex subjects.

Business English Pod

This website offers you the chance to learn business English through free weekly mp3 podcasts. Lessons are for intermediate as well as advanced business English learners and focus on particular skills (e.g. meetings, presentations, telephoning, negotiating) and language functions (e.g. disagreeing, questioning, expressing opinions). I’m really interested in it because I’d like to work in business!

The Bob and Rob Show

This website is a sort of variety show that gives you the opportunity to improve both conversational British and American English through audio lessons. Bob and Rob are respectively a Yankee and a Brit who teach English at the same university in Japan. You have the chance to hear two different English accents and compare them.

Have a nice weekend!

See you :)

Selena