Mobile phone podcasts for listening practice

If you asked me, what is the area in my teaching that I wish I should be doing more than I have been doing, my answer would likely be the teaching of Listening.

Teaching listening in Mozambique is challenging and, from conversations I have had with some colleagues, it seems to be a common challenge in other African countries too. Among other factors, one that we often mention is insufficiency of resources, especially in public schools.

Finding alternatives that will not mean having a series of meetings to convince the institution to buy, for example, a TV set, or a speaker, can be the answer sometimes. Mobile phones seem like a good option, and I am glad to be discovering some interesting tools that I feel that I could use in my context. One of those tools is the British Council’s LearnEnglish Podcast, a mobile application for listening practice (with affordances for reading and language content too). The app is an affiliate of the LearnEnglish website that I wrote about in this post some weeks ago.

The LearnEnglish Podcast app, available on Google Play and App Store, features a series of podcasts that involve conversations and other types of talk on a variety of topics, allowing for different language skills and content to be addressed.

General features

• Podcasts have four main components: talks in different scenarios; ‘lesson sections’; exercises; and 'rapport moments' (if I may call it so);
• Content is presented in a radio program fashion (which reminds me of when I was a regular BBC World Service listener in my English learning journey);
• ‘Programs’ are followed by a ‘lesson section’ that wraps up the main language used in the episode  and discusses some learning and studying strategies;
• In-app exercises are available throughout the podcasts, so the learner can access them at their preference;

                     

• The rapport happens throughout the podcasts where listeners are invited into the conversation and asked to follow up, by e-mail, to give suggestions, or to have their say on the matters discussed in the podcast.   

                    

A more detailed description of the features can be found here.  

Skills and language areas covered

• Listening
• Pronunciation
• Reading
• Spelling
• Vocabulary

Affordances

Episodes are different, but below I share some of the main pedagogical potential of the LearnEnglish podcasts. You can have a look at a sample episode here (link available through mobile app).

• Collaboration: in a sense, when listeners are asked to feedback on the podcasts by sending emails, they are participating and being included in the design of the course;         
• Authenticity: most talks are about real-life situations, and the ‘radio program’ format might sometimes be so entertaining that students forget they are on a language learning activity (I had this feeling when listening to some episodes);
• Learner training: In Episode 1, the ‘teacher’ in the language focus section talked about some vocabulary learning techniques, inviting learners to think about their learning and learning styles and encouraging them to explore the techniques which work best for them; 

• Culture: being authentic material, language content often comes with some facts about people and places, and things in general, making it, in my opinion, more enjoyable;
• Variety of accents: different accents are included, sometimes with a clue of where it might be from. I find this particularly important as it reduces the pressure from learners to speak in a single accent;
• Exposure, exposure, and more exposure: what I like most about the app is how much listening exposure students can get and the subsequent opportunities to practise reading, spelling, vocabulary, and pronunciation.

Classroom use ideas

Listening material

The podcasts are listening material on their own. The fact that they are downloadable allows the teacher to use then for a variety of activities:

• Students can be invited to do the activities in the podcast;
• The teacher can design their own activities using the talks as reference;
• With a Bluetooth speaker, the teacher can play the podcasts from their mobile in the classroom, if students cannot afford the app;
• If students can afford the app, the teacher can set self-study tasks.

Teaching tips

• The activities in the podcasts can be a source of inspiration for teachers to design their own activities. 

Things I wish were different…

• That some stereotypes were not perpetuated. For example, in one of the episodes  (link only available through mobile app) the following subtle stereotypes can be deduced from the talks: ‘women cannot tell their age’ ‘men love football’, ‘women are good for their looks’, ‘Africa as the face of poverty’;
• I wish Sharing options included more platforms;
• I wish there were no adds…but I guess this could be a little too much to ask from a free app;

                 

There are many podcasts on the app and I believe that every episode will have something interesting to a teacher depending on their needs and teaching circumstances. If you decide to have a try, please share  in the comments some of the things you find more interesting.

Also share any other mobile apps you know of, that are good for teaching.

Thank you for reading. :)

See you,

Cândida

Credits: images are screenshots of pages in the LearnEnglish Podcast app.