ESL Podcast

As an ESL teacher, I am definitely the right person to ask how ESL Podcast could be utilized in second language teaching. Few weeks ago, I introduced my immigrant students a website which they can listen to tons of audio files in polishing their listening abilities and computer skills. By the same token, ESL Podcast could be another useful website for ESL students to brush up English proficiency. For example, I would first choose a topic, seeing a specialist, for my students. In a computer-selling classroom, students would be asked to listening to this particular podcast the first time without referring to the script. The second time students have to jot down what they think of this podcast is mainly about, the theme. Then I would show the script to my students and require them to go to Merriam Webster, the online dictionary, to look up vocabulary they do not know in the script. After that we will discuss together about the meaning of the unknown words and the practice of making sentence out of those words will be assigned. When finishing up all of the activities, students will be asked to listen to the podcast again. By doing so, students can review what they just pick up and learn some more common sense and background knowledge about seeing a specialist.