What is podcasting ELT? And how can you use it

Podcasting ELT is podcasting for English language teaching. The benefits for using podcasting for ELT is that it provides additional listening input for students, but also allows the students themselves to become involved in recording and producing the podcast.

There are three types of podcasts that you can use for English language teaching:

• Authentic podcasts - while these podcasts are not geared for ELT students they can still be a great source for listening to the English language. These should be used for higher level students, as the vocabulary used in podcasts can be quite advanced. But you can also find regular podcasts that have been made by people who speak English as a second language which can provide the perfect source for your English class of almost any age group. Just be careful what podcasts you pick as some may not be appropriate for the learning environment.


• Teacher podcasts - these are podcasts that are made by other teachers usually for their own class. Therefore these podcasts are aimed at teaching students by giving them listening content that is available only for a specific area (local talent) or that is not available through other podcasts (individual lesson plans).


• Student podcasts - these are podcasts that are produced by the students themselves or with some teacher help and can provide great listening content for listeners who are trying to learn English because it provides information thought of by students themselves to help other students learn. This is nice because it is usually content that other students can relate too.


• Educator podcasts - these podcasts are created by educators and cover a variety of topics about how to teach, as well as how to use podcasting in teaching, and numerous other topics that would be appropriate for the teachers to use in planning podcasts for their classes.

Here are some ways that you can use ELT podcasts in your classroom:

• Current events - you can create a radio podcast show that students will manage to talk about current events that are going on in the newspaper. While the current events can be happening in another country the podcast should be done in English to help teach the English language skills they need.


• Telling stories - have students tell stories that are famous in their country, but have them tell it in English so they can get practice in speaking English.


• Vocabulary words - the teacher can create a podcast each week for that week's vocabulary words. They can provide definitions, pronunciation, and proper spelling in the weekly lesson and then assign assignments at the end of the podcast.


• Writing project - assign the students a certain podcast to listen to as well as a short book on the topic they will need to write a report on. Have them include information in the report from both sources. This will help to develop their writing, punctuation and grammar skills.


• Create a play - the first part of this assignment can be done individually or in groups. But the first part consists of having your students write a play that will later be acted out (this project can be done numerous times until everybody's play has been produced). Assign different students roles and have them record themselves acting out the play. Play back the recording and let them listen to what they sound like and allow them to edit the play before publishing the podcast. This is a way to practice both their written and oral English skills. The podcast series could be updated weekly to include a new play every week.

Just remember that there are many uses for podcasts for ELT. The only limit is your imagination and ability to be creative.