Developing oral and listening skills through the use of podcasts

Author: María Aurora Ovalles

Professor: Evelyn Izquierdo

July, 2011

¨A podcast is an audio file (most often an MP3) that you can download to your computer or music player (such as an iPod).¨

(http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/podcast.html)

¨Creating podcasts allow students to experience the pleasure of sharing their work with an audience as they learn about communication throgh electronic media.¨

(http://www.sedl.org/afterschool/lessonplans/index.cgi?show_record=112)

¨Apart form listening, it is also possible to use podcasts to extend the scope of the classroom by involving students in the creation and publishing of their own content for a real audience.¨(http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume9/ej36/ej36int/)

Local context

• 10 hotel waiters working at Ole Caribe Hotel in Macuto, Vargas State.•Different educational levels•Aged 25 to 48•Eager to learn, enthusiastic, committed to their learning process.•Previous knowledge of internet.•An cyber room available.

Purpose To create a database of recorded

conversations related to the function: ¨ordering food at a restaurant¨ through the use of podcasts.

Objectives:To develop listening skillsTo develop oral skillsTo introduce learners to the use of podcasts.

Audience

Hotel waiters at Olé Caribe Hotel

Hotel waiters in general

EFL teachers working in the English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) field, in the hotel industry.

Procedure:Learners will be first trained in using the tool

¨podbean¨In pairs, they will record on ¨audioboo¨some

short conversations using expressions related to ¨ordering food at a restaurant¨

Learners will check the recordingsRecordings will be uploaded to the course wiki

Resources: Audioboo, internet

Chronogram

This activity will take 4 sessions and will be done in the month of october, 2011, after learners familiarize with common expressions used when ¨ordering food at the restaurant.¨

Product: Learners are expected to create their own

podcasts, and podcasts will be listened to, in f2f class.

Evaluation: Formative¨…evaluating students in the process of forming

their competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to continue that growth process¨ (Brown,2004)

ReferencesBrown, H (2004) Language Assessment. Principles

and Claroom Practices. Pearson Education.http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

podcast.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/afterschool/lessonplans/

index.cgi?show_record=112)http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/

volume9/ ej36/ej36int/http://audioboo.fm/

Thank you for your attention

You can contact me at:

http://auroraovalles08.wordpress.com/auroraovalles08@gmail.comSkype: aurora.ovallesTwitter: @MariaAurora08Avatar´s name: Aurora Polosky