WEEK3: Broadcasting English!

Based on the article “Blending technologies in ESL courses: A reflexive enquiry” by Paul Gruba, Cameron Clark, Kellyn Ng and Marisa Wells.
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In case you are not familiar with the term podcast (ipod + broadcasting), it is a form of audio file on the Internet which can be reached by anybody who has access to a computer or smartdevice. Regarding educational purposes, podcasts are mostly used for enhancing listening skills. Given this fact, we (as ESL teachers) should think of it as a very promising tool that provides a wider learning environment. Among some of the advantages we can take from this approach there is the availability the learner has to authentic material, the exposure to culture of areas where the target language is spoken, and unlimited access to the target language. However, as any other effective digital resource, there is some aversion toward the use of it.

Not knowledge on how to use podcasts, no time or little time to develop a lesson from it and lack of interest on the matter are among some barriers every teacher who is willing to adopt this digital resource to his class has to face. The latter is the one I consider the most challenging, that one not only envolvs the learner' s perception in terms of capability but embraces cultural influences as well. In developing countries for instance, I think the use of podcasts is no very likely to bring profit to the learning process, as a matter of fact, I think it might slow it down; living in a country in which this approach is not even thought to be promoted before college, I think it is fair to say that countries like this need more time to get along with it (digital resources), and not because they do not know how to use it or they do not have acces to it, but because its young learners population is not used to self- learning approaches.

P.S. it is not that I am against using podcasts for learning purposes but that we as teachers have to know when it may be productive to use them and when it might be a total waste of time!