Developing Language Skills with Learn English Podcasts App

The evolution of mobile technologies is very significant as it has revolutionalised the teaching and learning of languages. Currently, Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) is taking the place of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). This shift has made made education more engaging, personal, fun and most importantly  accessible. There is more access to authentic materials for the teaching of languages in second language contexts. Most especially educational contexts where there is little or no access to computer devices. The use of mobiles for English teaching and learning has led to the popularity of podcasts. Podcasts are audio and video digital recordings of broadcasts which can be streamed online or downloaded on mobile devices.  The use of podcasts has become very popular in ESL because of its accessibility on mobile phones as such there are various podcasts for English langauge learning on the websites. This week, I will be discussing the LearnEnglish  podcasts.

Learn English podcasts contain audio clips of entertaining audio clips which ranges from English lessons, language learning advice and tips, jokes, and drama. The podcasts are categorised according to language skills, structures (pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary); types (everyday usage, business, news and drama) and; language level of users, (beginner level to upper intermediary); purpose (teaching). Along with the audio clips, users can complete practice questions which test any language structure. Although there is a subscription for the self-study, however, there a number of free podcasts with already prepared lessons and the downloading the mobile app version  provides the best learning experience.

Afordances and Benefits of the Learn English Podcasts

Access to already made listening lessons with authentic materials

For the English instruction series, news reports such as the one above are integrated in the instructions to teach vocabulary or language structures. In addition to this, instructors draw on real life situations such as their personal stories to describe the meaning and contextual appropriation of words or language structure. Hence, this learning experience benefits learners as they are able to understand the real-life usage of the English they are learning. 

Easy to access and free

With a good internet connection, podcasts are accessible and easy to use. Through the phone, learners are able to learn while being involved in other activities. All they need to do is listen and practice. The app version is also free to access and this is very significant as it ensures its circulation among people who might not have the financial means to afford subscription. Additionally, many of the podcasts are free to download.

More opportunities to practice listening

The Learn English podcasts contain diverse listening tasks in form of sentence completion, audio quizzes, matching pairs etc. Although, the tasks are often written, however, users might have to listen to some of the tasks in order to answer the questions. Hence, the tool is a good resource for developing active listening as learners as continuous practice of the listening tasks would help students to develop listening decoding skills which would be useful for their present and future lives.

Diverse interesting topic to learn language structures

There are many conversations on interesting topics such as technology, mental health, politics, global warming etc. all which are used to teach language structures. Through the conversations, learners can learn new words and grammar more so, when the presenters guide users to pick up the special elements.

Learner autonomy

The Learning English Podcasts app can encourage learner autonomy. Series on the app contain self-study lessons, which makes it possible for learners to take full charge of their learning. 

Challenges

Although the Learn English Podcasts app is available to download on mobile devices, in a situation where there is no access to internet, it becomes difficult to be an effective tool. Additionally, learners can become distracted easily with other activities on their mobile devices and forger to practice the tasks in the listening lessons therefore, using the podcast to learn requires that students are deliberate especially of self-studying.

Image acknowledgement according to order of use

Image by Firmbee from Pixabay 

Image from Learn English Podcasts App