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Audio for EFL (3) - Podcasting

What is a podcast?

Not so long ago, very few people knew about podcasts. In fact, the early podcasters couldn't even agree on the term "podcast." Some preferred the term "netcast" because they wanted to stay away from copyright and trademark issues related to Apple's iPod. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of free podcasts that include all genres of information: news, political commentary, history, education, religion, comedy, cooking, adult-material, audio-novels, art and music commentary, hobbies, you name it. With the COVID-19 crisis, a lot of people had extra time on their hands and decided to share their knowledge and opinions with the rest of the world via podcasts, which were almost free to produce. 

Podcasting has become an important new section of the entertainment industry. Far-flung podcasters began to create networks, which led to more, and more diverse, podcasts. Traditional news sources and other content-creators added podcasts to their platform. To pay for the production of professional-quality podcasts (in technical terms, if not in content), the podcasters turned to advertisers, who were quite willing to find new eyeballs and/or ears for their products. Listeners to many free podcasts now have to suffer numerous pre-roll and exit advertising, as well as annoying breaks in the middle. Very often, these ads are for even more podcasts! Premium services offer the same content without the advertising. Nevertheless, there are still some free online services that allow amateurs to produce and publish ad-free podcasts. Although the technical side might not be professional level, the content can be gold. 

Both teachers and students can explore and use podcasts. Teachers can create mini-lectures, tutorials, and chunks of content material to be used, on-demand, as many times as needed. Although a teacher's podcast can be parallel support for a current course, it can be available for future classes. Students can listen to podcasts and usually can control the speed of the podcast as well as PAUSE-AND-REPEAT in order to improve comprehension. Beyond that, students can take more ownership of their learning by researching a topic, preparing scripts (with your help), producing the shows, and proudly demonstrating their knowledge and technical abilities to friends, relatives, and the entire world. Without the massive infrastructure investment of creating a school radio station, students can podcast frequent episodes about the school's (or the community's) news, sports, events, and other aspects of daily life. As teachers of ELLs, your function would be to help them develop their English and polish their scripts.  

For purists, a podcast is a series of audio or video files that are stored on the Internet and accessed by a technology called RSS ("Rich Site Summary," a.k.a. "Really Simple Syndication"). One of these files is a "podcast episode." However, many people (i.e., the non-purists and less-geeky people) often consider a single audio or video file accessed, in any way, via the Internet as a "podcast."

Whether using the purist's definition, or the common definition, podcasts seem to be "Internet Radio" or "Internet Television." Even if that is not technically 100% correct, for your teaching, it's a good enough conceptual description. 

As a teacher, you can use one or more episodes of various podcasts to present interesting content, in English, to your ELLs. You have a wide range of pre-existing podcasts to choose from, you can easily create your own podcasts, or you can have your students create their own podcasts. When the students create their own podcasts, for a real audience, they will be motivated to produce the best possible English (with your guidance).

Please watch this rather dated, but still excellent, explanation from Common Craft.

Existing Podcasts for ELLs:

(You need this for the homework!)

Look in your smart phone (iPhone or Andriod) for an app that downloads and presents podcasts. If you don't have such an app, then go to the Apple Store, Google Play, or whatever "store" your device offers. Search for "podcast" and download and install the best looking one that is free of charge. (Get the smallest in size and/or the most recommended one.) 

When you have a podcast app, then search for "English as a Second Language" and see what types of existing podcasts are available. They are all free, so try them out. You can always delete them if you don't like them.

As EFL teachers, you should all try the weekly "Grammar Girl" podcast, which deals with grammar, linguistics, the history of English, writing skills, and more. Originally, the format used to be shorter, only dealing with one point. Now it usually has three different types of sub-sections, making the over-all time a bit longer. (I usually listen to the first two sections of the three. The third is a "familex," which is sometimes interesting, but not very relevant for our teaching.) 

A few podcasts your students might like (depending on their linguistic level) are "Storynory," "Stor14s,"  and "Science Adventure Stories for Kids,"  which read kid-friendly stories in English. Stor14s has world-class actors reading many of the stories. There have been many other kid-friendly podcasts, particularly since the COVID crisis began.  

On the technical side, the most effective student-oriented podcasts will have the scripts available. If they exist, they are usually found at the podcast's regular Website.  

Creating Podcasts for ELLs:

A.I.-Generated Podcasts

Instant Podcast 

Here's a section of a longer Russell Stannard tutorial from February 2025. This section deals with Instant Podcast, which creates AI-generated podcasts. 

Google Notebook LM - AI-Generated Podcasts (and study material) (REQUIRED !!)

Google has created a tool (https://notebooklm.google.com/) that takes text, various types of files, or webpages and turns them into a podcast. Two hosts, a woman and a man, discuss the content, drawing from the specific content and also from external information. This podcast can be downloaded as a WAV file (which is a larger file than an mp3).

Beyond that, Google Notebook LM offers various textual ways of exploring the content of the podcast, with over-views, study-guides, briefing notes, FAQs (which can be turned into questions for the students), and other informational formats.

Manually-Generated Podcasts (REQUIRED !!)

But don't you want your students to really make their own podcasts? This entails writing the scripts, reading them, and publishing their own creations. Your job will be to help them with their English. This is probably a much better way to learn English. 

Open a free account at Pod-o-Matic (click here). Then upload the short mp3 you previously created with an mp3 file generator (using your voice or a T-T-S voice). You can also upload a relevant image if you want. Uploading and processing might take a few minutes (the longer the mp3, the longer the processing). When your podcast episode is ready, check to see if it works. You then can SHARE it via a link or embed it into your class Website or other HTML-based Web pages (blog, wiki, or other Website). Make sure you are SHARING the specific episode and not the homepage of your Pod-O-Matic account.

Think about the possibility of creating a podcast series for your students, with each episode being a chunk of learning, stored "in the cloud." And what about having your students create their own podcast episodes, full of English (with your guidance), to present to the world? They could create the mp3 files for you to upload to the class podcast series, or they could do everything themselves. (Most probably, they have the technical skills to do this!)

Here's an example:

There are many other free podcasting tools. Michael Moore uses Anchor to create his very professionally sounding podcast "Rumble." Google also offers a free podcasting service for creators and listeners for PCs, Andriod, and IoS.

Homework:

Please note:

Late homework will be penalized 20% of the potential grade.

Your first post worth 60% of the grade and the second post (a meaningful response to some one else) is worth 40%.     

1. Listen to a pre-existing podcast and be ready to report on your opinion about it.

2. Open a free account at Pod-O-Matic (or some other free podcasting service).

3. Take one of the mp3 files you made previously (manually or T-T-S) and upload it to your account in Pod-O-Matic (or alternative service) to create a podcast episode. (Or you could record a new brief mp3 file for this purpose.) Make sure that the podcast is set to PUBLIC, if need be. 

4. In your FIRST post to the Lesson 17 MOODLE discussion forum: 

a. Briefly report about which pre-existing podcast episode you listened to.  (You only have to listen to one, but you are encouraged to listen to more.) Report the name of the podcast series and the name of the specific episode. 

b. Briefly explain if you think that using pre-existing podcasts has any relevance for you (as a teacher) or your students.

c. Briefly report on your experience of creating a podcast episode of your own. Could you see yourself creating a podcast series with content material for your students? Could you see letting your students create podcast episodes?

d. Publish the link to the specific podcast episode (i.e., not the homepage of Pod-O-Matic or the alternative service). Please try to post your URL early enough so other students can listen to your podcast. After posting, check that your link works.  

5. Read the posts from all the other students, listening to at least TWO of the podcasts, and REPLY  to at least one with a meaningful response. (Please note: "I agree." or "Great!" is not meaningful without a thoughtful presentation of why.) Please politely point out any major technical problems you had listening to the Podcast. If you disagree with someone's post, please do so politely and constructively!

Embed your podcast in the "Other Items" page in your Google Sites website. Make sure it has a heading.

HEADS UP!!

You should submit a first draft of your Literature Review by midnight of May 6, 2025. (Think of it as a very well-developed outline, with as much text as possible.) You probably will want to review the APA stuff at the top of this webpage.