Audiodidact: using podcasts for foreign language learning
Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:31 pm
A podcast is to radio what a blog is to newspaper. It basically lets anyone set up their own internet radio show, except better, because you can download each episode to your computer or portable mp3 player and listen at your leisure.
iTunes has recently made it very easy to find and subscribe to podcasts. Just click on "podcasts," then "podcast directory," and browse (or search).
Most podcasts, I'm sure, like most blogs, are not especially interesting. But for students of a foreign language, even not especially interesting podcasts can be wonderful tools. They provide the hardest thing to get outside the native country: native speach, as it's actually spoken. That they're stupid at times may even be an advantage: I for one say (or at least hear) plenty of stupid things in English and fluency is being able to say and understand the same stupid things in the target language. Literary language audio or news have long been easy to get (thanks to the various international amazons), they may more stimulating to the mind but not to the ear and tongue. A mix, of course, is best. It's not either or.
The languages I'm learning right now are German and Hebrew (I know, I know, odd combo). Unfortunately there's nothing decent in Hebrew yet (not that my Hebrew is good enough to be able profit from it) but there's some excellent stuff in German. My favorites are 1st Intergalactic Podcast by Ralf and Annik Rubens' Schlaflos in München (ah the didactic power of a sexy female voice...).
Annik's podcast has turned me onto an English language podcast which is interesting even though I already know English (or thought I knew it). It's called the Word Nerds, and it reminds me a little of "Car Talk" (there are two brothers, they are funny) except here the talk is about words.
For those of you who don't remember what the "audiodidact" in the subject of this discussion refers to, look here (toward the bottom, I no longer hate the name).
I think podcasting has enormous "audiodidactic" potential, and not just for learning foreign languages. In fact I think I may start a podcast called audiodidact: a (short) weekly(?) sound recording about using sound recordings to teach yourself stuff. I've been talking to myself into my microcassette recorder for ages now, it shouldn't be that big a transition. We'll see, no promises yet.
iTunes has recently made it very easy to find and subscribe to podcasts. Just click on "podcasts," then "podcast directory," and browse (or search).
Most podcasts, I'm sure, like most blogs, are not especially interesting. But for students of a foreign language, even not especially interesting podcasts can be wonderful tools. They provide the hardest thing to get outside the native country: native speach, as it's actually spoken. That they're stupid at times may even be an advantage: I for one say (or at least hear) plenty of stupid things in English and fluency is being able to say and understand the same stupid things in the target language. Literary language audio or news have long been easy to get (thanks to the various international amazons), they may more stimulating to the mind but not to the ear and tongue. A mix, of course, is best. It's not either or.
The languages I'm learning right now are German and Hebrew (I know, I know, odd combo). Unfortunately there's nothing decent in Hebrew yet (not that my Hebrew is good enough to be able profit from it) but there's some excellent stuff in German. My favorites are 1st Intergalactic Podcast by Ralf and Annik Rubens' Schlaflos in München (ah the didactic power of a sexy female voice...).
Annik's podcast has turned me onto an English language podcast which is interesting even though I already know English (or thought I knew it). It's called the Word Nerds, and it reminds me a little of "Car Talk" (there are two brothers, they are funny) except here the talk is about words.
For those of you who don't remember what the "audiodidact" in the subject of this discussion refers to, look here (toward the bottom, I no longer hate the name).
I think podcasting has enormous "audiodidactic" potential, and not just for learning foreign languages. In fact I think I may start a podcast called audiodidact: a (short) weekly(?) sound recording about using sound recordings to teach yourself stuff. I've been talking to myself into my microcassette recorder for ages now, it shouldn't be that big a transition. We'll see, no promises yet.