The world of PODCASTS
Dear all,
this week I'm going to talk about podcasting. The origin of this word derives from the combination of two popular nouns; "iPod" (the mp3 player) and "broadcasting" (from radio and television). A podcast is an audio-file or a video that you download from the internet. After you download it you can listen to it on your computer or on an mp3/portable music player whenever you want.
The task of the e-tivity of this week is quite complex; we are supposed to explore the world of podcasts, to find three of them which can be useful for our English listening practice, to save them in del.icio.us, to comment on them in our personal blog, and finally to upload an audio-file in which we record our impressions about this new experience.
Following you can find three podcasts I chose in order to carry out this e-tivity:
1- Series Information: English As A Second Language Podcast;
2- Digital Podcast;
3- The English Blog.
The reason why I chose these podcasts is that I was interested in their contents.
In "Series Information: English As A Second Language Podcast" there are many audio-files dealing with different sujects; you can find situations of the every-day life reproduced on one audio-file. For example you can find how to ask for a rise, how to give bad news and condolences, how to get a licence, how to get a men's haircut. Furthermore, you can learn the problems of having a jealous girlfriend and many other interesting things.
The average duration of an audio-file is twenty minutes; some audios are longer; other are shorter.
Thanks to these audios one can improve and practice his/her English listening skills.
In "Digital Podcast" you can listen to simple and daily news. You can find many audio-files dealing with different news; for example "Pop star Kylie returns to stage in Sydney", "Madonna defends Malawi Child Adoption", "Men suffer from Compulsive Shopping too" etc...
If you click on www.breakingnewsenglish.com, you can find many other "lessons" based on different subjects: business English, enviroment, heatlh, issues, lifestyle, people, enterteinment, gossip, technology and world news.
In "The English Blog" you can find audio-files based on different levels of English and dealing with different subjects, for example: "Business English Pod", "English, Baby! Daily Lesson" and "Listen English- Learn English". I was particularly interested in the last podcast and so I listened to it. According to Peter Carter, the producer of this audio-file, "The podcasts on this site will help you to improve your English vocabulary and pronunciation and your listening skills. There are three short (2 or 3 minutes) podcasts every week, in clearly spoken English. You can download them to your computer [...]. You can put the podcasts onto your iPod or MP3 player, and listen to them on your way to school or work. The full text of each podcast is on this site (and will also appear on your iPod screen), so you can look up the meanings of words that you do not understand in a dictionary. Then close your eyes and listen!". In my opinion this is a good description of podcasting which helps people to understand the reason why it is so useful.
In conclusion, as far as the podcasts I chose are concerned, I can states that from the structure point of view they are very similar to each other; what changes from one podcast to another one is its content.
That's all for the moment!
See you soon!
Barbara
Here below you will find my personal audio-file...Please, don't listen to it!!!
powered by ODEO
Dear all,
this week I'm going to talk about podcasting. The origin of this word derives from the combination of two popular nouns; "iPod" (the mp3 player) and "broadcasting" (from radio and television). A podcast is an audio-file or a video that you download from the internet. After you download it you can listen to it on your computer or on an mp3/portable music player whenever you want.
The task of the e-tivity of this week is quite complex; we are supposed to explore the world of podcasts, to find three of them which can be useful for our English listening practice, to save them in del.icio.us, to comment on them in our personal blog, and finally to upload an audio-file in which we record our impressions about this new experience.
Following you can find three podcasts I chose in order to carry out this e-tivity:
1- Series Information: English As A Second Language Podcast;
2- Digital Podcast;
3- The English Blog.
The reason why I chose these podcasts is that I was interested in their contents.
In "Series Information: English As A Second Language Podcast" there are many audio-files dealing with different sujects; you can find situations of the every-day life reproduced on one audio-file. For example you can find how to ask for a rise, how to give bad news and condolences, how to get a licence, how to get a men's haircut. Furthermore, you can learn the problems of having a jealous girlfriend and many other interesting things.
The average duration of an audio-file is twenty minutes; some audios are longer; other are shorter.
Thanks to these audios one can improve and practice his/her English listening skills.
In "Digital Podcast" you can listen to simple and daily news. You can find many audio-files dealing with different news; for example "Pop star Kylie returns to stage in Sydney", "Madonna defends Malawi Child Adoption", "Men suffer from Compulsive Shopping too" etc...
If you click on www.breakingnewsenglish.com, you can find many other "lessons" based on different subjects: business English, enviroment, heatlh, issues, lifestyle, people, enterteinment, gossip, technology and world news.
In "The English Blog" you can find audio-files based on different levels of English and dealing with different subjects, for example: "Business English Pod", "English, Baby! Daily Lesson" and "Listen English- Learn English". I was particularly interested in the last podcast and so I listened to it. According to Peter Carter, the producer of this audio-file, "The podcasts on this site will help you to improve your English vocabulary and pronunciation and your listening skills. There are three short (2 or 3 minutes) podcasts every week, in clearly spoken English. You can download them to your computer [...]. You can put the podcasts onto your iPod or MP3 player, and listen to them on your way to school or work. The full text of each podcast is on this site (and will also appear on your iPod screen), so you can look up the meanings of words that you do not understand in a dictionary. Then close your eyes and listen!". In my opinion this is a good description of podcasting which helps people to understand the reason why it is so useful.
In conclusion, as far as the podcasts I chose are concerned, I can states that from the structure point of view they are very similar to each other; what changes from one podcast to another one is its content.
That's all for the moment!
See you soon!
Barbara
Here below you will find my personal audio-file...Please, don't listen to it!!!
powered by ODEO
posted by Barbara @ 2:36 PM
1 Comments:
At 3:24 AM,
francesca said…
Hi Barbara,
Thanks for your comment on my blog. I also like the websites that you have chosen. I think that “Digital podcast” is really interesting. You can enjoy your free time listening to some podcasts. I also like the third website that you have adviced us : “The English blog”. Besides being interesting, it is very useful for improving English learners’ listening and writing skills; moreover, podcasts are short and so the listener does’t get bored listening to them.
As regards your personal podcast I like it. You don’t seem to be anxious to record your voice, in fact it sounds natural. I agree with you about the fact that podcasts are similar as regards the type of language used.
See you soon,
Have a nice week
Bye bye
Francesca
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