The document discusses using podcasts to develop listening and speaking skills for English language learners (ELLs). It defines podcasts and their advantages, such as allowing learning anywhere and exposing students to authentic language. Podcasts can be used in bilingual education to increase language practice outside the classroom. Research discussed found podcasts align with theories of social learning and can enhance vocabulary, motivation and authentic listening skills when crafted appropriately. The conclusion is that podcasts are a useful tool for ELL teachers that make learning more accessible and help develop important language skills.

1. The use of Podcasts for
developing listening
and speaking skills for
ELLs
Melani Cruz
BLED 5040
Prof. Lopez

2. Objectives
• Definition of podcast and its advantages
• Podcasting in bilingual education
• Motivation
• Authentic listening materials
• Enhancing Vocabulary
• My reflection and conclusion on research

3. Introduction
• Technology is a great tool for language
learning. Teachers from all over the world
are creating new ways to use technology
in the classroom.
• In the language classroom technology
should be used inside and outside the
classroom to help ELLs develop reading,
writing, listening, and speaking in the
new language.

4. Introduction
• The most needed skills that ELLs need for
everyday communication in the new
language are listening and speaking.
• “Among the skills, listening in learning a
foreign and second language has not been
given much attention in spite of being the
most needed ability in everyday
communication.” (Hasan & Boon, 2012)
• In my research paper I discuss the use of
Podcasts for developing listening and
speaking skills amongst ELLs in the target
language.

5. Defining podcasting and its
advantages
• Podcasts are audio programs on the web which
are usually updated at regular intervals.
• “The term podcast was first coined in 2004, and
it means the publishing of audio materials via
the Internet.” (Kavaliauskienė & Anusienė,
2009)
• A podcast can be uploaded automatically to
your computer using RSS (really simple
syndication). Podcasts can cover a wide range of
topics and can include music and video.
• It can last anything upwards of a few minutes to
an hour or more.

6. Defining podcasting and its
advantages
Mendelson, (1994), cited by Kavaliauskienė
(2008), offers some techniques that enhance
learning and help the listeners focus on any
listening activity:
1) Listen for one crucial detail,
2) Listen for all the details,
3) Listen for the gist,
4) Listen for mood and atmosphere,
5) Listen to form hypotheses and make
predictions,
6) Listen to make an inference.

7. Defining podcasting and its
advantages
According to Constantine (2007) the
advantages of podcasts are:
1) learners can benefit from global listening,
even if they only listen from three to five
minutes a day;
2) students will be exposed to the new
language;
3) the intermediate learner has a need for
authentic texts and to be exposed to a variety
of voices.

8. Podcasting in Bilingual Education
• Podcasts can be used in many different ways in
education.
• Podcasting is considered to be a part of
m-Learning.
• Tynan and Colbarn (2006), cited by McMinn
(2008), identify m-Learning as “a different form of
eLearning, as it takes the learner away from a
fixed point and ‘respects that a user would like to
interact with educational resources whilst away
from a normal place of learning classroom or
computer’”
• Podcasting goes beyond the classroom, making it
mobile. Teachers are able to increase the time
students practice the new language.

9. Podcasting in Bilingual Education
Mobile learing is:
Any activity that allows
individuals to be more productive
when consuming, interacting
with, or creating information,
mediated through a compact
digital portable device that the
individual carries on a regular
basis, has reliable connectivity,
and fits in a pocket or purse
(www.molenet.org.uk)

10. Podcasting in Bilingual Education
Mobile technology influences the following
components of learning and teaching process
• Access to materials: A person hear a podcast
anywhere and anytime with a portable
device
• Interaction: Interaction by means of voice
mail and email, SMS, videoconference and
social networks
• Presentation: Microblogs, Twitter Course
casts
)

11. Podcasting in Bilingual Education
• Language teachers can create new ways
for encouraging students to practice their
language skills outside of the classroom
“through the use of four types of podcasts:
ESL podcasts, native-English podcasts,
and podcasts focusing on test preparation
and student produced podcasts.”
(McMinn, 2008)
• The purpose for ESL podcasts is to teach
ELLs the language through audio lessons.

12. What does research say?
• After much research I found that
podcasting aligns greatly with Vygotsky.
• He believed that students learned through
the process of socialization and that
language is a tool for social interaction.
Podcasting is process of socialization
between the publisher(s) and audience.
• It is through this socialization process
that students develop listening and
speaking skills.

13. Authentic Listening Materials
• Choosing authentic listening material for
ELLs is very important.
• Authentic listening material is made
specifically for ELLs
• “Authenticity may be present in the
following way: the language is as natural as
possible, items are contextualized rather than
isolated topics are meaningful (relevant and
interesting for the learners), tasks represent
real-world tasks.” (Kavaliauskienė, 2008).

14. Authentic Listening Materials
• There are a lot of podcasts online that are
great for authentic language learning.
• “Podcasts are popular for their authentic
listening program prepared by the
proficient speakers and are extremely
helpful for the learners to produce the
natural speech as by the native speakers.”
(Jain & Hashmi, 2013)

15. Enhancing Vocabulary
• Leaning new vocabulary is very important
for ELLs. For ELLs to become proficient in
the new langauge they need a large
vocabulary.
• “Since vocabulary is so essential to
comprehension, using technology as an
instruction aid to help students retain
vocabulary seemed like it would be a very
motivating activity for … teachers
developing the podcasts and the … students
who would use the podcasts.” (Borgia, 2009)

16. Enhancing Vocabulary
• Borgia (2009) carried out a study with her
fifth grade ELLs. She used enhanced
vocabulary podcasts with her fifth graders.
• “The data gathered from both classrooms
showed elementary student growth on the
novel vocabulary that was reinforced during
podcast activities.” (Borgia, 2009)
• Borgia concluded from her study that
podcasts for “reinforcing vocabulary offer
promise as a literacy instructional aid.”

17. Motivation
• Sometimes teachers find it difficult to keep
students motivated. “Student motivation
is difficult to measure, manage, initiate,
and control.” (Goodson & Skillen, 2010)
• Learning a new language isn’t easy and
may cause frustration, which is why it is
so important to keep ELLs motivated.
• “Using podcasts as a medium to help
students learn English is beneficial since
student motivation can be enhanced.”
(Ching Li, 2010).

18. Motivation
• Goodson and Skillen (2010) believe that
students are motivated to do a good job if
they know that their work is going to be
published.
• Students can publish their podcasts on the
internet for a global audience.
• “Asking students to publish their work,
which can be done in a variety of ways
(including orally presenting work to the
rest of a class), is one way to increase
student motivation.” (Goodson & Skillen,
2010).

19. Motivation
• O-Bryan and Hegelheimer (2007) also
suggest that podcasting has the potential
for creating intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation in students.
• Stanley (2005) suggests that students who
produce podcasts for assessed tasks “will
probably take more care with the
preparation, knowing that it could be
potentially listened to by people all over
the world.

20. Motivation
• Students love to publish and listen to
podcasts about topics that interest them.
• “Podcasting is especially interesting for
English learners as it provides a means for
students to get access to ‘authentic’
listening sources about almost any subject
that may interest them.” (Kavaliauskienė,
2008)
• Students can listen to their classmate’s
work or listen to podcast made by a
student in India or Japan.

21. Motivation
• Teachers often make mistakes when creating
podcasts for their ELLs that can make them
lose interest. Weinberg, Knoerr and
Vandergrift (2011) carried out a study where
one of their goals was to determine the
enjoyment of students using podcasts for
academic listening in French.
• “Weekly questionnaires showed that most of
the students enjoyed the podcasts and found
them moderately useful, although some
contradictions emerged” (Weinberg, Knoerr
and Vandergrift, 2011)

22. Motivation
• Many students didn’t like the way the
podcasts were presented.
• “They did not like the plain format of the
podcasts and commented that the
presenters read their script, were
monotonous, boring, and unenthusiastic
about the topic discussed.” (Weinber
Knoerr and Vandergrift, 2011)
• According to the students the podcasts
were repetitious and not interesting.

23. Motivation
It is important that when creating a podcast
for ELLs, teachers make the podcasts
presentable. From research I have found
common mistakes teachers make when
creating a podcast:
1) talking to fast,
2) assume users know more than they actually
do,
3) wander making it too hard to follow,
4) being monotone,
5) being repetitious and boring.

24. Reflection
My goal was to research the use of podcasts
for developing listening and speaking skills
for ELLs. After reading and reviewing
academic articles I learned that podcasts are
a great tool for English language teachers.
Many of the authors concluded that
podcasts are great for enhancing listening
and speaking skills.

25. Conclusion
Before this class, I had little experience with podcasting. I
have listened to podcasts from other professors in the
past but never had I ventured out to make my own until
this class. I had a great experience producing my podcast
and now realize the importance of podcasting. After
doing my research it is evident that students, teachers,
and professors all benefit from this great use of
technology. As and future teacher my plan is to continue
working with podcasting and getting more familiar with
all the aspects that go into making them so when I do
become a teacher, I can be well prepared and use them
in my classroom. As a result of reading the articles, they
helped me get more of an understanding as to why
teachers need to keep up with the changing times and
new technology.

26. Conclusion
I conclude that using podcasts in an ELL
classroom does help students develop
listening and speaking skills. Podcasts
makes learning more accessible and it’s
inexpensive. It can be used inside and
outside of the classroom. Podcasts create a
learning environment that extends well
outside the boundaries of the classroom. I
believe that podcasts also helps students
engage more with their community and
peers.