Sunday, November 6, 2011

Learn 'how to say goodbye' with Podcast!

    Have you heard Podcast before? It's an excellent tools for teaching and learning a second language.
    What is Podcast? According to the Wikipedia, it said that, "A Podcast (or non-streamed webcast) is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication." (Wikipedia, 2011)
    Anyone can make a podcast by recording a audio or video just with a microphone or video camera, a computer, and web. In addition, you can subscribe it, and also download it to your computer or MP3/MP4 player to watch and listen it whenever and wherever you want. Here's a short introduction about Podcasting and its usage which named Podcasting in Plain English.

    And, for our following class, I want to use this piece podcast from ESL Podcast to teach you Saying Goodbye. As winter break is coming soon, you may want to know how to say goodbye to your classmates. In this episode, the host gives detailed explanations about different ways of saying goodbye, and he also explains a conversation between two people who talk about one's leaving because of the summer job.

    I want to you listen to it carefully and design a short conversation depends on the 'goodbye' topic. You can choose whatever scene or people you want, and bring it to our next class. We will share these conversations together and act it out in pairs or groups in the classroom.
    After that, I would like you to choose 2-3 partners of your classmates and make a podcast by yourselves together in gorups. And this will be your final project for this semester.