ESL Pods

There are tons of podcasts on ESL Pods for English learners.

The podcasts are about different topics such as travel, business, daily life, entertainment, etc. The one I reviewed is called ESL Podcast 938 – Learning to Ride the Subway. This podcast is organized by a brief introduction, a dialogue, an illustration for information in the dialogue such as vocabulary and concepts. At last, the podcast ends with the dialogue appears at the beginning in a normal speed. The speakers talk slowly enough so that they can make sure ESL learners can listen clearly and understand better. I could use this podcast for teaching vocabulary in context. Because the dialogue includes target vocabulary for taking a ride of the subway, such as transfer, line, local train, fare, etc. The speaker usually introduces a new vocabulary by first repeating the sentence in which the word occurs. After that he will spell it out slowly, then gives definition, which is followed by more explanation related to speaker’s personal experience. ESL learners will learn a word in a context, so they have a good grasp on its meaning. By learning a word’s form, meaning and use, ESL learners can use the vocabulary in a proper situation.