Podcast, Specific Considerations

According to O'Bryan & Hegelheimer (2007) "Podcasts can be powerful tools for learning to listen, as evidenced in a recent study on the integration of podcasts into an ESL listening course, where they were viewed very positively by the students".

To prepare the students to get acquainted with the new format named podcast I, as a teacher would start with no limitation on particular podcast selection. First, they would be given enough time to try and find what they really liked and what didn't. I wish my teacher used this technique during a regular classroom setting, as, it would be of great help while I was taking my TOEFL exam many years later. Being an old SLA learner (I started learning English when I was 15) I remember one of the biggest challenges for me was listening part. Even years later when I entered Linguistic University if podcast was used I would not struggle with listening part of TOEFL exam.
As a teacher I would recommend the students to start with the podcast of their interest, not to limit them to particular podcasts Besides, the broader choice a student is given the better selection a student does.
The main purpose of podcasts will be developing note-taking strategies and developing listening skills. To make the podcasts enjoyable I would recommend my students to start with short ones. It can be very helpful as the learner can listen again and again to the podcast be he/ she at home, in a bus or elsewhere. Instead of reading, the learner is listening.
Depending on the level of proficiency of the learners little by little I would guide them to the topics of their level. At the end of every lesson, I would allocate couple of minutes to discuss the podcast they listened to; thus, developing speaking as well. At first, this would not be a graded task to let the learners feel more comfortable with podcast itself and only later would integrate podcast and discussion into grading. 

Podcast

Depending on the LOs (Learning Objectives) of a particular class (in a usual classroom setting)  podcast can be a useful, supplemental source for learning L2. To expand on this, I would like to mention the following important points from my point of view. If the learning objective of a class is to develop note-taking strategies, short dialogues as podcast can be a nice authentic material. The same would apply for teaching vocabulary: students need to listen to the podcast and write down unfamiliar words, then based on the podcast they need to guess the meaning. This can be done in small groups of 2-3.
In case of grammar teaching podcast could be a supplementary material
 Students may be assigned to listen to a particular podcast to fully understand the grammatical part. This can be a helpful tool especially for Armenians who are learning English, since we are used to explicit instruction. We need the rule first.

Podcasts, Why or Why not a teacher would assign a podcasting assignment

During my years at school the only "podcast" Chanel was the TV and we were to fight in the family to have the chance to turn the channel to the English. Elders would argue they would not understand anything, but they wanted to learn the latest local news. Nowadays we all have been granted with new technologies which we can use in our everyday routine: smartphones, MacBooks. Why not integrating podcasts as a part of the learning process? We can start with a very short audio, to let students get used to the new format and by the time make it a part of the learning. Podcasts can be a bit challenging for students with low level of listening skills, but by the time it is integrated into the learning materials, students will enjoy it. 

Short Writing Assignments

The best way to make a student read each chapter and find the key parts can be easily done through short writing assignments. To make students' life more complicated, the teacher can assign each student to add in the comments other key points, peers may have missed.

A good and bad example of Blogging task

If a rural student is in a group of University students from the urban part, due to the lack of computer skills; because of no usage of the computer at all, may experience a hard time and feel frustrated using blogger as a platform for free writing.

Blogging can bring lots of fun and engagement to urban language center adults in expressing their viewpoints, commenting on an article posted. This will enhance their reading skills as well as will improve written production.

A good and a bad example of tweeter task

In the case of essay writing Tweeter can not be a helpful platform due to the short turns. Students will not be able to express their thoughts because of word limitations set by Tweeter. This is the case with adults at the University level. Meanwhile for adults at the language center Tweeter can be one of the best choices to express their views in couple sentences.

Tweeter as a Platform for EFL learners

"Twitter has a huge advantage over usual discussion boards: Twitts consist of Short turns and Long turns" (K. Borau, et al.).

Being a tweeter user for the first time during my studies I think that this is a good platform for expressing our thoughts without being criticized about our errors. Besides, following my peers and reading their tweets helps me once again go over the reading material. Each of us posts something different, thus we go over and over the lecture again.
Tweeter could be a good platform for some writing tasks for new learners as well, they would not be afraid to express themselves.



As described in the article "Microblogging for Language Learning: Using Twitter to Train Communicative and Cultural Competence" by K. Borau et al. Twitter can be a useful tool to practice "communicative competence". Learners can interact with each other, express their viewpoints.
In the case of developing speaking skills, Twitter and other social platforms can not be of much help, as some learners may be good in writing but bad in expressing their thoughts in oral communication.
Anyway, if the teacher sets a speaking task on Twitter, this can help the students to express their thoughts orally. This can be done through recording short monologues, or dialogues, role-plays.