Summary on Podcasting for ELT

Podcasting has derived its name from 'iPod' and 'broadcasting'. It’s an audio instrument which can be downloaded through internet on any portable mp3 player etc. podcasting is becoming popular in language teaching and learning. The teacher can record/download language input and can distribute to learners to listen to it as many time as they want. Learners themselves can produce podcasts on various topics they can create their own profile as well. 

Types of Podcasts

·    Authentic Podcasts

·    Teacher Podcasts

·    Student Podcasts

·    Educator Podcasts

Using Podcasts in Class and for Homework

Many podcasts have weblog as their homepage which shows links to audio files. From these links we can download/transfer podcasts to our mp3 player or can be recorded in CD-ROM. Besides this many podcasts have transcription as well for supporting learners’ understanding.

Producing Your Own Podcasts

Producing podcasts provides wider opportunity to young learners as they can produce their own radio show as a podcast on World Wide Web. It provides them the opportunity to have real audience for their show. Such kind of tasks can prove highly motivated.

Requirements to Produce Podcasts

- A means of recording audio in mp3 file format. Eg a PC with speakers and microphone

- Audio editing software. Eg Audacity program.

- A weblog

- An RSS feed to subscribe to podcasts.

- Space online to store the audio files.

In conclusion, we can say that podcasts can be highly useful for language teaching.