Archive for July, 2015

Learn English podcast

Thursday, July 16th, 2015

I have been listening to podcasts for years. I have several I create playlists from and put on my iPod and listen to off and on throughout the day.

I love the medium – using audio to get information. There are a ton of really good podcasts out there, too.

I listen to mostly sports or podcasts about writing, but I have looked around quite a bit for a good English language podcast to recommend.

I usually don’t recommend podcasts specifically for learning English, and usually recommend students just listen to podcasts about topics they are interested in learning or knowing more about. That’s the purpose of learning a language anyway, right? — to be able to use it to do something.

I have one learning podcast I can recommend though. It’s the English as a Second Language Podcast at ESLPod.com  It has a wide variety of topics, and usually scripts are presented at a slower rate of speed and then after some explanations given again at a normal native speaker speed.

The information is interesting in the English Cafe Episodes and the conversations are usually funny and interesting along with consisting of useful topics and vocabulary.

If you’re looking for a podcast for yourself or to recommend to your students, this is a good one:

https://www.eslpod.com/website/index_new.html

 

2015 Skit Performance Contest at Chukyo University

Thursday, July 2nd, 2015

Last week was the 4th annual BACS Skit Performance Contest at Chukyo University.

This is something that used to be an exercise for just my classes but was expanded and turned into a department-wide contest and event for all second year students in the British and American Culture Studies at Chukyo University.

The skits are getting better and better, and it is always a lot of fun.

The students are usually randomly divided into groups of 4-5 students and they write and perform skits that are shortened versions of famous children’s stories. It’s an exercise that is meant to help students be more confident in speaking English in front of others and to have a chance to do some team building.

It is also very fun. For everyone.

Here are a couple of snapshots I took of the winning groups from both periods.

1st place through 3rd place 4th Period

1st place through 3rd place 4th Period

1st place through 3rd place winners from 3rd Period.

1st place through 3rd place winners from 3rd Period.