Podcasting

Barbara Dieu has posted links to a tutorial on Podcasting by Geoff Taylor, English language teacher at St Clare’s, Oxford. His blog is called Bardwell Road Podcast Centre. She has also links to some excellent student postcasts. Listen to all of them. They will inspire you for this year's work.

Thanks Barbara!

Listen to the skype podcast EFLBridges . There are teachers and students talking about podcasting and its benefits. You can also read the chat transcript, which will help a lot if you are having trouble understanding.

Thanks Graham!

Sally's class

Sally and her students have been celebrating Harmony Day in a very special way. Last week and this week they've been having morning tea together. Last week they had Korean tea and Irish Breakfast tea. Yesterday they had mate and Turkish tea with some knefeh that one of my students, Djimi, had prepared.

Listen to our conversation.
Download the MP3 file 584 kB, o:o2:29)
Music by my brothers'group Tresena



In this picture you can see cups of Turkish coffee, a dish of Knefeh and a cup of mate with its metal straw, a lemon to add a bit of grind to the mate and a packet of yerba mate, which means mate herb.

Sally's students may want to write the instructions on how to prepare the mate and Turkish coffee for us. The recipe for the Knefeh can be found in Djimi's blog.

The mate straw has a tip made of 18 karat gold!

Who are we?

Hi everyone,

This is our first student podcast. Listen to a brief introduction of ourselves. In future we intend to post podcasts in our individual blogs. There is a bit of work to do before that, so enjoy our first attempt.

Download the MP3 file (946 KB, o:o4:02)
Music by my brothers'group Tresena

We have three new students in our class, Chika, Gloria and Chris. Listen to their introductions.

Download the MP3 file 666 KB, o:o2:50)
Music by my brothers'group Tresena





ESL
podcast

Liz: A trip to Afghanistan

Liz teaching English in Hope House, Kabul Afghanistan, July 2005.

AMEP-A students know Liz very well, as she is your teacher. Students from other classes involved in this blog may not know her aswell, but if you listen to this interview you will discover some very interesting things about Liz and the work she does for The Mahboba's Promise organisation.

Before listening you can do this pre-listening exercise. It will help you with some of the words used by Liz.

Download the MP3 file (1.88 MB, o:o8:14)

Music by my brothers'group Tresena


You can learn more about it by visiting the

The Mahboba's Promise website.

1. Who is Liz?
2. Why did Rosa want to interview her?
3. When did Liz go on that trip?
4. How long has she been working for Mahboba's Promise?
5. What's Mahboba's Promise's main objective? What do they do in Afghanistan?
6. How long did Liz spend there?
7. Before going to Afghanistan, how did Liz help Mahboba?
8. Name three reasons why Liz went to Afghanistan.
9. What's the age range of Liz's students in Afghanistan?
10. What did she teach the little three year old kids?
11. Was the level of English high or low?
12. How many classes did she teach?
13. Name three different types of places that Mahboba has established in Afghanistan.
14. Do children in Afghanistan have to have lost both parents to be considered orphans?
15. Do mothers usually work in Afghanistan?
16. What happened under the Taliban?
17. What's Mahboba passionate about?
18. What do they teach the mothers apart from English?
19. What type of vocational (employment) center have they set up for older children and mothers?
20. What's Kabul like?
21. What impressed Liz most?
22. How did Afghani people receive Liz and the other volunteers?
23. Did Liz dress in any particular way?
24. What were the Afghani workers at Mahboba's Promise like?
25. Is Liz going back to Afghanistan?
26. Think of 4 or 5 questions you would like to ask Liz about her experience.

ESL

Mirella: Touring Europe

Mirella is a young Australian girl who's just back from a trip around Europe.








Here is a picture of Mirella on Mt Pilatus in Switzerland.
Listen to our conversation and answer the questions below.
Download the MP3 file (1.83 MB, o:o8:00)
Music by my brother's group Hato de Foces

1. When did Mirella get back to Australia?
   
2. What did she do at the end of November?
3. When did she start her trip?
4. Did she take time off from university?
   
5. How long did Mirella spend travelling?
6. Was she travelling alone?
   
7. Where did Mirella go first?
8. Where did she stay?
9. How did she find it? (What did she think about the place?)
   
10. How does she describe seeing her first snow fall?
11. How did she travel around?
12. What 3 towns did she visit in England? Tell us what she says about them.
    
13. What film does she talk about and why?
14. After England, where did they go?
    
15. What's very different in Prague?
    
16. What's the food like?
17. What do they call Paris? Why?
    
18. What did they do in Paris?
19. What did Mirella taste? Why did she do it?
20. Describe Switzerland as Mirella found it.
21. What's good according to Rosa?
22. Tell us about Mirella's experience in Venice. What did she do? What did she eat?
23. What was the highlight of her trip?
24. How could Mirella afford such a long trip to Europe?
25. Did she have any money left?
    

Marion: Winter Olympics

Marion is going on a trip this Wednesday. She left a message for all of you.

Listen to it and do the homework she tells you, even if you are not in her class. You can write the answers in your blogs. Marion said that she would try to access a computer when and if she has a bit of time.


Download the MP3 file (371 KB, o:o1:34)



Photo taken by my son in the Dolomites in January 2006.