
For about the last three / four years I've been a huge fan of a podcast series called Coffee Break Spanish. Now to be honest most people who bother to read my blog (you select few, cheers!) will undoubtedly know about the wonders of CBS and those dulcet tones of Mark and Kara.
Well today I'm VERY proud indeed to announce that Mark and Radio Lingua have announced their new podcast series- News Time Spanish. And the newscaster of choice is the one and only José Picardo, webmaster of Así se hace and blogger extraordinaire at Box of tricks. The reason I'm quite so proud of this one is that I've been able to take a role in the project as well, helping to research stories and contribute to the scripts.
I've always felt that there's been a hole which needed filling in terms of regular, brief updates from around the world, with a focus on Hispanic news but not exclusively. With my teacher hat on podcasts of 30 - 40 minutes just weren't going to be approriate for my learners, even at post-16 level. And yet having access to solid listening materials beyond the classroom which were relevant to them then and there was so crucial. Widening their horizons whilst also providing appropriately structured language which would be repeated and could be recycled in their own work. And so here it is... No it's not entirely about helping our students to learn, it's also a fantastic tool for more mature learners, but even so...
So please please head over to http://radiolingua.com/shows/spanish/newstimespanish/ or search for News Time Spanish in iTunes. And when you've done that (and had a listen to see if you like it, or crucially if you think your students will do!) then you might want to investigate the premium materials which go with the series- a transcript, vocab list and a few exercises designed to facilitate learning anytime, anywhere. There's also a slowed-down version of the audio which might be useful for less-confident learners and allow them to build up before tackling the full-speed version. I like that bit, nice effort Sr Pentleton.
Righty ho, on that note I suppose that I should probably go and subscribe myself. But hey, get in touch- what do YOU think of the series because, after all, that's what really matters.
Recent Comments