Podcasts

Today I’ll talk to you about technology in education. Specifically how technology can help us to improve a language.

Have you ever heard about Podcasts?

According to web site Wikipedia a podcast is a series of digital-media files which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers. The term podcast, like broadcast, can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.
The term is a portmanteau of the words "iPod" and "broadcast",[1] the Apple iPod being the brand of portable media player for which the first podcasting scripts were developed (see history of podcasting). Such scripts allow podcasts to be automatically transferred to a mobile device after they are downloaded.[2]

In my case, I have been using podcasts for almost two years. I use them with my students for teaching the differences between British and American pronunciation. Moreover, it helps me to keep in touch with the idioms and culture of countries where this language is spoken.

Nowadays, I’m studying Portuguese and I decided to investigate about those podcasts who main purpose is to teach Portuguese. There are some podcasts in Portuguese for French and English speakers. However, I found a podcast in Portuguese for everyone who is interested in learning Portuguese as a second language. This podcast is called Pessoal e Transmissivel, and it belongs to TSF “A rádio que mudou a rádio”. This radio program is available in podcast, and it lets the students get in touch with Portuguese culture through different topics like politics, arts, music, etc. in addition, this podcast is hosted by native Portuguese which is important for improving the new expressions or ways of speaking.

The podcasts of Pessoal and Transmissivel can be downloaded to your iPod, mp3, mp4 or your mobile phone. Finally, I want you to visit this site and let you know about this amazing program: http://feeds.tsf.pt/Tsf-PessoalTransmissivel. I hope you like it. Regards