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Podcast
A podcast is a free audio, video or text file accessible to anyone on the Internet. You can subscribe to it and download it to your computer and then to an mp3-player. The term itself is a fusion between iPod and “broadcast”. But you are not bound to the broadcasting times like when you listen to the radio or watch TV: the downloaded files can be visualized or listened to in any moment. You can search for language podcasts on Internet sites or through specific programmes like iTunes, which was the first software to run a specific category for podcasts and probably the easiest to use. Podcasts often have a transcript of the audio or video and are therefore an excellent auxiliary for learning and teaching foreign languages.
Here are some suggestions on how to install and start iTunes:
- download iTunes here: www.apple.it
- after downloading it, follow your computer’s procedure to install the software
- open iTunesStore on the left side and type in a title you already know or a key word, for example “Deutsche Welle” or “Deutsch” or “British Council”. Once you have found a podcast of your interest, click on “subscribe” and the download will start automatically.
Alternatively you can use apps such as Google listen (for Android) or any of the podcatchers that suit your device. For the list of podcatchers please check http://wiki.podcast.de/Podcatcher
There are also a number of web sites that gather categories of podcasts such as http://www.podcast.it Click on the category “education” (istruzione) and you will find a list of the main podcasts of this section.
In the Multilingual Centre in Bolzano and the Multimedia Language Centre in Merano you can get further information on how to use podcasts for language learning or you can borrow an iPod with podcasts suitabile for your level of a particular language.
Some of our proposals of linguistic podcasts are contained on this website.