Podcasting will be such a great asset to a Spanish language classroom. I found two great sites; one will work well for my upper level classes and the other will help my introductory level students.
The first site that I visited was recommended by a fellow teacher, www.coffeebreakspanish.com. This is a site of podcast lessons starting at the very beginning of conversation development and progressing through a variety of vocab themes and grammar topics. It is created in Scotland with Scottish speakers which confirms how important pronunciation is by any speaker of any dialect or language in order to be understood by native Spanish speakers. The preferred delivery of these podcasts is iTunes which I believe most of my students access for pleasure... and now for class! This seems like a great way to warm-up at the beginning of class, to supplement review at home, or to encourage advanced students to move ahead with audio guides of new content.
The second site that I visited was a gem although to fully access it would require a paid subscription. I think it would be worth the price to access all that they offer. As the title suggests,
www.NewsInSlowSpanish.com, offers current event news podcasts in a S-L-O-W(er) speaking format. This is a great idea as it provides authentic spoken Spanish delivered in a format that allows second language learners more time to process what they are hearing. The podcasts are presented by native speakers with authentic accents but with enough "think time" to aid comprehension. The site was an enhanced podcast that showed the scripts of what was said, offered grammar activities, flashcards of vocabulary used in the podcast, pronunciation practice, and cultural supplements. The demo only allowed access to a portion of each program but it was enough to entice me to consider the subscription. WOW! What a great idea and a great classroom teaching tool!
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