Podcasts for students by students
Skyscrapers, cities buzzing with life and noise, super big highways crammed with cars – that is what most people think of when they think of the USA. That this is a completely different side to the country of the free and the brave is what this little radioquiz shows.
Do you know of more natural wonders located in North America? Do you have a critical comment on the podcast? Leave a comment in the commentbox below.
Moody Mannee takes you on a fun engaging quiz all over the United States. In this episode selected calls have the chance to win a trip to the USA.
This staged radio show will inform you on various cultural and natural aspects of the United States and provide a fun quiz, where you can test your knowledge of America ;)
No speed limits, Lederhosen, citizens who are doomed to accuracy, a history-beaten country in general – that´s what the world thinks Germany is like. Let yourself be drawn into an eye-opening interview and get another view of the Germany you might think you know.
Let (host) Arthur D. Mitchell and his guests tickle your ears and ….
We hope you enjoy this rather different episode of the OralPod
If you want to make your contribution to the literary panel leave your comments below.
After weeks of brainwrecking creativity, hours of practicing, recording and editing we are proud to say that all groups have finished their podcasts.
Only a few of them will be published on this blog. The students had to decide whether they wanted their podcast online or not. Several groups agreed to publish their amazing work and we couldn´t be more happy to inform you that on 10th of September we will hit the “GO-button” and publish them.
You can then choose whether you would like to download the podcasts or rather stream them.
We (and the groups who worked so hard to produce something that is creative as well as informative) would love to read your comments on the podcasts.
So watch this place!
Kirsten & Marc
In the future this blog will feature:
We are trying our best to deliver a user-friendly experience, which can be easily accessed and provide all the interesting information you are looking for regarding the project. If you feel something is missing or things could be improved, please let us know. Otherwise, we hope you enjoy this blog and are as exicted as we are about the upcoming features.
And as always, feel free to leave feedback in the comment section below.
We’ll be back soon!
Kirsten & Marc
Hi everyone,
Today will be all about practice and getting the students ready for their first recording session. In the past couple of weeks the groups have worked on producing original texts on their topic and turn them into “detailed pronounciation guides”. Now it is time to put their work into action.
The students are now asked to read out their texts and practice as a group. The main focus is on pronounciation and word stress in order to give the scripted version a more natural touch. Exercises for the students include, reading texts with different emphasis on intonation and accent or acting out their “conversations” / texts like it were actual scripts for a movie.
By doing that we are trying to give the students the opportunity to get used to talking about their topics freely and more naturally. The scripts are now used as a guideline in order to correct pronounciation mistakes and to avoid grammatical errors. It is our goal that students may present their final version of the topic without using the scripts too much or even at all.
We’ll be back soon with the first recordings and behind the scenes material from the studio.
So, stay tuned!
Kirsten & Marc
Hi guys,
Today will be all about “scripted” conversations. As you are aware all groups of our project are required to at least partly script their conversation for the final recording sessions. Some may wonder, whis is that so?
Well, the answer is quite simple. On the one hand it is the most efficient way (method) of recording a good quality podcast without having any radio or professional recording knowledge. Even though a podcast is shaped like a radioshow, it is rather unprofessional and has a relatively personal attitude towards the audience that is achieved mostly through natural conversation.
On the other hand, a scripted conversation is the only way for us to really measure improvement of spoken English by objective standards and give advice on how to further develop a more natural sounding English.
In addition, a script may help the students to feel more comfortable and confident at first until they are used to speaking freely about their topic while being recorded.
That’s it for this week, so stay tuned for more information!
Until next week!
Kirsten & Marc
Hi everybody,
This week’s update is all about writing. We are currently entering the first important stage of our project. The students are now assigned to write a short draft of a conversation based on their topic. Within a time limit of about 5 minutes they can write (talk) about whatever they want concerning their chosen topic.
At the moment the groups try to figure out, which speaker roles will be present in the podcast and how to organize and structure their texts. At this stage of the project it is vital for everybody to work together and create a first scripted version of their conversation.
Later on the students will be asked to mark specific parts in their script in order to help them with pronounciation. For example, students may use symbols to indicate pauses or a rise and fall in their voice. This technique will help us to get done quickly in the recording studio and deliver a high quality conversation on tape.
If you have questions about the current progress of the project, please feel free to leave a comment. We will be back shortly with more information on the podcasts and some first examples of scripts.
Have a nice week!
Kirsten & Marc
Hello people,
This week, after discussing the different topics possible in this project, the students are asked to form small groups in order to work together on a little segment of the podcast.
Each group will eventually contribute a small 5 minute segment to the overall podcast. The groups are designed in a way that not more than 4-5 people work together on their segment in order to keep everything within the time limit and give everybody the possibily to speak up.
In this early stage of the project most students don’t really know what to expect and are quite excited about whats coming next. First of all the groups are required to create a short introduction for themselves and their chosen topics. Following that each group will work on a short scripted conversation that has to be used in the podcast recording.
We’ll be back with more information next week!
Kirsten & Marc
Hi guys,
We are back with our first update on the project. This week we will discuss the broader topic of the project and it’s intended audience.
First of all, the project is part of “Oral Skills” a seminar offered to English majors at the Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf in order to improve their spoken English. The seminars are held to give students more confidence and diversity when speaking English among each other and in possible future careers.
The podcast project is a final step for young students to get their English out into the world and to experience natural English conversations in a non-English environment.
This term’s theme will be North-American studies. All students will create podcasts within this broad field of possible topics. Whether they want to talk about movies, literature, music or other cultural phenoma is completely up to them. You might hear a podcast on South Park and the depiction of Americans as well as Canadians or a fictional interview with one of America’s greatest authors. There are plenty of options and we already see some very interesting ideas coming up.
That is it for this week’s OralPod news. Feel free to leave comments and ask questions.
Have a nice week!
Kisten & Marc
