Quite a while ago, our course instructor introduced us to www.eslpodcards.com. The site provides information on cultural studies of various countries all over the world. Beside a text on your topic of choice, eslPodCards also provides an audioversion to improve your students listening skills and several tasks for the students.

Having the students listen to another person talking English is, in my opinion, a good idea, because that way, students are introduced to voice and language variation and will have less trouble understanding further people talking English. The PodCards are read slowly and clearly, the topics seem to be fun (including the Simpsons in the Springfield-section) and it is easy to use for teachers: it provides general information, audio samples and tasks concerning the information given before.

However, I think that the websites’ greatest advantages is also its greatest weakness: the audio samples are clearly made for learners of English, which means that they are not authentic material and the students will not gain authentic language experience. Additionally, teachers are tempted to use the site to prepare for all their cultural studies lesson, because it is so easy and quick to use. Students would quickly get used to the principle structure offered by PodCards.

Bottom line: PodCards is excellent to prepare for class last minute, but using it (without using other sources) should not become a habit. While the students gain some advantage from listening to other people talking English, advanced students should be introduced to authentic material rather than these podcasts.

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