A few weeks ago, I posted a lesson plan which made use of a report from the BBC podcast ‘From our own correspondent‘. I love this programme. I love the stories that are reported and I love the language that the correspondents use. The fact that they speak slowly and clearly makes the podcast a good source of material for the classroom.

Here is another excerpt, this time from correspondent Kevin Connolly who is speaking of US baseball culture:

The very word alone (i.e. baseball) reminds you that we speak the language of baseball even if we live in countries where we do not play it or watch it.

Tough negotiators have baseline positions, while more prudent ones cover all their bases.

We strike out when we fail and, in our years of sexual curiosity, we get to second or third base when we do not.

Our cautious colleagues deal in ballpark figures, while the more eccentric and creative come out of left field, or off the wall.

When this idea was first offered to the editor of this programme, it was pitched - not bowled or punted or kicked - and it was accepted immediately, no need for a rain check.

So pervasive is American culture that we Brits have a complete arsenal of phrases for more or less every aspect of human activity, all drawn from a sport that none of us play and few of us understand.

Up until now, I have been transcribing report excerpts like these for my students whenever we have used the podcast in class. However, I have just discovered that I have been wasting time since the BBC offers transcripts here.

Publishers of graded readers claim that listening to audio recordings while reading can help improve reading skills. I have no idea whether or not this is the case, but it would seem that reading while listening may improve a student’s comprehension of the text. Scott Thornbury goes into this when he discusses a Catherine Walter article on the dogme discussion group.

It would seem that there are two principle reasons that the audio element would reinforce comprehension of a text:

1. It will require students to pick up their reading pace.
2. Students will be given the opportunity to hear vocal punctuation (phrasing, intonation, pauses, etc).

As a teacher, I like audio-supported reading for the following reasons:

• Students will finish reading at the same time.
• They are denied the opportunity to bombard the teacher with vocabulary queries.
• I enjoy it myself as a language learner.

Unfortunately, I have just realised that the BBC only allows the current ‘From our own correspondent’ podcast to be downloaded. This is a shame because many of the stories have an expiry date longer than one week. The best thing to do is to subscribe to it at iTunes.