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From Podcast to Paragraph: Learning How to Write through Listening
Contemporary teaching techniques for language and other subjects are heavily reliant on the communication-centered approach and information technologies [6]. The teacher- and student-podcasting phenomenon has already well established new ground for better and more sustainable results in acquiring listening comprehension skills in a language learning classroom. Despite the relative novelty of podcasting [4], the logic of building this educational medium into the classroom experience is quite traditional: many language teachers believe it should serve the development of listening comprehension skills, reading skills or a combination of the two [5]. Little research has been done into how other types of skills – particularly writing – can be linked to listening [1]. We believe there is a way to bridge these two.
The purpose of the paper is to examine possible ways of making a connection between learning to listen and comprehend a text and learning to produce a written text in a foreign language on one’s own. The core idea is both finding the means – supporting exercises, in-class activities, follow-up ideas -- to help language learners shift from comprehending spoken language from a podcast to creating a text of their own and exploring the form which would be most beneficial and effective based on previous experience of other scholars [2, 4].
Naturally, acquiring more advanced tools for language learning with no change in the logic of teaching can hardly drive innovation and further improvement of both sides of the educational process – the teacher and the student. It is, therefore, crucial to identify ways of using new educational tools – in our case it is podcasting – to activate skill-building in areas other than the traditional ones. Bridging listening and writing skills can produce a significant effect on the quality of both language-teaching and learning.