Reflection 1:

Podcasting my way to mastery of English

As a language learner, it is very important to be exposed to the language in order to be updated, because we know languages are constantly changing. This is something very dfficult in Chile, because it is mainly a monolingual country, so you don't have many opportunities to listen to or talk with English speakers. After so much exposure to the language, during this three months living in the United States, my listening and speaking skills have improved a lot; but when I return to Chile I'll need a source to keep in contact with the language. A good idea for this is by listening to podcasts, because they are a good source of native-like English.

As teachers, we have to update our knowledge periodically, we will have to be life long learners. I found a really good web page, http://www.esl-lab.com/. I liked this site because it has several audios; they have different levels, for example easy, medium or difficult. You can also choose from different topics such as food, education, work, shopping, relationships, entertainment, etc. Another good thing is that each audio is divided in four parts: pre-listening, listening exercises, vocabulary activities and post-listening exercises.

That being said, to really acquire a language we need to be exposed to it and use it. I think this podcasts will be very useful, not only to continue my own mastery of the language but also for my teaching. I commit myself to use this web site periodically, once a week.

Web site: http://www.esl-lab.com/

Some of the podcasts:
Dating Woes: http://www.esl-lab.com/trouble/troublerd1.htm
Hotel Check-in: http://www.esl-lab.com/checkin/checkinrd1.htm
Housing Compaints: http://www.esl-lab.com/complain/complainrd1.htm
Telemarketing: http://www.esl-lab.com/market/marketrd1.htm
Where's the movie theather?: http://www.esl-lab.com/dir4/dir4.htm

Important Note: the audios have to be opened with Windows Media... not Realmedia player