Podcast Project 1

Podcast: Everyday life in the US.

~Instruction~

This podcast is designed for English learners of intermediate level. The episode is about making an appointment for physical checkup.

Click the title above, and you will find our podcast.

Before you start listening to it, try to do the Pre-Listeining Task below.

~Pre-Listening Activity~

Choose the better definition for each words. The answer is at the end of this task.

clinic

1. a place or a hospital department where patients are given treatment or advice

2. a place where children or teenagers are taught

dental

1. relating or belonging to the teeth

2. a building where goods are manufactured

schedule an appointment

1. a published work of literature

2. arrange to meet somebody

check up

1. feeling or showing pleasure

2. to cary out detailed examination

medical

1. treatment given by doctors

2. used in education or by teachers

health insurance

1. financial protection for customers

2. medical expenses covered by employer

.. .. .. .. ..

Answer: [1 1 2 2 1 2]

.. .. .. .. ..

Now, let's listen to the podcast.

(Further tasks are listed below)

~Vocabulary~

Click each vocabulary to see the meaning.

clinic

schedule an appointment (schedule: verb)

check up

medical

dental

health insurance

copay

~Post-Listening Activity 1~

After you've listened to the podcast, take a look at the following sentences. You will notice that the sentences are put randomly. Please put them in order according to the episode you heard. The answer is at the end of this task.

A. The clinic appointment scheduler tells Mr. Kuma that they have a japanese Doctor on staff.

B. The clinic appointment scheduler asks Mr. Kuma to wait while she connects him to the medical department where he can schedule his appointment.

C. The clinic receptionist asks Mr. Kuma to state the purpose of his call.

D. The clinic appointment scheduler would like to know if Mr. Kuma has health insurance coverage.

E. The clinic scheduler tells Mr. Kuma when there is an opening in their calendar to schedule a checkup visit.

F. The clinic scheduler reminds Mr. kuma to bring his UIC ID and his copay to his physical checkup.

.. .. ..

[C B E D F A]

.. .. ..

~Post-Listening Activity 2~

Take a look at the questions below. Spend a couple of minutes brainstorming, and talk about the each question with your group.

1. There are many kinds of clinics, depending on their purpose. Name the kinds and purpose of a visit there.

(Ex. Dental: when you have to get your teeth cleaned, or have a tooth decay)

2. Imagine that you need to make a phone call to a hospital. What information will you prepare before you call? (Ex. your name)

3. Think about the hospital in your own country. How are they different from those in the US or other countries? Introduce the hospital system and admitting procedures in your own country to your group members, and discover the differences among other countries' systems.

Coworkers: Lisa, and Miglena.

Blogpost 2: Voicethread?

Using voicethread makes learners use their target language outside the classroom, in terms of listening and speaking. It is a new CALL speaking material, since students can have conversation on line, not just practicing pronunciation which has been the main purpose of many other CALL speaking websites. The second website shows us that voicethread makes more students participate in the task, which is less possible in class. It also shows that students feel less scary about speaking out because they can spend some time preparing what they will say before they make the thread. I would say voicethread is a good material for speaking, especially for communication.

However, I have a questions about voicethread: what is the purpose of using voicethread? It is clear that the main purpose of using voicethread is not to improve students' pronunciation accuracy. Since it is open to everybody, it is more important that more students post their threads and communicate through it, without caring too much about the accuracy. However, communicating on website is very different from communication in the real world. In many cases, we don't have much time to think what we say before we open our mouth and speak. Also, conversation floats in real life, so we cannot listen to the whole conversation again, even if we have problems understanding the topic.

Considering these things, I would say voicethread will work good with the purpose of reducing fears for making a speech and of practicing the basics of conversation (listen and answer) before students are exposed to real opportunities to use the target language. (It should be used more for speech fluency at first, and then speech accuracy at the next level.)

YouTube video for ESL study

I think this series of videos is very helpful for learners of English.

First of all, this website has many categories of videos, such as grammar, pronunciation, expressions for special topics, and even slangs. Also, in each category, they mention about nuance of English, more than simple explanations of grammar or usage, which I think are very important when we learn a language.

Although some of the dialogues are unnatural, they provide authentic English in general. So, as long as learners want to learn English for the purpose of use English, I think this website is very beneficial for them.

This is more for intermediate to advanced level learners of ESL.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JenniferESL