Podcasting

Fun English Lessons is a comedy style talk show done by two Canadian brothers living in Shanghai, China. It's fun to listen to and a great way to improve English. Although I am already an advanced English learner, there is still something to learn from their talk. It's also a great material to adopt for classroom teaching. Up till now, there are 119 eposides and each episode has a topic. Take the first one for example, the topic is "humor" and they focus on several words and expressions such as hilarious, sense of humor, absolutely, awsome, suck and etc. followed by specific explanation, examples and dialogues. I found it very authentic, colloquial and contexturized. It works as a perfect supplement to formal classroom lecture. Each episode lasts about 15 minutes, neither too long or too short. I could incoporate this talk show into my lessons on a daily basis. My English lesson doesn't necessarily focus on the same topic with each episode they created. This talk show can be used to practice listening comprehension, expand vocabulary and enhance cultural understanding. I will prepare some worksheets based on each episode for students to do while listening or for further reference. I can also give some additional explanation if necessay, but I won't spend too much time on it. This talk show is downloadable, so students can listen to it repetitively on their spare time. I hope my students will enjoy the show and their English get improved with time going on.