American English Pronunciation Podcast

American English Pronunciation Podcast

American English Pronunciation Podcast
(image from the podcast website)

When you think podcasts you probably don't think about English Learners using them, however, after searching around iTunes, I happened to find some great podcasts. This blog will be focused on a podcast called, American English Pronunciation. 

American English Pronunciation has a lot of great features that would make it perfect for a English Learner. One reason is because it teaches the listeners different rules of pronunciation for the English Language.There are actually 200 episodes for the learners to listen to! After reviewing each of the episodes I found all of the different pronunciation topics in each episode to be important and beneficial for English Learners. These are pronunciation errors that my English Learners at school make and would be helpful for them. Some sample episode pronunciation topics are: the difference between short i and short e, intonation in wh question words, and the schwa sound. But again, there are 200 to pick from. 

 As a teacher you could assign the episodes for you students to listen to or you could give a link to the podcast to the students or their families so they could listen to it at home. It would be easy to add in an assignment for the student to complete after listening to the episode. You could use a program called Audacity to have the students record their voice to practice the pronunciation. They could also practice with a peer or the teacher the new skill.

One red flag for this podcast is that there is a "swearing" episode that I would clearly explain to the students to avoid, especially at school. Another red flag is the podcast's reliability. I had some trouble playing each of the episodes, so if you want to use this podcast with your students make sure it is working on their device.

See the link below to access the podcast.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/american-english-pronunciation-podcast/id276921054?mt=2


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