Podcast for ESL students

English as a Second Language Podcast

ESL Podcast 1097 – Landscaping a Home

             I would like to introduce a podcast named 'ESL Podcast 1097 – Landscaping a Home' for ESL students. This podcast made by native speakers of English and deals with daily conversation. This podcast provides short daily conversation and its script for students to help them understand. As the speed of speaking is not that fast, intermediate level students are able to understand it easily. It consists of slow dialog (1:15), explanations (3:03) and fast dialog (16:15). It is about conversation between a man and a woman who are interested in growing lawn in their yard. The speaker has us listen to the dialog first, and then explains us the meaning of some target words and key expressions. As his explanation is easy and explicit as well as includes spelling of the words, ESL students can understand and even note some words after his explanation.

             The following is the script of the conversation the speaker provides. The conversation is relatively short and easy to understand.

Mona: I want a lawn. I’ve always pictured our new house with a lawn.

Kellan: Lawns require a lot of water and upkeep. I think we should use hardscape for most of the yard and plant only drought-tolerant plants.

Mona: I don’t want my yard to be full of gravel and rocks. I picture a water feature in the middle, with annuals and perennials planted all around it, surrounded by a big, beautiful lawn.

Kellan: We can have some kind of slow-growing ground cover if you want to, but the rest isn’t practical.

Mona: I don’t know what you mean. We can plant a hedge over there and install planters along the walkway.

Kellan: Who will do the pruning and mulching? Who will pull the weeds and mow the lawn? Who will rake the leaves when the seasons change?

Mona: Well, I guess I will, with your help.

Kellan: Don’t count on me. My motto is: No muss, no fuss!

Script by Dr. Lucy Tse

             For my future lesson using this podcast, my specific language objective is L.4.3.a Understand vocabulary and discourse features of content areas from Michigan department education. I will use this podcast for my future students’ listening activity. I am going to make this podcast listen to my students and memorize the target words and expressions for daily life, especially growing lawn. They will learn the vocabulary related to growing lawn and plants. Then, I will distribute the script for students who cannot catch the target words well. And I will ask them details in conversation such as ‘who is the speakers?’, ‘what are they talking about?’, ‘why do they have trouble?’ and so on.