Podcasting for language learning

What I did, was I listened to 200 language learning podcasts and this is my conclusion. There are no good language learning podcasts.

None?

Not one. Sorry to be so negative. But I did a thorough search, sampled half a dozen lessons of all the major producers on iTunes. My conclusion: podcasting is not suitable for learning languages.

Whoa, back up there a little.Don't we have a conflict of form and content?

Form? Content?

For example, I learn Italian over the radio. Education channel six mornings a week. Good lessons. Lezione una, lezione due. Big fat Italian lady booming 'Bellissimo' frequently. Lot of fun. It could equally well be delivered as a podcast. Effective lesson. Great content. Nothing to do with the delivery method. Motorcycle or van. Good pizza tastes the same.

So you think my conclusion is flawed?

I didn't say that. Quite possibly all the lessons you listened to were bad. I simply suggest that you keep the genre, language lesson, language teaching, separate from the form, the delivery. It's not the technology that's to blame for poor language lessons.

So we could argue that podcasting's not to blame. It''s those early bandwagoners, the early adopters who don't always do the best job.

Exactly.The early bird may catch the worm but the early worm gets eaten.
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