Abstract:

This paper reports on the piloting of podcasts created to support Anglophone French Immersion (FI) students in academic listening. The authors developed a series of seven English language podcasts grounded in metacognitive and L2 listening theory to provide FI students with strategies to enhance L2 listening ability and note-taking skills for academic lectures in French. Student feedback was solicited through weekly questionnaires and a focus group discussion. Weekly questionnaires showed that most of the students enjoyed the podcasts and found them moderately useful, although some contradictions emerged. The focus group discussion showed a somewhat higher degree of satisfaction both in terms of enjoyment and usefulness. Suggestions for improving the podcasts are proposed.

Author: Alysse Weinberg, Hélène Knoerr, Larry Vandergrift