How a podcast about sustainability is created in a German course accompanying studies is demonstrated by a current project conducted by TUBAF German teacher Katerina Barta with 40 students during the ongoing summer semester. Here, she explains the concept of this special project.
Podcasting and learning a language – how do they fit together?
Excellently! Podcasts are a unique and effective learning method for practicing pronunciation. When recording their own podcasts, students are forced to actively produce the language, which strengthens their language skills and integrates correct pronunciation into their speech.
This active language production helps internalize the correct sounds and intonation. After recording, students can listen to the podcasts and analyze their pronunciation. This self-reflection allows them to identify specific weaknesses and work on them. This increases confidence in speaking, leading to a more natural and fluent way of speaking.
Usually, students in the B1.2 course (intermediate level) prepare a classic presentation on a specific topic. Since the podcast studio in the university library opened this semester, we tried a new approach to the course. The participants very well received the idea of recording a podcast, as short audio formats are also prevalent internationally.
And the results were immediately presentable? Pronunciation is often challenging for many German learners...
No, it took a lot of practice to achieve a good result. However, I think practicing through podcasting was a lot of fun. Indeed, pronunciation is a separate exercise unit. Not all students are immediately confident in speaking loudly and clearly in class and formulating their ideas in German. The interaction during podcasting with two hosts helped to overcome this hurdle.
The excellent technical equipment of the podcast studio greatly facilitated production and enabled the students to achieve professional results. And that is additionally motivating! In total, 17 podcast episodes dealt with sustainable production and sustainable consumption.
The German course is currently held for students of TUBAF, and soon, students from the EURECA-PRO University Alliance (European University on Responsible Production and Consumption) will also join. The study programs around sustainable production and consumption also aim to improve the language skills of the university alliance members. How does the German course manage to combine both?
By having the participants think about which aspect of sustainability they want to discuss and what linguistic means they can use, the students experimented. For one of the podcast episodes, for example, they counted their possessions and realized that they owned too many clothes and shoes. This led to discussions about how to reduce consumption and live more sustainably—even outside the podcast studio.
Another exciting topic was the analysis of advertising language. The students examined how advertising influences and manipulates them and discussed whether specific advertising messages lead us to wasteful behavior. This critical engagement helps students question their consumption habits.
Will more student groups in the language course produce their own podcasts?
Yes, that would be great. The concept has proven itself for me, and I will continue it in other courses. Of course, this depends on the language level of the students.