The development of Chinese language podcasts: Podcast units for beginning Chinese classes

Abstract

The application of podcasting technologies to language teaching is attracting increasing atten-tion among language teachers. While research on the use of podcasting in language teaching is still lacking, it has seen an increase in the past 2 years (e.g. Abdous, Camaraena, & Facer, 2009; Chan, Chen, & Döpel, 2011; Chi & Chan, 2009, 2011; Chin & Lin, 2011). Nevertheless, Chinese pod-casting remains nearly unexplored. The Centre for Language Studies of the National University of Singapore inaugurated Chinese podcasting in 2009, creating audio podcasts in the initial phase, followed by video podcasts subsequently. The Chinese podcasting project spans three years. Sur-veys are conducted at the end of each phase to collect qualitative and quantitative feedback from students for the modification and revision of podcast units for the following semesters. The Chinese podcasting project was introduced in Chinese courses with five objectives: to (1) complement classroom teaching; (2) provide a more relaxed learning environment; (3) promote mobile learning; (4) update the learning materials in a timely fashion; and (5) provide local Singa-porean cultural and social information not available in the adopted textbooks imported from China. This article describes the phases of development for the Chinese podcast units from 2009 to 2012. Firstly, it documents the structure, designs and contents of podcast units produced during that period of time, and proposes a workable formula for the production of Chinese podcast units. Secondly, this article examines and reframes the five objectives of the project. It was ascertained that the five objectives are achievable. Indeed, students agreed that podcasting did provide them with a relatively more relaxed learning environment. Teachers were able to create and update units whenever the need arises. This timeliness makes podcasting a useful tool in creating supplemen-tary materials to make up for the lack of certain specific information in the existing textbooks. The study reported in this article has also uncovered that Chinese language students are most motivated by utilitarian objectives, such as their course grades, and that certain conditions need to be met in order to effectively promote mobile learning. Finally, this article discuses some pedagogical appli-cations of Chinese language podcasts in and beyond the classroom, and points out feasible direc-tions for future developments. © Centre for Language Studies.