Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures tries new approach
to attract students to the languages.
The idea came to Julio Rodriguez when he was walking across the Iowa State
campus one day.
"Every time I walk around campus I see student after student with an
iPod," he said. "Our target audience (high school students and
first- and second-year college students) are the people using this technology
so we thought why not take advantage of the technology they are using?"
A new project, "LangCasts: Experiencing Languages Through ISU Podcasts,"
that Rodriguez and a group of undergraduate students in the Department of
Foreign Languages and Literatures have started, is doing just that.
Rodriguez, the department's instructional support specialist and director
of the Foreign Languages Learning Resource Center, says the project will
establish the first Iowa State podcast geared towards recruitment of high
school students and college freshmen and sophomores into language learning.
The project was recently awarded an almost $4000 recruitment and retention
grant from Iowa State's Professional and Scientific Council.
"It makes total sense for the department to use this technology,"
Rodriguez said. "It's essentially a portable VCR for the radio."
Podcasts are mini radio shows that are available through a web site. Individuals
may subscribe free to the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
podcast at www.language.iastate.edu/main/podcast/default.htm.
Instructions for subscriptions are also available on this website.
Rodriguez and his student assistants are producing 20 different podcasts
– 10 of which will focus on the department's academic programs and 10 of
which will be mini language lessions (langcasts), allowing listeners to
experience first-hand learning the world languages offered at Iowa State.
Subscribers download the podcasts onto their computer and then onto an MP3
player such as an iPod. Then the "mini radio program" can be played
at the listener's convenience.
The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures' first podcast went
on-line Nov. 7. The subsequent 10-15 minute podcasts will be available every
Monday (excluding the semester break).
The department's first podcast featured the Chinese program and included
interviews with Iowa State Chinese students and instructors, facts about
the language and China, and examples of how the language works.
"We've done quite a few interviews of individuals for the various podcasts,"
Rodriguez said. "We've interviewed alumni who have returned to campus
as well as guest speakers. Whenever we get a chance to interview someone
we take advantage of it."
While Rodriguez is coordinating the project, he has a group of students
whom he has begun to rely on to complete each podcast. Spanish student Lori
Lynch drafts the script and sets up interviews, many of which are carried
out by Mehmet Sahin, a graduate assistant working at the Center. Chinese
student Alex Ely is the host of the podcast, while Daniel Francis, a mechanical
engineering major, "puts the product all together." Song-Yan (Willy)
Mo, an MIS major, assists with the upload of the files.
"We're doing this all in-house and with a very low budget," Rodriguez
said, "and it's a very student-centered project."
Future program podcasts will focus on the department's French, German, Portuguese,
Spanish, Russian, Classical Studies, Languages and Cultures for Professions
(LCP), Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and teacher education
programs. LangCast podcasts will provide programs for the languages the
department offers.
The department's Resource Center plans to purchase a dozen iPods and loan
them out to students who wish to listen to the podcasts or language audio
files. This will also hopefully free up computers in the department's newly
renovated Resource Center in Pearson Hall for other uses.
Dawn Bratsch-Prince, professor and chair of the Department of Foreign Languages
and Literatures, also said efforts will be made to inform the state's high
school language teachers of the podcasts.
