American English as a Second Language (AESL) Podcast
This podcast is the official audio companion of AESL.US, a website dedicated to Adult Education English as a Second Language. It shares relevant articles, learning activities, educational strategies, and eBooks for AESL schools, programs, faculty, and students. English learners can improve their listening comprehension and learn tips for success, while educators can use episodes to build comprehension and spark class discussions. The podcast is available on major platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart Radio.
Episodes
Online Resources That Democratize English Learning
The rise of the internet has fundamentally transformed who has access to English language instruction and how that instruction can be delivered. For most of human history, high-quality language education was available primarily to those with the financial means to attend schools, hire tutors, or purchase materials. The digital revolution has not erased economic inequality in education, but it has
Writing Skills for English Learners
Writing is the most cognitively demanding of the four language skills, requiring the simultaneous management of content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, mechanics, and audience awareness. For English language learners, these demands are compounded by the need to manage all of these processes in a language they are still acquiring. Yet writing is also one of the most powerful learning tools avai
Reading in American English: Strategies and Skills
Reading proficiency in English is simultaneously a gateway skill and a marker of educational achievement. For adult English learners, the ability to read competently unlocks an enormous range of opportunities: accessing healthcare information, navigating government services, supporting children's schooling, advancing in the workplace, and pursuing further education. Reading is also the primary veh
Speaking with Confidence in American English
Speaking is the language skill that most learners most urgently want to develop and that most powerfully determines how others perceive them. The ability to express oneself clearly, appropriately, and confidently in spoken American English opens doors in virtually every domain of life — from the workplace to the classroom, from healthcare interactions to social friendships. Yet speaking is also th
Listening Comprehension: Unlocking the Spoken Word
Of the four language skills — listening, speaking, reading, and writing — listening is the one American English learners use most frequently and receive the least explicit instruction in. In natural communication, people spend roughly 45 percent of their language time listening, yet traditional ESL curricula have often treated listening as a passive activity that develops automatically through exp
Vocabulary Acquisition in American English
Deep vocabulary knowledge goes beyond simply knowing a word's definition. Full lexical knowledge of a word includes its pronunciation, its spelling, its common grammatical patterns, its collocations (the other words it habitually appears with), its register (formal or informal), its connotations, and its derivatives. Building this multidimensional knowledge requires encountering words many times,
Episode 7: Grammar Instruction for English Learners
The role of grammar instruction in second language teaching has been one of the most contentious debates in applied linguistics for the past half century. Pendulum swings between grammar-heavy structural approaches and meaning-focused communicative methods have left many practitioners confused about what the research actually recommends. The contemporary consensus, supported by decades of classroo
Episode 6: Pronunciation and the American English Sound System
Episode 6: Pronunciation and the American English Sound SystemThis podcast was created for every adult who has ever stood at the threshold of a new language and felt the mixture of hope, excitement, and intimidation that marks the beginning of a meaningful journey. It was written for the Somali mother who attends ESL class three evenings a week after working an eight-hour shift, for the Mexican en
Episode 5: The Affective Filter and Creating Safe Learning Spaces
Episode 5: The Affective Filter and Creating Safe Learning SpacesThis podcast was created for every adult who has ever stood at the threshold of a new language and felt the mixture of hope, excitement, and intimidation that marks the beginning of a meaningful journey. It was written for the Somali mother who attends ESL class three evenings a week after working an eight-hour shift, for the Mexican
Episode 4: Scaffolding: Building Bridges to Fluency
Episode 4: Scaffolding: Building Bridges to FluencyThis podcast was created for every adult who has ever stood at the threshold of a new language and felt the mixture of hope, excitement, and intimidation that marks the beginning of a meaningful journey. It was written for the Somali mother who attends ESL class three evenings a week after working an eight-hour shift, for the Mexican engineer who
Episode 3: The Natural Approach to Language Acquisition
Episode 3: The Natural Approach to Language AcquisitionThis podcast was created for every adult who has ever stood at the threshold of a new language and felt the mixture of hope, excitement, and intimidation that marks the beginning of a meaningful journey. It was written for the Somali mother who attends ESL class three evenings a week after working an eight-hour shift, for the Mexican engineer
Episode 2: Understanding the American English Learner
Episode 2: Understanding the American English LearnerThis podcast was created for every adult who has ever stood at the threshold of a new language and felt the mixture of hope, excitement, and intimidation that marks the beginning of a meaningful journey. It was written for the Somali mother who attends ESL class three evenings a week after working an eight-hour shift, for the Mexican engineer wh
Episode 1: The Value of American English in Today's World
Episode 1: The Value of American English in Today's WorldThis podcast was created for every adult who has ever stood at the threshold of a new language and felt the mixture of hope, excitement, and intimidation that marks the beginning of a meaningful journey. It was written for the Somali mother who attends ESL class three evenings a week after working an eight-hour shift, for the Mexican enginee
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