Resource of the Week #109: Journal Podcasts—Listening Practice Too

Hello again. Earlier this month I attended the Council of Science Editors annual meeting. This meeting included many interesting, useful sessions.

One session was about podcasts from journals. These podcasts are audio files posted on journal websites. Researchers and others can listen to the podcasts. Often the podcasts feature interviews with authors of recent papers.

Because the session was for editors, it focused mainly on preparing podcasts. However, as I listened to the session, the following thought occurred to me: Podcasts can be excellent sources of listening practice in specialized fields.

Especially for non-native speakers of English, knowing how to pronounce English-language terms in one’s field can be difficult. And many researchers have excellent reading comprehension of English but some difficulty with listening comprehension.

Listening to journal podcasts might help solve these difficulties. Fortunately, many journal podcasts are openly accessible.

These podcasts include those from the journals represented at the session: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (see the homepage section “Beyond the Frontier”), Gastroenterology, and Clinical Chemistry.

Examples of other journals with podcasts are Emerging Infectious Diseases, Nature, and some American Chemical Society journals.

Perhaps see whether some journals in your field have podcasts.

Happy listening!

Barbara