The VERBcast returns

Mark Pentleton from Coffee Break Spanish has decided to relaunch the innovative VERBcast he made three years ago during his time as coordinator of the Partners in Excellence Project (PiE) in the west of Scotland. A series of twenty episodes, the podcast is designed to help listeners improve their understanding of French grammar using relaxation techniques and their imagination.

As with other language learning podcasts from The Radio Lingua Network, the VERBcast is available as a free download and is intended to be used as a personal listening resource not as a whole class activity. Why not encourage your pupils to listen to the VERBcast just before they fall asleep on their mp3 player? Imagine what the results could be!

For more background information about the evolution of the VERBcast and the PiE project in general, have a listen to the interview I did with Mark recently at PodCampUK where I recall fond memories of listening to the VERBcast for the first time and how it inspired me to start podcasting myself.

Now that the PiE project has officially ended, it's nice to welcome back one of its crown jewels.

Comments

[Lynne]

Although PiE has pretty much ended, we are having one final slice of Argyll and Bute PiE in the shape of a film making weekend in a few weeks time. Expecting to have at least French and Gaelic and possible German as well. I'm just wondering where we can get the money from to do another one next year.

[Mark]

Joe, thanks for the mention. Just to be 100% clear about things, the Verbcast is *not* a Radio Lingua production. For legal reasons it has to be stated clearly that while the blog etc is hosted within the Radio Lingua setup for practical reasons, the podcast was developed within my role as coordinator of the PiE project and, as such, the podcast is the intellectual property of the PiE project, which ultimately now means East Ayrshire Council for practical purposes.

Making such legal statements isn't really my style, but I was determined that the podcast should be available: for me education is more about useful resources rather than legal wranglings about ownership. But I'm sure you'll understand where I'm coming from with this post. I hope it's as useful to learners this time round as it appeared to be a few years ago.

[Joe Dale]

Hi Lynne and Mark,

Thanks for the update and clarifying the status of the VERBcast. Like you, I'm just delighted it is available again.

:)