Storielibere.fm

2018

Lecturers
Students

Arts & Music
Bioscience
International Relations
Journalism & multimedia
Medicine & Nursing
Sustainability
Tourism

Autonomous learning
Classroom Context

Italian

Any language

B2
C1
C2

Audio
Video

Vocabulary
Grammar
Pragmatics
Prosody

Listening
Speaking
Critical Thinking
Writing
Reading
Mediation

This teaching resource is an audio podcast platform entrusted to expert storytellers with a various and rich repository about several subjects such as literature, sport, history, politics, religion, storytelling, travelling, comedy, economy, ethology, technological innovation and feminism. The podcasts display a wide range of forms such as presentations, interviews, dialogues, songs etc.

Podcasts are digitally recorded audio or video content published on the web platform. You can listen to them on demand in streaming or, via download, even offline, for free. Every single podcast is also usable on the main listening platforms: iTunes, Podcast, Speaker, Spotify etc. free of charge and via smartphone, smart TV, PC, tablet or smart speaker.

Even if this resource was not expressly created for teaching aims, it displays a great potential for an integrated approach to the development of the language competences of upper-intermediate and advanced students both in Specific Purposes and General Italian.

The resource has been tested and evaluated by 12 ERASMUS students (9 at B1.3 level and 2 at B2.2/B2.3 level) enrolled in Italian L2 courses at the University of Bologna.
Storielibere.fm is a free webpage where you can find many podcasts aimed at both adults and teenagers who already have a good knowledge of Italian. On this website there is no single theme and the only criterion the stories must have is "...the quality of good writing". Among the selected themes you can find: literature, biography of great authors, historical events, advice for young writers, comments on politics etc. There is no single author, but an association of people who publish stories with a common thread, with the aim of entertaining and educating the reader. For those who do not speak Italian as their mother tongue, it is useful to listen to the podcasts to get used to hearing a fast flow of Italian words.
The website is easy to use and has an attractive interface. Graphically the materials look very neat and professional: for each podcast there is always a concise written summary and also a trailer that allow you to find out about the podcast and decide if you are interested in it. Another positive aspect is that the podcasts can be listened to at any time: while driving, during a training session, during manual work, while travelling.
On the critical side: there is no structure to facilitate selection and it is not possible to search for a podcast on a specific topic. Instead of being able to choose from a section, you have to scroll through the site and look at each proposal. The site should therefore be ordered in a more simple and intuitive way; however, this sometimes allows people to discover something they would not have discovered through a pre-selection.

This teaching resource presents a very high adaptability due to the great range of pedagogical possibilities that it displays. Moreover, it shows a good usability and accessibility for both students, teachers, interpreters and translators due to its flexibility, thus enhancing the motivation to improve their language skills.