Inside Napier: the former army barracks housing asylum seekers - Guardian Podcast

17 February 2021

Lecturers
Students

Business & Communication
International Relations
Journalism & multimedia

Classroom Context

English

English

C1
C2

Audio

Vocabulary
Prosody

Listening
Speaking
Critical Thinking

The resource is a podcast made by the Guardian and published on the newspaper website. The link takes you directly to the podcast. It is a bit long for the purpose of keeping the students engaged and not losing interest in what they are listening to. So, it should be divided into different sections according to the objectives for the class. It can be a good resource for a warmer/lead-in activity to introduce the immigration/refugee issues related vocabulary, but it can also be used in other stages of a lesson such as practicing vocabulary or improving listening skills. The podcast is pretty clear ad the sound is very good.

This resource was used in an English class of 30 students studying the C2 degree in International Relations. As part of the syllabus, students were discussing the topic of Human Rights. For the lesson purposes I didn’t use the whole podcast as this could be boring and tiring for students. I wrote down a script covering the first 5 minutes of the podcast. Instead, students listened to the first five minutes and, while listening, they had to fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words or expressions, according to what they heard. The audioscript (check further documentation) did not match exactly the said words, but it contained the main ideas of the podcast. This became more demanding as students had to pay closer attention to what was being said. Students listening to the podcast twice. Overall, this listening exercise went really well. Despite some problems in identifying some words, students were engaged and, at the same time, shocked with what they heard. This was later discussed. This way, sts could also develop their critical thinking skills. This exercise was used as warmer for the lesson where immigration and refugees issues were discussed.
This resource has also been used as an exercise of the listening exam for students of the BA in International Relations (level C2).

The following steps are suggested:
Lead-in: elicit from the students the hardships immigrants/refugees have to go through
Step 1: The students are asked to describe one or two specific situations in which immigrants have been deprived of their human rights
Step 2: The lecturer tells students they will listen to a podcast where they will listen to a situation of human rights violation. L. elicits (and pre-teaches) some more difficult words that students hear in the podcast (only the first 5 minutes).
Step 3 – While listening, students fill in the blanks of the audioscript the L. has prepared in advance.
Step 4- After watching the video and checking answers, the students are asked to orally discuss what they heard and how they felt about the reported situation.
Follow-up activities
Writing activity: students write about a specific situation where human rights have been violated.