How to use ChatGPT to enhance your Spanish listening skills with podcasts

Learning a new language can be an exhilarating journey, and Spanish is no exception. With the advent of advanced AI tools like ChatGPT, language learners now have a unique opportunity to enhance their skills, particularly in listening comprehension. In this blog post, we'll explore how you can use ChatGPT to improve your Spanish listening skills using podcasts with transcripts.

Step 1: Start with a Summary

Before diving into a podcast, it can be helpful to have a general idea of what it's about. ChatGPT can provide a concise summary of the podcast's transcript. This will give you a clear context before you start listening. Podcasts like El Hilo or Radio Ambulante provide transcripts. Just copy paste it and prompt ChatGPT to give you a summary in bullet points.

Suggested Prompt: "Can you provide a summary of this Spanish podcast transcript? Use bullet points."

Step 2: Identify Key Vocabulary

Depending on your proficiency level, you may need help understanding certain words or phrases in the podcast. ChatGPT can generate a list of key vocabulary from the transcript, tailored to your level. This step is crucial for building your lexicon.

Suggested Prompt: "Please list the key vocabulary from this transcript suitable for an intermediate-level Spanish learner." Just tell ChatGPT which level you are at and it’ll give you more or less vocabulary.

Step 3: Comprehension Questions

After listening to the podcast, it's important to test your understanding. ChatGPT can create comprehension questions based on the transcript. This not only tests your listening skills but also ensures you can recall and use the information you heard.

Suggested Prompt: "Can you create some comprehension questions based on this Spanish podcast transcript?"

Step 4: Check Your Understanding

Once you've answered the questions, you can use ChatGPT to check your answers. This immediate feedback is valuable for understanding your mistakes and learning from them.

Suggested Prompt: "Here are my answers to the comprehension questions. Can you correct them?"

Step 5: Engage in a Dialogue

To further enhance your learning, you can engage in a simulated conversation with ChatGPT based on the podcast's topic. This practice can improve your ability to think and respond in Spanish, as well as helping you improve your writing.

Suggested Prompt: "Let's have a dialogue about the main topics discussed in the podcast. Correct my spelling and grammar. "

Step 6: Summary in Spanish

After completing these steps, ask ChatGPT to provide a summary of the podcast in simpler Spanish. This will help reinforce your understanding and give you exposure to different ways of expressing the same ideas.

Suggested Prompt: "Can you summarize this podcast in simpler Spanish for practice?"

Using ChatGPT in conjunction with Spanish podcasts and their transcripts is a dynamic way to enhance your listening skills, and supplement your learning with an experienced tutor. By preparing with summaries, focusing on key vocabulary, testing your comprehension, and engaging in dialogue, you're not just passively listening but actively engaging with the language. Remember, language learning is a journey, and tools like ChatGPT are here to assist you every step of the way.

At Hackney Spanish we incorporate a wide range of technologies into our classes. Get in touch, to get started today!

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Seven free podcasts for students of Spanish

Podcasts are a great way for Spanish language learners to improve their listening skills, expand their vocabulary, and learn about different cultures and topics. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced learner, there are plenty of free Spanish language podcasts that you can listen to on your own time. In this post, we will highlight some of the best free podcasts about different topics for students of Spanish of all levels.

Coffee Break Spanish

Coffee Break Spanish is a popular podcast that offers lessons for learners of all levels, from beginners to advanced speakers. The podcast is hosted by a team of experienced Spanish teachers, who use a conversational approach to teach grammar and vocabulary in context. The lessons are broken down into manageable chunks, making it easy for learners to follow along and practice their speaking skills.

Radio Ambulante

Radio Ambulante is a podcast that focuses on storytelling and narrative journalism from Latin America and the Spanish-speaking world. The podcast features a mix of interviews, personal narratives, and investigative journalism, covering a wide range of topics such as politics, culture, and social issues. The stories are presented in a way that is engaging and thought-provoking, making it an excellent resource for intermediate and advanced learners who want to improve their listening comprehension and learn more about different cultures.

Notes in Spanish

Notes in Spanish is a podcast that is designed to help learners improve their Spanish listening skills through real-life conversations. The podcast features a Spanish couple, Ben and Marina, who discuss a variety of topics such as food, travel, and culture. The conversations are conducted entirely in Spanish, but the hosts speak at a pace that is easy to follow, making it an excellent resource for beginners and intermediate learners.

SpanishPod101

SpanishPod101 is a language-learning podcast that offers lessons for learners of all levels, from absolute beginners to advanced speakers. The podcast covers a wide range of topics, from grammar and vocabulary to cultural insights and travel tips. The lessons are presented in a fun and engaging way, making it an excellent resource for learners who want to improve their listening skills while also learning about different aspects of Spanish culture.

No Hay Tos

No Hay Tos is a podcast that is hosted by two Mexican friends, Carlos and Sofía, who discuss a variety of topics such as music, food, and travel. The podcast is conducted entirely in Spanish, but the hosts speak at a pace that is easy to follow, making it an excellent resource for intermediate and advanced learners who want to improve their listening comprehension and learn more about Mexican culture.

Leyendas Legendarias

Leyendas Legendarias is a podcast that covers a variety of topics related to pop culture and current events. The podcast is hosted by four Mexican friends, who use humor and satire to discuss everything from movies and TV shows to politics and social issues. The conversations are conducted entirely in Spanish, making it an excellent resource for intermediate and advanced learners who want to improve their listening comprehension while also staying up-to-date on current events.

Duolingo Spanish Podcast

The Duolingo Spanish Podcast is a storytelling podcast that is designed to help learners improve their listening skills while also learning about different cultures and traditions. The podcast features real-life stories from Latin America and the Spanish-speaking world, told in a way that is engaging and thought-provoking. The stories are presented in both Spanish and English, making it an excellent resource for beginners and intermediate learners who want to improve their listening comprehension while also building their vocabulary.

To wrap up, podcasts are an excellent resource for Spanish language learners of all levels. From language-learning podcasts to storytelling podcasts, there are plenty of free resources available that can help you improve your listening skills, expand your vocabulary, and learn more about different cultures and topics. By taking advantage of these resources, you will learn faster. Start listening now!

Getting better at listening

Yes, listening is hard. But here are some tips that will help you get better at it.

Anyone who’s been learning Spanish for long enough will agree that listening is one of the hardest things. This is to do with many things: the speed of the language, the many accents, the many things a person might talk about, the fact not every speaker is a professional voice artist, etc. This problem is further exacerbated by bad teaching creating wrong expectations about listening. Many students are trained to listen in class, wasting a lot of time in the process, with very little gains. We believe this is the wrong way to go about it.

The moment of listening in class should not be seen as specifically training listening skills. We use that moment to introduce concepts in a practical way, and to see how your listening is progressing. Think about it like going to a tennis class: you’ll still have to play tennis outside of class to get good at it — no one would think the class alone is the moment in which you get good at your tennis, or that you’ll go to class and do a simulacrum of a game, as if you were playing with mates. Instead you will see the class as a moment of learning, and your instructor will use that time to correct your posture, and to suggest ways of improving your skills, perhaps to introduce a new trick, etc.

So, if the class is not really the moment of playing / listening, when do you play / listen? Well there are many things to do in your own time, and none of them need to be a chore. There are things that you can do actively; and there are things that don’t need your attention 100%.

Actively, in a nutshell, try to listen to podcasts, watch things on Netflix with subtitles, listen to people talking and try to spot words, expressions, etc. There are many exercises that we teach our students for them to listen actively and if you want to learn more about these please get in touch because after wall we are a school! That said, there are no limits to the things you can do with free materials available online. Be inventive and just go for it.

In terms of non-active learning there’s a lot to do too. This is very interesting, very simple, and rarely exploited by language tutors (spoiler: we do; but we are also the best around, so there’s that). In our classes we talk a lot about the concept of unconscious acquisition. If this is something of interest there’s an article here about what this means in depth. Basically, it means that there are things that happen when we learn, when we pick up the language without really trying; listening has a lot to do here, and we still don’t know how this works but we know it works, judging from how kids continue to learn their mother tongue: did you mum or dad sit you down and explained the subjunctive to you or did you just pick up the language from them? More likely the second option…

So we need to try to replicate that situation of someone learning their mother tongue. For that reason it’s important that you spend time in the language — there’s a post here for you to see what we mean by that. But to put it simply, one thing you can do is having a radio in Spanish in the background when you aren’t necessarily paying attention 100%. This will improve your listening and your overall language learning, through that unconscious acquisition. We see this all the time — our students who do this learn much faster than the ones who do no! (We would have to say that they also learn faster and better than in other schools but that’s something for another post!).

So, yes, do some proper work with podcasts, etc, or get in touch with us and follow our method to go about this. But also, next time you are doing exercise or cooking, just blast a Spanish radio station instead of the latest Coldplay (yawns in Spanish). You’ll be taking a lot in without even noticing it!

FREE ONLINE RESOURCES:

Good podcasts: Radio Ambulante (www.radioambulante.org), El Hilo (http://elhilo.audio), Sobremesa, a podcast by Memrise (https://memrise.libsyn.com), Duolingo Podcast (https://podcast.duolingo.com/spanish).

A good place to find radios in Spanish:  http://www.radio.garden. 

Lots of news in Spanish: BBC Mundo (https://www.bbc.com/mundo)

And there’s a lot more online!