As a languages teacher it’s often difficult to keep up your speaking and listening skills when the vocabulary you use on a daily basis tends to be what you’re working on with your students. This tutorial will show you how to access thousands of hours of audio and video content at no cost through iTunes.
It used to be the case that language teachers had to subscribe to expensive satellite television channels or listen to poor quality shortwave radio broadcasts in order to access up-to-date listening materials to maintain your skills. Now you can download broadcast-quality podcasts from iTunes aimed at native speakers of the language on virtually any topic. For this tutorial you need to have iTunes (free download for Mac and PC) installed on your computer, and ideally have a broadband internet connection.
Step 1: launch iTunes
Launch iTunes and look in the left column – you’ll see your Library at the top which includes the music, videos, ringtones, etc. which you have on your computer. If you look down this menu you’ll see the link to the iTunes Store. Click on this link and you should see something like the screengrab below. Note that if you’re using version 8 or earlier of iTunes the store may look different.
The iTunes Store showing music, films and tv shows for purchase
Step 2: change the country
Now, scroll right to the bottom of the storefront and you’ll see there’s a link which will allow you to “Change country”.
Scroll to the bottom to access the Change Country option
When you click on this option you’ll be able to select the appropriate country for the language you require. Note that some iTunes Stores don’t have podcasts, eg. some Latin American countries only have iTunes Stores for iPhone applications. This may change in the future. Select the appropriate country. In this example, we’ll choose Spain.
Step 3: Browse the iTunes Store
You can now access the iTunes Store for the country/language of your choice. You’ll see that music, films and tv shows are available. However, you must have a credit card and iTunes account registered in that country if you wish to buy music or films from that country.
Having clicked "España", we're now on the iTunes Spain Store
To access the free audio and video materials, you must click on Podcasts. The Podcasts menu is found in the black bar at the top of the screen. Click on this bar to reveal the category listing:
Click on the Podcasts menu to see categories
Step 4: choose a podcast and enjoy
You can now find a category or topic which interests you. Click on this category to be taken to a page which lists the most popular and featured podcasts in that category.
I've chosen "Sports" as an example
The example above shows the deportes y ocio (sports and entertainment) category in the Spanish store. Note the nuevo y digno de destacar (new and featured) section at the top, and the top podcasts section on the right. This gives you an idea of the most popular podcasts in this category. To access the page for a particular podcast, simply click on that podcast.
I can now listen to this podcast or subscribe for free
At this stage you have two options: you can either click on an episode in the bottom section of the screen and the episode will start streaming to your computer. Alternatively you can subscribe to the podcast. Note that there’s no cost involved in subscribing! If you subscribe iTunes will start to download the latest episode of the podcast and you will then have this episode forever. In addition to this, all new episodes will be downloaded automatically to your computer, unless you choose to unsubscribe.
You can now access the podcast in your library
You may wish to return to the UK or US store after browsing the store in your choice of country/language. Simply click on the “home” button (at the left of the top black bar) and then scroll to the bottom of the page and change your country again.
We hope you’ve found this tutorial useful. If you’d like to let us know about an excellent podcast you’ve found, please let us know in the comments below. If you want to copy an iTunes link then right-click (control-click on a Mac) on the podcast in the iTunes store and choose “copy link”. You can then post the link in your comment:
Right-click / Control-click on a link in iTunes
