The Ten Questions ESL Podcast: Transcripts and Worksheets for Episodes 1-7

By Nancy Buswell

This ebook is a supplement to the first seven interviews on my "Ten Questions ESL Podcast".

The chapters in the ebook have four sections. First is the transcript of the interview. I listened to the interview and wrote down what we said. This took a long time! You can read the transcript alone or while you are listening to the podcast. The second section is cultural notes. I explain a few things that we say that you might not be familiar with. The third section is vocabulary. I chose some words that some of you may not know and gave the definitions. The fourth section is discussion questions. You can use these with yourself, or with classmates or friends who are also studying English.

The people interviewed are: Nancy from the U.S. (me!); Zhao from China; Gerry from Canada; Shiyi from China; Cathy from the U.S.; Zhen from China; and Erica from England/Canada. This ebook does not include the audio. There are links and directions to finding the podcasts in the introduction to the book.

This ebook is intended for English language students who are studying alone, but it can also be used in a classroom. I use these materials myself in my classes in China, especially the discussion questions. I make a handout using the cultural notes, vocabulary, and discussion questions. I talk about the cultural notes and vocabulary, then play the audio podcast. Afterwards the students talk with their partners about the discussion questions. This way the students practice both listening and speaking during the class meeting, and they learn something about another culture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nancy Buswell
• Release date: Sep 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370221967

Book preview

Transcripts and Worksheets

for Podcast Episodes 1-7

From The Ten Questions ESL Podcast

By Nancy Buswell

Copyright 2017 by Nancy Buswell

Smashwords Edition

Contents include:

Interview Transcripts

Cultural Notes

Vocabulary

Discussion Questions

Introduction

Hi, I’m Nancy Buswell and I’ve been helping people improve their English for over 17 years! Thanks for looking at this, my first book for English language learners! It’s a simple book: a short ebook. It contains study guides for seven episodes of my podcast, The Ten Questions ESL Podcast.

This ebook is for people around the world who want to improve their English. And when I say around the world, I mean it. I have had downloads of my podcasts from 221 countries! The total number of downloads, as of August 25, 2017, has been 118,900. If you have not listened to my podcast before, you can find it in these ways: 1) On your phone, go to your podcast app (or download a podcast app) and search for Buswell or Ten Questions ESL; 2) On your computer or tablet, go to iTunes (or download it from the Apple website) and search for my podcast; 3) On your phone, tablet or computer, you can go to my website www.missbuwell.com and click on Podcasts. To make it easier to find the podcast episodes that I have used in this ebook, I have included a link to each one at the beginning of each chapter.

I have two kinds of podcast episodes: 1) The TQ (Ten Questions) podcast is where I interview people from around the world. I want my listeners to have the chance to hear a lot of different accents in English. They will also learn about the people and their countries. This ebook has study guides from my first seven TQ podcasts. 2) LnR (Listen and Repeat) podcasts are to help you improve your English pronunciation and intonation. I speak and you repeat after me. Some use casual language, like friends talking to each other. Others use formal language, from novels, poems and speeches. If you want to improve your listening comprehension, listen to the TQ podcasts. If you want to improve your speaking, listen to the LnR podcasts. Or . . . listen to both!

When I first started my podcast, my plan was to make study guides for every episode. I did that for the first seven episodes, then realized that it took a lot of time! Almost three hours for each one. For that reason, I stopped making them after the seventh episode.

The study guides in the ebook have four sections. First is the transcript of the interview. I listened to the interview and wrote down what we said. This took a long time! You can read the transcript alone or while you are listening to the podcast. The second section is cultural notes. I explain a few things that we say that you might not be familiar with. The third section is vocabulary. I chose some words that some of you may not know and gave the definitions. The fourth section is discussion questions. You can use these with yourself, or with classmates or friends who are also studying English.

English teachers! I wrote the study guides with independent learners in mind, but the guides can be used by teachers as well. If you need a PDF or Word document to print out and give to your students, send me an email at [e-mail] and tell me what you want. I’ll be glad to send you a PDF or Word document for whichever episodes you want to use., whether it’s one episode or all seven.

TQ 001: Nancy from the U.S.

http://www.missbuswell.com/tq-001-introduction-and-nancy-from-the-u-s/

Transcription

Hi, this is Nancy in Mountain Home, Arkansas and you are listening to The Ten Questions ESL Podcast. We are here today with . . . with me! I'm going to interview myself for the first episode of this podcast. But before we start that, let me give you some information about the podcast. First of all, the name is The Ten Questions ESL Podcast. Ten Questions means each time I'm going to interview someone and ask them the same ten questions. So later in the podcast you'll hear me answer the ten questions. And I've chosen these questions because I think some of them are just general things that people want to know about people and about where they live. I had thought quite a while about which questions were the best and I came up with these. So, the name also is The ESL Podcast. ESL stands for English as a Second Language. And there's other names for that - EFL, TESOL, but I'm using ESL because that's what I'm most familiar with. So that means that this podcast is for people who are learning English or people who want to improve their English, around the world. So this is not for Americans or British people to listen to for fun, though you can if you want to. The main purpose is to help people around the world who want to improve their English. So we'll be listening to interviews from native speakers and non-native speakers. For August and September, most of the native speakers are from the U.S. and the non-native speakers are from China. But starting in October we'll have more variety.

Most of the podcasts that I recorded for August were recorded in my small apartment in Nanning, China. That's where I teach. Now this podcast and at the end of August and some September podcasts have been recorded in Mountain Home, Arkansas, which is where my mother lives. So, in July, before I went home from my university, I recorded some podcasts of teachers and former students and then here in Mountain Home, I'm here for the summer, visiting my mother, and I'm also recording some podcasts. Now if you saying, Why is she only interviewing Americans and Chinese, well, that's what it seems like, but like I said in October we'll have a wider variety. When I'm back in China there will be people from more areas because I work at a university that has a lot of foreign teachers, roughly 40 foreign teachers, that I can interview if they are interested. And, of course, lots of my former students are around. Actually, I've been teaching so long that I've got former students all over China, almost all over the world, too. Hi, Brent in Nigeria, if you are listening to me, and where are my other students? They are all over China, all over the world. But there's also a Chinese as a Second Language program at my university, Guangxi University, and I know that there are students from many countries in that program. And so I'll be interviewing them as well. 

Now, who else can I interview? So far, I've only interviewed people live, face-to-face. But I can also interview people on Skype. Actually, one or two of the interviews at the end of September will be Skype interviews. Here's the interesting thing for some of you listening to this. If you are interested, I can interview you on Skype! You can be on The Ten Questions ESL Podcast. And it doesn't matter if you are a native English speaker or a non-native English speaker. You contact me, we'll arrange a time, and we can record