A great part of any language learning plan is a language learning podcast course from Innovative Language, who are world famous for their Pod101 and Class101 
podcast courses. They have millions of members across their dozens of sites.
You can find all 34 of their podcast courses down at the bottom of the page, so if you’re anxious to find your favorite language, feel free to scroll down!
How I use podcasts as part of a language learning plan
When studying a language, I love listening to podcasts. At an intermediate or advanced level, I simply do relaxed, focused listening to get used to hearing all the various elements of the language being used at native speed. I might only understand a fraction of it at first, but that’s totally fine! The goal is to gradually improve my listening comprehension.
And when I’m a beginner, listening to advanced podcasts is a good way to get used to the sounds of the language (both pronunciation and intonation) so that I will be able to produce them better later on.
At a beginner level, podcast based lessons that teach the basics are also great. I can listen to them on the go, like when I’m riding the train to work or working out.
I’ll be honest, I’m naturally a reader and a grammar geek, so learning by listening did not always come naturally to me, but in recent years I have made an effort to focus more on learning by listening.
When new words or phrases are introduced I repeat after the speaker, and when there are longer dialogues and monologues I shadow them. That means I listen to the dialogue continuously while simultaneously repeating after the speaker. The purpose of shadowing is to improve my pronunciation, intonation, and stress and sound more like a native speaker (or at least like less of a helpless tourist).
What are Innovative Language Podcasts like?
The word “podcast” may be misleading, because when people hear that word these days they think of talk shows like Joe Rogan. But Innovative Language podcasts consist of language learning lessons in podcast format.
Each episode is initially released for free both on the official site and on various podcast platforms (for a limited period of time), but their entire back catalog is available on the official website, organized into extensive “pathways” (like playlists) based on level, topic, and learning outcomes.
The playlists for absolute beginners, for example, contain simple lessons that teach you the basics of the language. Somewhat higher level lessons might contain dialogs, audio blogs, video diaries, cultural lessons, reading practice, and other types of interesting content. And there’s a lot of content. Each lesson consists of an audio or visual lesson with a lesson transcript (a big benefit over listening to podcasts aimed at native speakers). And if you choose to upgrade to a premium membership you can get extensive lesson notes explaining all the language elements, downloadable lesson materials, quizzes, spaced repetition flashcards, and other features.
The huge amount of content is not all meant to be done in a certain order from start to finish. In each level there is a recommended “curated” playlist that you can follow if you don’t know where to start, but you are free to browse the content and choose playlists and lessons that suit your interests or address your questions about the language. So it’s great for both people who need a structured approach, and people who like to take control of their own learning. Once that you feel you are advancing beyond the beginners’ material, you are free to move up to the intermediate material, and so on.
What makes Innovative Language podcasts so popular?
Partly it’s because they give away lots of their lessons for free. All new episodes are free for the first three weeks of release. Lots of their beginner content is also free, as well as certain lessons at all levels. They also give a free trial of premium features to all new members.
Another reason is that each website offers a huge number of lessons that are organized into levels ranging from absolute beginner to advanced, so you’ll find lots of interesting content at your level, and as your level improves you will be served different content aimed at that level. And you can always browse different levels to challenge yourself one day, or take it easy the next. Their huge number of lessons is organized by topic, theme, or skill for that level.
Another reason is that their audio podcasts are not the only part of their system. They also provide video lessons, and every lesson has visual word lists, lesson transcripts, and detailed lesson notes that are downloadable in pdf format. They also have space repetition flashcards and quizzes so that you can review and internalize what you have learned.
What could be better about Innovative Language podcast courses?
Well, sometimes the presenters and the voice actors in the lessons seem like they’re reading from a script and don’t sound very convincing when they make personal comments or crack jokes. Generally it just seems like they are not putting much effort into their delivery. This doesn’t affect the educational value of the lessons, but it can be a little “cringey” sometimes.
Another thing is that the lessons sometimes go a little fast, and they move on to the next thing before I’ve really had a chance to process something they taught a moment earlier. Sometimes I go back a little bit and listen again. One trick I have found works really well is to set the audio speed to 0.75 (which is one of their available features).
I would like more drills. Substitution drills, transformation drills, expansion drills, and dialogue participation drills. Sometimes the presenters ask you to repeat, make a sentence, or answer a question, but I like hardcore drilling and I find it is great for my fluency. But I may be in the minority here, because most people hate drills.
My conclusion
Lately I have been making a real effort to review some of the languages I have studied in the past. Pod101 courses from Innvoative Language have been a great flexible resource that accomodates a variety of levels, whether I’m still at a decent level or whether I’ve forgotten a lot and feel like I’m starting from scratch. They are not the only thing I use to learn a language, but they are great supplemental materials and resources and a good part of any study plan.
At the very least it’s worth checking their courses out with a free account (which is pretty good on its own), and then if you want the extra features that make it extra special, you’ll have the chance to upgrade to premium.
Every Innovative Language site. Click on the language that excites you and get ready to have some fun!
- Note: if you upgrade to a paid plan, Langfocus gets a small referral fee that helps support this blog and the Langfocus channel. But if I didn’t like it, it wouldn’t recommend it!