Speak English with ESLPod.com

ESL Podcast holds the distinction of being the first English language learning podcast ever launched on the internet, dating back to July 2005. Created by Dr. Jeff McQuillan and Dr. Lucy Tse, both PhDs in applied linguistics from the University of Southern California, the show brings genuine academic expertise to a format that remains accessible and practical. More than 15 million people across 189 countries have used it to improve their English. The teaching method is straightforward and effective. Each episode presents a scripted dialogue or story read at a deliberately slow pace, followed by Dr. McQuillan walking through the vocabulary, expressions, and cultural context in detail. Episodes run 20 to 30 minutes and new ones drop three times a week. The slow speech rate is intentional — it gives learners time to process each sentence and pick up on pronunciation patterns that get lost at conversational speed. Dr. Tse writes the scripts and story ideas, while McQuillan handles the explanations. The approach is rooted in research on language acquisition rather than traditional grammar instruction. McQuillan and Tse emphasize comprehensible input — the idea that you learn a language best by understanding messages in that language, not by memorizing rules. The result is a show that feels calm and methodical rather than flashy. It will not win any awards for excitement, but the consistency and the credentials behind it are hard to argue with. For beginning to intermediate learners who want a structured, research-backed approach to building their English, ESLPod has been delivering that reliably for two decades.