Thesis: A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF PODCAST ON LEARNER’S
LISTENING PROFICIENCY

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of
Master of Arts in Linguistics
at
National Taipei Univerisity of Technology

By: Duong Van Vu

ID: 105548403

Thesis advisor: Prof. Michael Tanangkingsing

Date of submission: 8th April 2019


Declaration
I certify that all the content in this thesis paper is my original work to the best of my
knowledge and hard-work. Any external source used for reference in the paper has been
cited and acknowledged. I, hereby, declare that the present paper has not been submitted
to any other institution previously.

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Ackowledgement
With

tremendous

guidance

and

assistance

from

professor

Michael

Tanangkingsing, it has been possible for this research to be completed. He has always
been very helpful and dedicate with every single detail in different stages of the paper.
All his valuable comments and suggestions throughout the process not only helped the
researcher to finish the work on time, but also it there were many lessons learnt from
each time he corrected. Therefore I am very much indebted to him for all his hard work.
To be able to come to this stage of the course, I would like to express my deepest
gratitude to professorMichael Tanangkingsing, whose lectures enlightened me the new
concepts of English teaching and academic research.
To every member of my family, who has been providing the best support during
the time this research was conducted. Without the love, belief, care, and encouragement
from my family, this research would have not been possible.
Finally, I would like to extend my greatest thanks to all teachers and students at
Neili High School, who created favorable conditions for the implementation of the study.
Besides, I am thankful to my classmates at department of English, NTUT for their good
wishes and co-operation.

ii



Abstract
Grasping the skills of speaking and listening are an essential part of English
learning. Through the years, new learning methods have been introduced to the learning
world. Amid all the tools and based on personal experience, learning English through
podcast seems to be an option that might prove to be effective. The present paper is
designed as an experiment to seek insights into how listening to English podcast helps
learners at the Neili High School, Taoyuan, Taiwan enhance their listening proficiency.
The research involved the cooperation of 52 first-year, non-English majors at the
aforementioned school. Students received pre-test (given at the initial stage), and a posttest (at the end of the course) as part of the study. They were divided into two groups,
one being the controlled group that received regular training from class, while the
experimental group received podcast lessons including conversational dialogues,
podcast dialogue analysis, PDF extra notes, and review lessons. The podcast dialogue
analysis was the main part of a podcast lesson. Every audio helps learners to listen and
comprehend the content of the dialogue in depth with abundant examples of vocabulary
and more listening input. After the experimental period of six consecutive weeks, all
learners from the two groups sat for a post-test to assess the effectiveness of podcast
learning. Results from the experiment suggested that learners who were exposed to
podcast lessons better performed at English listening skills.

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Table of Contents
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
Declaration _________________________________________________________i
Acknowledgements___________________________________________________ii
Abstracts___________________________________________________________iii
Table of contents_____________________________________________________iv

List of figures _______________________________________________________vi
List of tables ________________________________________________________vii
1.1.

Motivation _____________________________________________________1

1.2.

Objectives and research questions___________________________________2

1.2.1. Objectives _____________________________________________________2
1.2.2. Research questions_______________________________________________2
1.3.

Organization of the paper__________________________________________2
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1.

English language education in Taiwan_______________________________3

2.2.

English language teaching and learning in Taiwan______________________3

2.3.

The current English teaching trend in Taiwanese state schools_____________4

2.2.


English listening skills____________________________________________5

2.2.1. English listening – importance and the know-how______________________5
2.2.2. Types of listening _______________________________________________7
2.3.

Podcast in teaching and learning English listening skill__________________8

2.3.1. Use of technology in teaching and learning English listening_____________8
2.3.2. Podcast as an Innovative Teaching Tool______________________________9
2.3.3. Perceptions and Attitudes toward Podcasts____________________________10
2.4.

Podcast and education____________________________________________11

2.4.1. Podcast Lectures for ESL and EFL Learning __________________________11
2.4.2. Type of podcast and its benefits ____________________________________13
2.4.3. Previous studies on podcast in learning ______________________________14
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Participants______________________________________________________18
3.1.1. Participant recruitment____________________________________________18
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3.1.2. Participants’ background __________________________________________18
3.2. Procedure________________________________________________________19
3.3. Treatment________________________________________________________20
3.4. Instrument _______________________________________________________22
3.4.1. Podcast lessons__________________________________________________22

3.4.2. Evaluation______________________________________________________23
3.4.3. Testing materials_________________________________________________24
3.4.4. Interview_______________________________________________________25
3.5. Data analysis______________________________________________________26
CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Results from the tests_______________________________________________27
4.2. Results from the interview___________________________________________30
4.3 Discussion of results________________________________________________33
Conclusion and implementation for further studies ___________________________34
References
Appendices

v


List of Figures
Figure 1: Research procedure
Figure 2: Score range of the experimental group
Figure 3: Score range of the controlled group
Figure 4: Results of the interview

vi


List of tables
Table 1: Structure of a lesson
Table 2: Pre-test summary
Table 3: Results of the experimental group
Table 4: Results of the controlled group


vii


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1.

Motivation
Many dynamic approaches have emerged due to computer technology in

facilitating language learning skills. Podcast is one the newly appeared tool being
exploited by teachers to deliver educational content and to encourage learning outside
the classroom. Research on podcasting pedagogy suggests that podcast learning
greatly helps learners develop various skills of English language.
Podcast is a combination of the terms pod (i.e., from the Apple iPod) and
broadcast (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2007). Podcasts are series of digital
audio and video recordings uploaded on the web with the aid of Rapid Simple
Syndication (RSS) feeds (Lafferty & Walch, 2006). RSS feeds allow listeners to
download their favourite podcasts using podcatcher software like iTunes. Listeners do
not need to visit every website frequently for new podcast episodes; they can now find
a huge collection of podcasts on iTunes store. Many types of podcasts are found on the
Internet such as television podcasts, radio podcasts, classroom podcasts, and individual
or group podcasts.
As a former learner of English, the researcher also tried out many methods for
learning this particular language, like listening to VOA American news, “English
Pictionary”, or English videos on YouTube. However, none of them really worked
out well until the application of a Podcast series called “EnglishPod” particularly
devoted to teaching English. Magically, the new learning method inspired learning
and each day of learning was a new experience. After roughly 3 months of continuous
listening to EnglishPod, I felt more confident in communicating for my vocabulary
and listening had improved conisderably. Having Podcast makes me feel that learning

a language is so much easier than from a textbook. Therefore, I wanted to prove that
it is really effective. I started to subcribe for a ChinesePod site and after half a year I
am speaking fluent Chinese. Still not convinced, I tried subcribing to the
JapanesePod101 site, and within the same six-month period of time, I am speaking
fluent Japanese. To this point, I am persuaded that Podcast is really an innovative
language learning tool that might be able to help thousands, if not millions of learners
in my country specifically.
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1.2.

Objectives and research questions

1.2.1. Objectives
As globalization has started to develop in recent decades, the demand for
learning English has grown faster than ever before. However, though schools and
students realize the importance of developing English proficiency, numerous are still
struggling to find appropriate ways to master this language. Motivated from this
constraint, I decided to conduct this study aiming to evaluate how English podcast
helps learners, particularly first-year non-English major students at Neili High School
enhance their English listening proficiency. Further, the study also wishes to
investigate how English podcast motivate learners in studying and overcoming the
fear of communication through listening and exposure to native-like situations. It is
highly likely that using English learning podcast lessons help students excel at their
English listening proficiency.
1.2.2. Research questions
Based on what I found from the review of literature and the objectives of the study, I
seek answers to the two following questions.
1. How podcast lessons help learners at Neili High School enhance their English

listening skills?
2. What are learners’ perception of podcast usage in English learning?
1.3.

Organization of the paper
Chapter one of the paper will introduce the researcher’s motivation for

conducting this research, as well as the objective and research questions of the paper.
Chapter two will discuss the ongoing trend occurring within the scope of this
study and previous studies that were done in regard to podcast learning.
Chapter three will provide the method which the study is designed to follow,
including participants, duration, instrument, and the procedure.

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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. English language education in Taiwan
2.1.1 English language teaching and learning in Taiwan
As stated in the official Education Handbook, formal education in Taiwan is run
by the Ministry of Education and consists of 5 levels, namely preschool, primary school,
secondary school, high school, and higher education. Among them, schooling from
preschool to high school is mandatory and is set as the minimum requirement for
citizens. A student normally spends about 14 years in school, two years in preschool
and another 12 years in 3 other levels of education at public schools. After high school,
roughly 90% of students choose to go for tertiary education.
The English subject is required and introduced to pupils from grade 3/12 and for
every week, 2 hours are allocated for this subject. Therefore, upon completion of
primary school, pupils should have had 210 hours of studying English. To secondary
school, from grade 6 to grade 9, students spend 2 hours a week to attend English classes,

making up 280 hours of training at this level. High school is the level which learners
receive the most input of English teaching with 3 hours of English class a week making
up 315 hours. By the end of grade twelve, which is the last year of their required
education program, each student has spent 805 hours of English training. Hence,
learners after finishing 9 years of English education are able:
-

To use English as a means of communication at a certain level of proficiency in

four macroskills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and to be able to read
materials at the same level of their textbook, using a dictionary;
-

To have mastered basic English phonetics and grammar, to have acquired the

minimum of around 2500 vocabulary items of English;
-

To attain a certain level of understanding of English and American cultures, to

become aware of cross-cultural differences in order to be better overall communicators,
(Ministry of Education, 2005).

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2.2. The current English teaching trend in Taiwanese state schools
While listening is considered a crucial skill, providing input to act as a gateway
for language learning, this skill has often been neglected by educators at high school
in Taiwan. In his research, Rost (1994) indicated that extensive listening input

enhances a learner’s abilty to:
- Differentiate between sounds.
- Recognize grammatical structures and vocabulary.
- Identify the intonation of words and sentences.
- Recognize the functions of speech being expressed in conversations
- Use background knowledge and context to predict and then to confirm meaning.
- Recall learnt vocabulary items, patterns, and ideas.
- Give suitable feedback to the speaker.
- Reformulate the speaker’s message.
According to Yang, D. H. (2006), A typical listening lesson consists of three
sections, namely ‘before you listen, while you listen, and after you listen’. Students
work in pair or individually in the first section to get a glimpse of the topic being
introduced. All the new vocabulary items are also presented in this part with the teacher
reading a word and students repeating twice. In the ‘while you listen’, students listen
to the CD and complete a listening task. For the “after you listening” part, students are
asked to engage in a speaking activity using questions or topics corresponding with the
themes being discussed from ‘while you listen’. However, in a classroom situation,
Chinese is used almost throughout an English lesson, such as when explaining
vocabulary, introducing new grammatical structures and in explanation of reading
comprehension problems. Thus, students do not get sufficient exposure to the language
they learn.
Following a study by Yang, D. H. (2006), students learn the English subject
following a series of books published by the Ministry of Education and Training. For
each week, students have about 1 hour of speaking. The speaking section is usually
preceded by Reading, which provides vocabulary and structures input. Activities for
speaking vary, ranging from individual work, pair work, or group work. However, the

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chance for everyone to have turn to speak or express themselves is rather limited. It
mainly comes from students’ concept of the importance of the English subject.
They are not tested for speaking or listening for high school graduation, but
reading, writing, and grammar instead. This leads to learners bypassing the learning of
English speaking and listening skills. Although the rhetoric of the Taiwanese Ministry
of Education emphasizes the enhancement of practical communication ability for
learners, this is rarely reflected at the classroom level, where the stress is mainly on
reading comprehension, vocabulary and structural patterns for the purposes of passing
university entrance examinations into tertiary education.
According to Dorney, Z. (2001), it is undeniable when learning a language, being
able to understand the message conveyed by the other person and to speak in response
are the key to motivating learning. When a learner feels he or she is capable of engaging
in conversational situations comfortably, it psychologically enhances their confidence
in learning. On the contrary, in the case where learners after a long-term process of
learning and they are are still unable to use their learnt knowledge to converse at an
acceptable level, they are more likely to be demotivated from continuing learning.
Therefore, practical communication ability is strongly connected with a learner’s
psychological attitudes towards learning a language.
2.2. English listening skills
Basically, listening can be defined as the capability of a person in making out what the
speaking party is saying by understanding the words used, pronunciation, and
grammartical structures. Specifically,
2.2.1. English listening – importance and the know-how
+ Importance of listening
Among the four skills to be mastered by a language learner for successful
communication, listening is the one that should be started with. In fact, a language user
spends about 40-50% of time for listening in daily situations, 20-30% for speaking,
about over 10% for reading, and approximately 9% for writing (Vandergrift, 2005).
Listening is not a standalone aspect of learning, i.e. it has to be accompanied by other
skills if a person is to get the messages across; it is a clear indication that this skill plays

a very crucial role for learners in the learning process.
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Achieving good listening in English means a learner needs to cultivate several
components of the language, including linguistics-related understanding and the nonlinguistics one. The former refers to the mastery of lexicon, grammatical structure, and
phonology. These elements are to ensure the language user be able to interpret the
message being delivered by a speaker. In other words, the listening party knows the
context in which the word is used, not to be mistaken with other lexical items. The latter
refers to the grasp of different themes, topics, and other field-related knowledge. This
helps learners make out the meaning of speeches (Buck, 2001).
Having inadequate lexical items leads to incomplete understanding of the
message, hindering comprehension. Furthermore, a single lexical item might have more
than one meaning in different contexts it is used. Therefore, knowing a word well is
necessary for facilitating listening and interpreting speech messages. In some cases
especially, if the main words of a sentence are not understood or misinterpreted,
consequences can be disastrous. In addition, knowing English grammar well would
significantly improve comprehension since a speech is composed of chunks, and getting
to know the rules of collocation as well as how sentences are formed from words boosts
the speed of processing certain messages delivered by others. Another aspect to be taken
into consideration is phonology. Phonological awareness is the ability to understand
words in deeper sense, .i.e. a lexical item can be broken into smaller units. In other
words, it is the knowledge of the elements that makes up an English vocabulary word.
Thus, this allows the listener to rapidly make out the lexicon being used in a speech,
avoiding misunderstanding.
Besides, grasping information of various topics and themes plays a considerable role
in effective communication. In daily communication or especially in examinations, one
might encounter different linguistic circumstances that relate to different fields of
knowledge, such as environmental protection, healthcare, economy, and the like. In
these cases, a learner’s language skills is put to test.


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2.2.2. Types of listening
Different contexts require different types of listening tactics to be employed. In
the classroom situation, students can improve their listening abilities and gain valuable
input by being engaged in the listening process through a combination of extensive and
intensive listening (Harmer, 1998).
+ Intensive listening
According to Rost (2002), intensive listening (IL) places emphasis on brief
listening tasks. As the name suggests, learners listen intensively for details based on the
material provided. When students do intensive listening practice, their attention is
mostly on pronunciation, grammar and lexis, rather than the overall concept of the
speech or talk. It is the focus of IL on these aspects that makes it useful for learners to
build up a firm foundation for language acquisition. Since they get a grasp of the basic
component parts of the language, they can build on these skills over time. Because it
serves to help listeners understand key foundational aspects of language, intensive
listening is especially important for beginner and intermediate learners (Harmer, 2007).
+ Extentive listening
Extensive listening focuses on longer activities. These may vary from something
that’s a few minutes long to several hours long. Rather than focusing on individual parts,
extensive listening focuses on overall understanding. With extensive listening, listeners
are not required to translate every word they encounter or focus on grammatical rules.
Instead, listeners aim to get the gist of the talk as a whole.
Ferrato and White (2004) point out that extensive listening is a way to improve
listening fluency, and building fluency means building your listening speed. To be
specific, students are able to comprehend almost everything at the level they are
listening through practice. They also indicate the six good points brought about by
extensive listening including:

-

increased exposure to spoken English;

-

improved comprehension capability;

-

enriched vocabulary bank, especially use of vocabulary in context;

-

attained the naturalness of the language;

-

enhanced receptive and productive pronunciation learning;
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-

increased listening perseverance.

Additionally, Cutting (2004) points out that learners are empowered to decide their
goals, choose their own materials, evaluate the effectiveness of their own learning. They
are then in a better position to initiate learning based on personal needs, priorities and
preferences. Besides, EL practice can develop students’ metacognitive skills for

language learning as well.
2.3. Podcast in teaching and learning English listening skill
2.3.1. Use of technology in teaching and learning English listening
Technology in education, sometimes referred to as E-learning, has been a
widespread phenomenon in recent decades as technology and science are being applied
more popularly in various fields of education. This involves the use of digital devices,
such as projectors, computers, and other supplemental tools, together with the assistance
of the internet in the learning process. The concept was conceptualized during 19th
century, but did not become a reality in late 1950s when computers, for the first time,
were used in a classroom (Horton, 2001, p. 4). Since that time, classroom settings have
never stopped evolving and striving for the better, with more and more areas of teaching,
educational research, or experimenting utilizing technology for better effectiveness.
However, the most drastical change that blew a new spell of wind to E-learning was in
the early 1990s when World Wide Web (internet connection) was introduced.
There are more and more tools being brought into language classroom aside from
the existing ones.
Learners must use technology as a significant part of their learning process.
Teachers should model the use of technology to support the curriculum so that learners
can increase the true use of technology in learning their language skills (Costley (2014)).
Learners’ cooperation can be increased through technology. Cooperation is one of the
important tools for learning. Learners cooperatively work together to create tasks and
learn from each other through reading their peers’ work. In addition, Patel (2013) points
out the application of technology has considerably changed English teaching methods.
It provides so many alternatives as making teaching interesting and more productive in
terms of advancement.

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According to Arifah (2014), the use of internet increases learners’ motivation.

The use of film in teaching helps learners to realize the topic with enthusiasm and
develop their knowledge. Learners can learn meaningfully when technology is used in
the process of learning through using computer and internet. When learners learn with
technology, it assists them in developing their higher order thinking skills.
It can be concluded that the true combination of multimedia and teaching
methodology is very important to attract learners’ attention towards English language
learning.
2.3.2. Podcast as an Innovative Teaching Tool
The implementation of podcasts in education is growing, and personal devices,
such as iPods and iPads, are being widely used in a variety of teacher-centered and
student-centered ways (French, 2006), however the use of podcasts is still limited in
some EFL contexts (Celik, 2013). Copley (2007) stated that podcasting technology
could be seen as a new innovative way of teaching and empowering the interest of a
variety teachers, and researchers. Rosell-Aguilar, (2007) illustrated a group of
advantages of podcasting for learning such as being portable, attractive, motivating,
easy access, and publicity. Researchers believe that podcasting technology is an
effective method for teachers to deliver valuable instruction to their students and to
improve learning process (Beheler, 2007; Copley, 2007; Lord, 2008). Podcasts are
believed to enhance literacy learning in a multimodal way ( Li, Snow, Jiang & Edwards,
2014) .Increasingly, more and more universities and colleges incorporate podcasting
tool to deliver course lectures to supplement their courses (Copley, 2007;
Hollandsworth, 2007). Educational podcasting lectures that are distributed by the
instructors on the course website allow learners to review, listen to, and download them
to their own personal digital devices (Copley, 2007). Such podcast lectures can provide
students flexibility since they can listen to and review the course lectures at their
convenience, which in turn empowers them to practice the self-learning process
(Beheler, 2007). Another use of podcasts is as a supplemental resource (Huntsberger &
Stavitsky, 2007) to support textbook materials and to engage learners (Edirisingha &
Salmon, 2007). Kurtz, Fenwick and Ellsworth (2007) reported that learners, who
received podcast lectures as a tool to review lessons, outperformed those who just took

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the ordinary classroom lessons. McKinney, Dyck, and Luber (2009) conducted an
experimental study in which the control group of the students was given PowerPoint
slides of their class lectures, and the experimental group received the podcast lectures
and the PowerPoint slides of the same lectures. When both groups were assessed, the
experimental group showed better results than the other one.
2.3.3. Perceptions and Attitudes toward Podcasts
Generally, motivating students outside the class can be a difficult mission;
however, the implementation of podcasting can support this issue (O’Bryan &
Hegelheimer, 2007; Asoodar, Marandi, Vaezi & Desmet, 2014). A group of studies
concluded the positive effect of podcasting on the students’ positive attitudes toward
learning through podcasts (Kavaliauskienė & Anusienė, 2009; Chan, Chi, Chin, & Lin,
2011; Fernandez, Simo, & Sallan, 2009; Lord, 2008; Kim & King, 2011; Evans, 2008;
Heilesen, 2010). In a survey study, Kavaliauskienė and Anusienė (2009) explored
learners’ perceptions of listening to podcasts. The study found that seventy six percent
of the subjects showed positive attitudes toward the use of podcasting to enhance
listening skills. Similarly, Chan et al. (2011) explored the effect of two podcast courses
intended to supplement classroom teaching for Chinese and Koreans as foreign
languages. The results found that participants who used podcasting had significant
positive attitudes towards this tool. Heilesen (2010) concluded that students’ attitudes
were mostly positive towards the implementation of podcasting and there were very few
participants who reported rejection towards podcasting. Lord (2008) evaluated a joint
project on using podcasts for an undergraduate phonetic course in order to evaluate
students’ pronunciation and attitudes. The findings reported that the majority of the
participants enjoyed the project. Similarly, Evans (2008) found that students were much
more satisfied with studying and reviewing their subject matter by the use of podcasts
than course notes. In a later study, Fernandez, et al. (2009) made judgments about the
reactions of some participants who used podcasts. According to their findings, they

stated that podcasting was not a substitute for traditional learning system; however, it
increased their motivation. Kim and King (2011) claimed that their findings noticeably
showed that the implementation of podcasting into the classroom was interesting, and

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influential. In addition, they agreed that attitudes toward podcasts varied depending on
their previous experiences with various types of computer technologies.
2.4. Podcast and education
2.4.1. Podcast Lectures for ESL and EFL Learning
Previous studies on podcasts in language learning have explored its effectiveness
in developing various learners’ language skills (O’Bryan & Hegelheimer, 2007; Li,
2010). It is argued that podcast can foster students’ language acquisition in various
language areas (Chan et al. 2011). In a case study by Lebron-Lozada (2012), the results
showed that the use of podcasts that were generated by students themselves obviously
helped them in improving their conversational abilities by producing fewer mistakes
and better pronunciation and more fluent speech. In the same line of thought, Lord
(2008) stated that podcasting is valuable in enhancing foreign language learning.
Podcasting could be employed to learn the culture of the language as well (ComasQuinn, Arcos, & Mardomingo, 2012; Shih, 2013). The likely advantages of podcasting
in the foreign language learning may include ease of use, listening practice, and easy
access to supplemental materials. Ashton-Hay and Brookes (2007) argued that
podcasting could aid self-paced learning and give weaker learners a supportive remedy
for their language gaps. Ducate and Lomicka (2009) found that podcasting could be
implemented as a tool for enhancing learners’ pronunciation. In addition, podcasting
allows language teachers to make materials available to students anywhere (Lord, 2008)
and provide them the opportunity to record and share class discussions or projects. In a
study by Edirisingha, Rizzi and Rothwell, (2007), findings reported obvious benefits of
integrating podcasts into first year college students on English language and
communication. Six podcasts were established to enhance students’ learning and study

accuracy and to provide guidance on portfolio development and presentation accuracy.
Moreover, podcasts provide students the opportunity to experience authentic forms of
the language and get personal involvement to learn various skills of English language.
Alm (2013) argued that the personal access to podcasts offers a different aspect of
authenticity to second language learning. Participants of Li’s (2010) study expressed
their interest in listening to podcasts and stated their readiness to adopt toward this
innovative technology in enhancing their language skills. Podcasts as supplementary
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materials can be used to help learners pay attention to their instructional material on the
podcast content (Hawke, 2010). Hawke developed an independent listening course
based on podcasts to explore how science students can develop their scientific English
listening skills through podcasts. Findings of Hawke’s study showed that post-test
scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores as a result of using podcasts.
Similarly, Ashraf, Noroozi and Salami (2011) examined the impact of podcasts on the
listening ability of some EFL second-year college students. The researchers concluded
that podcasts could be used to enhance ESL learners’ listening ability. In Saudi EFL
context, Al-Qasim and Al-Fadda (2013) conducted a quantitative study to examine the
impact of podcasting on the listening comprehension of forty-six female Saudi EFL
learners in higher education. The results indicated significant differences between the
two groups of the study, favoring those who employed the podcasting tool. In an
exploratory case study of a Japanese learner of English as a foreign language, Cross
(2014) explored the effect of giving guidance and feedback on meta-textual skills and
aspects of metacognitive instruction on listener’s autonomous use of podcasts. The
results showed some signs of performance improvements. Istanto (2011) developed five
podcasts to be provided to language learners as supplementary materials in order to
improve their listening ability and their awareness about grammatical rules. The
findings showed that the podcast implementation could develop students’ listening
ability and grammar familiarity as well as their cultural awareness of the target language.

Knight (2010) studied the use of podcasts for phonetics exercises. The sample of this
study found podcasts very efficient for developing their phonetics accuracy. The impact
of using podcasts was found to be beneficial in the acquiring of language vocabulary.
Borgia’s (2010) study concluded that podcast instruction could significantly enhance
language learners’ vocabulary. In a consistent study, the findings of Putman and
Kingsley’s (2009) study also showed that podcasts could obviously improve science
vocabulary learning.

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2.4.2. Type of podcast and its benefits
There are distinctive forms of podcast used for different purposes. However, in
terms of podcast for education, Stanley (2005) categorizes podcast into three types.
Authentic podcast: This type is often found on the internet and covers a wide
range of topics. For the most part, podcasts belonging to this category are more suitable
for advanced students, but there are some for lower level.
Teacher-created podcast: created by teachers and often time aimed to assist
students to learn through listening content. This type of podcast is specifically designed
for educational purpose.
Students-created podcast: produced by students, often with teacher help. Student
podcasts are mainly for sharing knowledge of some particular interest, rather than
teaching any new knowledge to other students.
As claimed by Thomas (2006) podcast might bring a new paradigm of teaching
and learning. With podcasts students can actually ruminate, and listen again to lectures
and tutorials as a way of encouraging critical, analytical approaches. Podcasts are a rich
source for authentic materials that could be ultilized in teaching and as well learning
foreign languages.
King & Gura (2007) states that podcasts bring new chances for educators to
discover the areas of teaching which are attractive but seems not to be actually tried by

teachers. They can use podcasts for sharing their ideas and suggestions to improve their
method of teaching. More than that, regarding to students, podcasting is said to be
alternative method of learning that can help to enhance their listening skills. Patten &
Craig (2007) alleges that the use of podcasts empower students to manage their own
time that means it enables them to learn at a time that the best suits them the best, take
control over their learning, manage the speed of their learning during predefined lecture
times.

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2.4.3. Previous studies on podcast in learning
There have been quite a few studies conducted on the use of podcast in English
teaching and learning. In one study, Bolliger, et al. (2010) did a research in online
environment in order to understand the students' level of motivation when they applied
podcasts as their learning tool. They reported in general that the participants liked to use
podcasts: although, prior experience of some participants and their gender made some
minor differences.
Walls, et al. (2010) also evaluated students’ access, familiarity, experience, and
attitude to use podcasts by conducting a survey. They stated that students are not as
motivated or as eager to use educational podcasts as educators think they are. In their
study Rahimi and Asadollahi (2011) did a research on one hundred and twenty Iranian
university students‟ access, familiarity, and experience towards using the technology of
podcasting. The results revealed that many of the students owned a portable device and
were very familiar with podcasts but only a small number of them had never
downloaded or used any podcasts. They considered podcast as a suitable educational
tool in university courses, although they rarely had had classes in which podcasts had
been effectively used.
With regard to second vocabulary learning from podcasts, Lu (2007) conducted
a case study of a 23-year-old ESL learner from Taiwan who listened to one podcast per

week for four weeks. The learner listened to portions of podcasts about current events
that interested him. Because the learner was of relatively low English proficiency, the
podcasts were kept to no longer than three minutes to avoid cognitive overload. While
listening, the learner transcribed the podcasts. He was told he could listen to the podcasts
as many times as necessary. The researcher collected and marked the transcription errors
and asked the participant to listen again to the podcast and correct his own errors.
Afterwards, the learner attempted to understand the content and language of his
transcription before recording his own reading of the transcript in a fashion similar to
the original podcast. This procedure was repeated for four weeks, with different
podcasts each week. The results of the learner’s first and final drafts of the transcripts
showed an increase in listening accuracy and vocabulary knowledge.

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However, none of the studies on podcast in education has been conducted on the
effects of podcast lessons on English listening proficiency for Taiwanese students in
particular. Therefore, I am very motivated in doing a case study on this field for students
at the Neili High School to assess the potential effectiveness of podcast learning on the
enhancement of students’ English listening and speaking skills.

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CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY
This study is designed as an experiment, which involve the participation of
students from the Neili High School. The total duration for the experiement was six
weeks, lasting from January 2, 2019 to February 16, 2019. I then went through a
process of 8 steps in collection and analysis of data. I first needed to obtain approval
from the school board and class teachers. When this was through, participant

recruiment began, involving surveying 180 non-English major, freshmen at the
school. When potential participants have been decided, I began to conduct a pretest
and picked out at least 60 students for the experiment. Once the final list of
participants was determined, the six-week experiment commenced, followed by a
post-test at the end of the training course. The results then were analyzed using a
professional computer software to be presented in the form of charts and graphs. The
procedure is presented in more detail in Figure 1 below.
In section 3.1, I will explain the details regarding participants, including the whole
process of participants recruitment and descriptions of their background.
In section 3.2, I will describe the specific steps of the experiment, with specific
dates of each event.
For section 3.3, I will provide insights into the division of the two groups, namely
controlled group and experimental group. Moreover, the differences in the
treatment between two groups are also described.
For section 3.4, all instruments necessary for the experiment will be discussed in
details. Specifically, description of podcast lessons, evaluation methods, materials
to be used, and information on the post-experiment interview will be presented.
In section 3.5, I will give information about how the collected data from the
experiment will be processed and anylized.
Section 3.6 will be devoted to giving expectations and anticipations of the results
of the experiment.

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Determining targets
& obtaining approval
Approval - school board

October 22, 2018


Approval - class head teachers

Participants recruitment

December 21, 2018

Sending out forms for recruiting
voluntary participants

Shortlisting + pre-test

December 27, 2018

Conducting pretest to get
participants of the same level

Finalizing participant list

December 31, 2018

Choosing appropriate
participants for experimenting

Experiment introduction + group division

January 2, 2019

Introduce the details of the
experiment + divides into 2 groups


Experiment commencement

January 2, 2019

Send participants 2 podcast
lesson/day through email

Post-test + analysis

February 16, 2019

Conducting the post-test for evaluation
& use SPSS to analyze data

Results & results presentation
Present the results into forms and charts
Figure 1. Research procedure

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