| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄第一科技大學 === 應用英語系應用語言學與英語教學碩士班 === 103 === Over the past decade, podcasts have been widely used as a supplementary teaching tool in diverse EFL/ ESL educational settings. A number of studies conducted abroad have shown that podcasts could lead to better listening comprehension in English. However, due to the lack of relevant research in Taiwan, it is necessary to examine whether audio-based podcasts can help improve EFL learners’ listening skills as suggested by other studies. The current study, therefore, aims to investigate the effect of podcasts on listening comprehension of English-major undergraduate students and their attitudes toward podcast learning in an advanced listening and conversation class.
The participants recruited in the study were 42 English major students from a technological university in southern. To collect data, the pre- and post-test were conducted before and after the podcast listening practice that lasted for a period of five weeks. Subsequently, a questionnaire was distributed to evaluate the participants’ attitude toward the use of podcasts after the experiment. Additionally, individual oral interviews were conducted to explore students’ perceptions of podcast learning in greater depth.
The results of the present study strongly indicated that podcasts could effectively improve English majors’ listening comprehension. Based on the statistical findings, the participants’ listening performance was significantly better in the post-test than in the pre-test. Specifically, students also made a significant progress on the two individual parts of the post-test, including main idea comprehension in the first part and supporting details comprehension in the second part. In addition, the overall findings of the questionnaire survey showed that most participants had positive attitudes toward the use of podcasts in the advanced listening and conversation class. The interview analysis discovered student interviewees considered that it was a good idea for improving their English listening skills through podcasts. Moreover, they commented that the supplementary materials were very helpful in supporting their podcast listening practice. Finally, important pedagogical implications are proposed for the current study.
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