A study on the impact of podcast on learners listening proficiency

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 pro

at National Taipei Univerisity of Technology

By: Duong Van Vu

ID: 105548403

Thesis advisor: Prof Michael Tanangkingsing

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

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

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 post-test (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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

Achieving good listening in English means a learner needs to cultivate several components of the language, including linguistics-related understanding and the non-linguistics 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

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;

- 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

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

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

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 (Comas-Quinn, 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

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

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

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

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

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

Det ermining targets

& obtaining ap p roval

Approval - class head teachers Approval - school board

Pa r ticipants recruitment

Shortlisting + pre - test

Finalizing participant list

Experiment introduction + group division

Experiment commencement

Post - test + analysis

Results & results presentation

Send ing out forms for recruiting

voluntary participants

Conducting pretest to get participants of the same level

Choosing appropriate participants for experimenting

Introduce the details of the experiment + divides into 2 groups

Send participants 2 podcast lesson/day through email

Conducting the post - test for evaluation

& use SPSS to analyze data

Present the results into forms and charts

of joining the study plan The form includes the introduction of the study and the benefits that participants would get for their voluntary taking part 150 out of 180 students of the grade agreed to join the study After the process, a pre-test was administered For validity and legitimacy of tests, I used materials from the English testing program of Cambridge Assessment for all the evaluation process

of the study The Cambridge Language Assessment program includes A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 levels, in accordance with the CEFR (Common European Framework) The test consists of five parts, including Reading, Grammar, Writing, Listening, and Speaking However, for the scope of this study, only the speaking and listening sections of the test was used This test is certified and accepted all over the country When the results of the pre-test is finalized, 52 students were qualified to participate in the study

3.1.2 Participants’ background

All students are from non-English major, at the Neili High School, Taiwan, who had had about 8 years of learning English As they are at their first year of high school, their ages range from 15-16

In terms of English learning experience, all students received the same training program at regular schools (Elementary, Junior and Senior high school) regulated by the Ministry of Education All students were attending regular classes required by the school at the frequency of 5 sessions a week, with each session lasting 4 hours

3.2 Procedure

The present study utilized experimental method for collecting data It started with gaining permission from an educational institution to be allowed

to recruit participants for experiment, completed on October 22, 2018 I decided

to choose students at Neili High School This is the place where I was working

at, hence motivated to conduct this paper at the place The approval procedure was done by informing the school board of leaders as well as class teachers of the details and aims of this study After this initial stage was complete, I startes recruiting participants for the experiment on December 21, 2018 by means of voluntary enrolment As the study focuses on freshmen of non-English major, students from all 6 classes (over 180 students) were informed of the study’s plan and benefits Each student then received a form to fill in information regarding their decision of joining the study plan The form includes the introduction of the study and the benefits that participants will get for their voluntary taking part

Upon receiving agreement from students, they were introduced to the

step-by-step procedure of the study, followed by a pre-test (described in 3.1.3),

intended for December 27, 2018 The pretest aimed to get information about students’ current English proficiency level, and acted as a tool for the researcher

to shortlist appropriate participants who were of approximate language level for the study When the results of the pre-test were finalized on December 31,

2018, I randomly selected participants to get ready for the study The experiment

officially began on the 1st of January, 2019 when the two groups were decided

I separated the two groups and address to each group the details of the learning style they would be experiencing forthe following 6 weeks Immediately after the introduction, the experimental group was guided to the school’s computer centre for their first lesson

In a typical week, students attended podcast class for 1 hour from Monday to Saturday (after their regular two-hour English classes in the morning) under my supervision For each lesson, there would be a warm up

activity The warm up is in the form of discussion Students then used a computer in the computer center to listen to podcast audios (all materials will have been already downloaded into the computers before the experiment) In each class, every participant in the experimental group was instructed to learn with one podcast lesson The last ten minutes of each class was devoted to questions and answers regarding the lesson

Upon completion of the six-week experiment on February 12, 2019, 60 participants were asked to sit for the post-test, taking place on February 15,

2019 The post-test papers were the same materials used in the pretest This was

to ensure the consistency and fairness of the test On the same date of the test, 7 random participants from the experimental group were invited for a short one-on-one interview The results of the tests and interview were then analyzed using SPSS software for the interpretation of data

post-3.3 Treatment

Group division and treatment

Based on the results of pre-test, listening and speaking scores of every

test paper were keyed into an Excel sheet for calculation The software has

formula to convert raw scores into average scores This allowed the researcher

to determine potential participants for shortlisting 52 students, who had

approximate English proficiency level reflected through their scores, were

invited to take part in the study Participants were informed of the learning

course they would receive They were then divided into two groups, controlled and experimental groups, on a random basis, with each consisting 30 members

As students are required to pass an entrance exam after their first year of studying English in order to be qualified for their major course in the second year, they needed attend three-hour compulsory classes at school weekly from Monday

to Sunday morning Therefore, both groups experienced the same training for the first two hours with the school’s regular instructors The classes mainly focused

on preparing students for their entrance exam The material used is Preparation Series for the Cambridge Language Assessment, published by Cambridge

skills (in order reading, grammar, writing, listening, and speaking) test oriented The difference between the two groups comes from the third hour The experimental group received 1 lesson/ per day to practice in the third hour while the controlled group attended traditional class as others Detailed treatment is as follow

The controlled group:

Follows regular class schedule set by the school, specifically, the first hour for reading and grammar, the second for writing skills, and the last hour for practicing listening and speaking skills No further training or extra materials were given during the six-week course of the study

Experimental group:

Attends the first two hours of regular test preparation class In the third hour, they were directed to the school’s computer center for experimenting with podcast lessons supervised by the researcher One package of podcast lesson contains:

- A podcast audio track, which includes detailed analysis of a conversational dialogue, vocabulary explanation, example sentences, vocabulary use in context, grammatical point explanation plus its practical use, and interactive questions with listeners;

- A review audio track;

- A PDF file summarizing the lesson’s contents;

Learning in an experimental lesson follow three steps Before the actual podcast lesson, participants were introduced to the topic of the day for lead-in activities, usually warm up questions relating to the topic For example, in a lesson

with the topic shopping, I raised questions in relation to the topic and ask for participants’ opinion and sharing (questions such as: do you like shopping?; how often do you do shopping?; how do you feel about shopping?; what are some things related to shopping that you can list?, and so on) During a podcast lesson, participants were asked to listen to the track twice, with the first time for grasping the general idea of the conversation, and the second try to gain in-depth

comprehension of the lesson After finishing learning with podcast lesson, students were engaged in a discussion with their study mates, which aimd to facilitate their speaking skills This stage allowed participants ask and answer questions with each other regarding what has been discussed in the dialogue They were also encouraged to make sentences using vocabulary items or a

grammatical structure from the lesson See table 1 below

Further discussion on the topic of the dialogue

on the podcast, and Q & A

Table 1: Structure of a lesson

The number of podcast lessons being delivered in the course was 36 Equivalent to each lesson was a new topic, ranging from daily life, sports, business, to health care, and so on Detailed study plans for the experimental

group were described in appendix 1

3.4 Instrument

3.4.1 Podcast lessons

The main material for this course is podcast All the audio files, pdfs and extra files are retrieved from the English learning program designed by InovativeLanguage Institute All learning resources used in this study are free materials from the institute, which can be accessed at

https://www.innovativelanguage.com/

Each podcast package includes an audio MP3 lesson (containing an English dialogue between two speakers and vocabulary analysis, examples of

minutes each, and a PDF file containing transcription of the dialogue and extra vocabulary items related to the topic being discussed

The whole site contains English podcast lessons in four different levels, which are Elementary, Pre-intermediate, Intermediate, and Advanced Each level then has 50 lesson packages For the sake of this experiment, I will choose the appropriate materials based on the results of the pre-test, presumably preintermediate level

For a typical podcast lesson, the content includes 4 parts, with part 1 being vocabulary preview for listeners to understand difficult words before dialogue, part two being a two-minute dialogue, part 3 being the discussion of the content of the dialogue, vocabulary explaination plus examples, part 4 discussing the grammatical structure appeared in the dialogue, and followed by

the second time playing the dialogue for reinforcement (sample podcast lesson,

see appendix 2)

3.4.2 Evaluation

Before the actual experiment begins, all all participants, who agree to participate, will sit for a pretest, using the A2 level test materials This allows the researcher to record learners starting point for further processing in subsequent evaluation stages as well as to ensure that both groups are similar in terms of English competence The entire two parts of the test last approximately 50 minutes and is supposed be conducted on Thursday, December 27, 2018 after the students have finished their 2 hours of official class time at school

For the listening test, I will discuss with all the class teachers and ask for their support in conducting the test on December 27, 2018 The venue for the test will be in their classroom Students will take the test after they have finished their three hours of class, approximately 10 a.m For every class, there are listening tasks, therefore, existing instruments such as speakers and CD players can be utilized

The speaking test involves expertise in evaluation; thus, I will need to invite six

of the school’s teachers who have had training from the Ministry of Education particularly for the speaking section This will ensure the fairness, objectiveness,