The Role of Podcast in Developing EFL Students’ Speaking Skill.

Abstract

The current study investigates the role of podcast in developing the speaking skill among the intermediate learners of English at Al-Ameed Private Institute for Learning Languages in Mila City, Algeria. Limited practice, inadequate feedback, and lack of motivation perhaps are some of the challenges that these learners of English face. The aim of the current study is to explore teachers and students attitudes towards the effectiveness of using podcasts to enhance the speaking skill. It also aims to point out the main challenges that teachers and students face while employing these online audio files in their classrooms. The questions that this study addresses are; 1.What are teachers' and students' attitudes towards the effectiveness of using podcasts to enhance the speaking skill? 2. What are the speaking aspects most affected by podcasts: vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, or fluency? And 3.What are the benefits and challenges which face teachers and learners when using podcasts? The data is collected through questionnaires that were delivered to fifty students and interviews conducted with two teachers. The findings of the study show that the majority of students believed that podcasts improved their fluency, helped them acquire new vocabulary, and helped them pronounce words correctly. The most common challenges that students face were maintaining focus, comprehending complex language, accents, and speaking quickly. Teachers recognized the value of incorporating podcasts into a comprehensive learning strategy, emphasizing the need for diverse, authentic listening materials and structured activities to maximize their effectiveness. It is recommended that diverse and authentic podcast content should be provided to expose learners to varied language inputs by using a mix of audio and audiovisual podcasts.