EFL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS USING AND CREAT-ING LEARNER PODCASTS TO DEVELOP THEIR SPEAKING SKILLS FOR SUSTAINABLE EDUCATION

Abstract

It is difficult for EFL learners to improve their speaking skills. Thus, In addition to traditional speaking activities used in English language teaching, creating learner podcasts can be integrated into EFL classroom as a new instructional tool to improve students’ speaking skills. Therefore, this paper investigates students’ attitudes towards using and creating learner podcasts to develop their English speaking skills. The study was conducted with 56 EFL students studying in the Preparatory School at Hacettepe University. The students were at three different proficiency levels: B1, B1+ and B2.During the six-week study, after the students were introduced what a podcast is and how to create learner podcasts, they created five different podcasts and published them to the class podcast page. During this process, the learner podcasts were created individually and in pairs. After students created their podcasts in pairs, they were asked to listen to another podcast created by another pair, to record their comments as another podcast and send it to the class podcast page. The data were gathered through a student questionnaire and semi-structured interviews conducted by 10 students. The data gathered from the study were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The results indicated that students perceived podcasts to be beneficial for development of their speaking skills. In this sense, getting information about students’ attitudes towards using and creating learner podcasts can provide EFL teachers with information about whether learner podcasts can be used as a practical device to help students develop their speaking skills. 

Keywords

• Podcasts,Attitudes,EFL Learners,Speaking

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