Exploring the Use of Podcasts to Improve Speaking Skills.

Abstract

The development of ICT has brought innovative ways in English language teaching field. Moreover, podcasts are an example of an ICT tool that has been widely used and proven to be useful in teaching English, particularly podcasts help learners to develop their performance in speaking . This research aims at finding out if students’ speaking skills have improved significantly when listening to podcasts. For this purpose, second year LMD students at Ibn Khaldoun university and their oral expression teachers were chosen as the sample of this study . Also, a combination of quantitative tools(questionnaire) and qualitative one (interview) were employed as instruments to collect data. The findings have shown that both students and teachers had positive attitudes toward the use of podcasts, especially in the manner of enhancing EFL students’ speaking skills. Students had some issues with podcasts, remarkably in countries which suffer from the weak internet flow which affects the process. To sum up, the current study was conducted to highlight the evidence of usefulness of podcasts as means to enrich the level of communication in speaking classes.