Developing students' discourse competence through Podcasts

Abstract.The current study examines how podcasts can help intermediate English language learners in university-level ESL programs improve their speaking abilities. Perhaps some of the difficulties these English language learners encounter are a lack of enthusiasm, insufficient practice, and poor feedback. The current study's goal is to investigate how instructors and students feel about the value of using podcasts to improve speaking abilities. It also seeks to highlight the primary difficulties that educators and learners encounter while utilizing these online audio resources in the classroom. This study aims to answer the following questions: 1. How do educators and learners feel about the usefulness of podcasts for improving speaking abilities? 2. Which speaking skills—vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, or fluency—are most impacted by podcasts? 3. What are the advantages and difficulties that educators and students encounter when utilizing podcasts? Two teachers were interviewed and fifty pupils received questionnaires as part of the data collection process. According to the study's findings, most students said that listening to podcasts helped them become more fluent, learn new words, and pronounce words correctly. Students most frequently struggle with speaking rapidly, understanding complex language, accents, and sustaining focus. Instructors understood the importance of integrating podcasts into a holistic approach to education, stressing the necessity of varied, real-world listening resources and planned exercises to optimize their efficacy. To expose learners to a variety of linguistic inputs, it is advised that a combination of audio and audiovisual podcasts be used, along with authentic and varied podcast content.