Speakers
Description
This paper presents an action research study that investigates the use of podcasts as a strategy to foster upper-secondary EFL students’ speaking skills. This study involved five upper-secondary school teachers who identified students’ multiple challenges in English speaking such as limited speaking opportunities, lack of vocabularies and ideas, lack of motivation to speak. The teacher-researchers implemented podcasts to provide students with more opportunities to practice listening and speaking skills. Students were tasked with creating podcasts, uploading them, listening to their peers’ podcasts, and providing feedback on at least three of them. Data was collected through pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. The findings showed students’ engagement and positive attitudes toward podcasting as a potential learning strategy. Also, the study revealed an increase in students’ motivation, and confidence in speaking through the process of content preparation, talk rehearsal, and commenting on their peers podcasts. Overall, the results suggest the use of podcasts has the potential to create more opportunities for students to engage in meaningful listening and speaking activities, ultimately improving their speaking skills.
