Podcast and the speaking skill

Abstract

A podcast is a technological tool that involves users producing, uploading, or sharing audio files. Nowadays, this innovative tool has had a positive impact on the development of students’ speaking skill because of its flexibility and convenience. For that reason, the following work aimed to determine the impact of podcasts on the speaking development in students of the fourth semester (B1) of Carrera de Pedagogía de los Idiomas Nacionales y Extranjeros at Universidad Técnica de Ambato. The study had a qualitative and quantitative approach and a quasi-experimental design. The subjects of the study were twenty-eight students, to whom a survey and a speaking pre- test and post-test related to PET test of Cambridge were applied. The subjects were divided into a control and treatment group with fourteen students in each group. To know learners’ speaking proficiency, the control and treatment groups took the speaking pre-test. Then, the treatment group had some interventions during a whole week, where students used the podcast to develop speaking activities. In the end, the two groups took the speaking post-test to compare if there was an improvement or not between them. The results obtained from the speaking tests were analyzed using the T-test. Additionally, a survey addressed to students was applied, which contributed to the establishment of conclusions. The results concluded the application of podcasts influenced the development of speaking skill since controlled activities such as multiple-choice, matching, gap-fill, and so on helped learners to improve their accuracy micro-subskill by using podcasts during speaking exercises.