Podcasts’ effects on the EFL classroom: a socially relevant intervention

Abstract

ICT tools have gained particular importance in the English as a foreign language classroom in order to promote students’ interaction, exchange of opinions, negotiation of meaning, or digital competence. Technological development and the impact of multimedia and virtual spaces on students’ lives make educational institutions and teachers explore new tools and strategies to learn the target language. Podcasts present content available on the Internet and can become an influential teaching strategy that may improve the teaching–learning process of EFL. This study aims to investigate the effect of audio podcasts, which deal with social inequality issues, on secondary education students’ EFL linguistic competence. A sample of seventy-eight students was randomly distributed into a control and an experimental group during a term in a high school in Madrid (Spain). As instruments for data collection, the grades obtained in the different skills in the pre and post-tests and the different task performance scores were analysed in both groups. The methodological framework is defined as a quasi-experimental design that provides quantitative data. The results confirm the hypothesis that the creation and use of podcasts are beneficial for improving EFL linguistic competence, especially speaking and listening skills. Practical implications aimed at organising English classes to improve EFL proficiency are discussed. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].