The Effectiveness and Students’ Perception of Using Podcast in Students’ Listening Skill

Abstract

In modern times, technology is used in education as a means of instruction. Listening is one of the English abilities that Indonesian students find difficult to learn. Listening is regarded as the most fundamental of the four primary skills of language development, hence it must be acquired first. Podcasts are one of the tools that may be utilized effectively to educate children listening skills. Is it effective to use podcasts to improve 10th grade students' listening abilities at Binar Ilmu Boarding School? This study's design is a mixed methods approach. This study will employ a quantitative research method to determine the effectiveness of listening skills gained through podcasts. The result revealed that the mean of the two classes were increasing. The experimental class mean score had improved from 38,57 in pre-test to 55,71 in post-test, while the controlled class mean score had improved from 40.00 in pre-test to 50,00 in posttest. In the paired t test, a value of 0.02 was obtained for the experimental class, meaning the data was <0.05 so Ha was accepted and Ho was rejected. This means that podcasts are effective for students' listening skills. Students' perceptions of podcasts are that students find it difficult to try to understand and listen to podcasts, but students are able to overcome their difficulties and students really enjoy listening to podcasts.