APPLYING PODCASTS TO ENHANCE NON-ENGLISH MAJOR FRESHMEN’S LISTENING SKILL – A PRE-EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of English podcasts in improving listening skills for non-English major students and measure their satisfaction with podcasts as a listening resource. Twenty-eight participants, including nine males and nineteen females, were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group. The control group were instructed to spend at least one hour listening to English content from sources of their choice, while the experimental group were tasked with listening to an English podcast at lease two times. Students in both groups were provided with a listening worksheet after every two lessons. Additionally, participants underwent a pre-test and post-test to measure their progress over the duration of the experiment. To gauge the experimental group's satisfaction with the use of podcasts in the research, a questionnaire was administered. The data collected from various instruments revealed that non-English major students experienced improvements in their listening skills through the incorporation of podcasts and exhibited a positive attitude towards the utilization of English podcasts in learning English.