USING WEB 2.0 TOOL PODCAST IN TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES - Podcast improves listening skills through Web 2.0 in language education study

Oct 15, 2026

The paper investigates how Web 2.0 tool podcasts support English and German language teaching and how they affect students’ listening skill improvement. Using quantitative controlled experiments and questionnaires, 218 English learners and 196 German learners participated and were randomly assigned to experiment and control groups. The intervention ran for 13 weeks in the winter term. Analysis of pre-tests, post-tests, and questionnaire responses shows that podcasts integrated as classroom support can significantly enhance learners’ listening abilities.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Web 2.0, podcasts, and learner motivation

Background: ICT, information overload, and modern education

Relevance for universities and teacher support

Internet resources and task-based syllabus

Study context and research method

Experiment and control groups

Duration and evaluation instruments

USING WEB 2.0 TOOL PODCAST IN TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES Radoslav Stefancik University of Economics Bratislava, Slovakia [radoslav.stefancik@euba.sk](radoslav.stefancik@euba.sk) Eva Stradiotová University of Economics Bratislava, Slovakia [eva.stradiotova@euba.sk](eva.stradiotova@euba.sk) Web 2.0 has become slowly but surely a part of the teaching and learning process. It is a social network that includes tools such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, podcasts, wiki, etc. We see the podcast as one of the ways how to motivate students to learn and improve their language skills. The paper analyses the use of the Web 2.0 tool podcast in teaching English and German languages and the impact of using podcasts on the considerable improvement of respondents' listening skills. In academic research, we intentionally used the quantitative method like controlled experiments and questionnaires. 218 respondents who studied the English language and 196 respondents who studied the German language attended the experiment. Respondents were randomly divided into experiment and control groups. The experiment was carried out during 13 weeks of the winter term. After analysing the input and output data achieved from the pre-tests, post-tests, and questionnaire, we reached the conclusion that podcasts that are used as the support of traditional educational processes in the classroom can help students to significantly improve listening skills. Keywords: podcast; listening skills; Web 2.0; information and communication technologies. Introduction The podcast is the tool of Web 2.0 which can be used as a part of education. It can help students to improve their listening skills, critical thinking, and motivate them to bury their heads in listening, i.e. to develop the taste for listening. Research studies into using podcasts in education have shown that podcasts have the potential to help to improve not only listening skills but also speaking skills. However, based on the analysis of the literature, we can see that the research on the using podcasts in education is ongoing but it isnot sufficient especially in researching the impact of podcasts on listening and speaking skills in English for specific purposes. The key issue of any education system is training professionals in a respected field (Ghritchenko, Nesterenko, 2016). The present society is strongly influenced by communication and information technology and the process of computerisation of society (Hrdličková, 2018) . Modern information and communication technology (ICT) brings new possibilities, approaches and the new concept of education. The web user is drowning in a tremendous amount of information and faces the problem of being overloaded with information due to the exponential growth for both the number of online available Web applications and the number of their users (Lotfy et al., 2016) . ICT has proved vital in the transformation of modern society, of the way people live, work and learn (Stanca, Felea, 2014) . Given that ownership of computers and smartphones has become a common feature of young people, it is understandable that these means have become a normal part of the learning process. The use of computers and smartphones, including various applications, in the learning process, is endless. It is widely accepted that information and communication technology (ICT) is used in medicine, science, engineering or agriculture. However, ICT is also applicable to the teaching of social and humanitarian subjects. There are various aspects of Internet resources that are aimed at practising and making improvements to lexical and grammatical knowledge for different levels of a foreign language. Attention is focused on good practice and the opportunity for live communication with native speakers that is more and more possible via the Internet. The importance of increasing the attention of universities to the development of foreign language communication skills of future speci

FAQs

What does the study examine regarding Web 2.0 podcasts?

It analyzes the use of podcast tools within Web 2.0 for teaching English and German and evaluates how podcasts influence students’ listening skill improvement.

How was the research conducted?

The study used quantitative methods with controlled experiments and questionnaires. Participants were randomly divided into experiment and control groups.

What conclusion does the paper reach about podcasts in education?

Podcasts used as support for traditional classroom processes can help students significantly improve their listening skills.

Oct 15, 2026

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