Exploring the Effectiveness of Podcasts in University English Language Teaching

Abstract

Podcasts as new forms of information technology, have led to gradual and radical changes in the field of education, especially in the last decade. Advanced technologies continue to promote educational activities beyond the university classroom. They are supported by experts in the field of linguodidactics and methods of teaching foreign languages: didactic materials are created with links to Internet resources and assignments involving work with online material. The teacher of foreign languages has to keep up with the times, organize the educational process, using advanced technologies of the global Internet, to achieve the main learning goal: teaching English to university students. Nowadays, podcasts are being discussed as a new promising e-learning tool, the didactic potential of which can change the learning process, as geographical and temporal boundaries of information dissemination and receipt are erased, which is very important for digital pedagogy in the 21st century. This allows us to speak about the relevance of this research topic. The use of innovative means of teaching English to university students at the present stage makes the learning process more effective. This article examines the possibilities of podcasts as a means of teaching listening comprehension skills to university students and presents the students’ practical results. The article displays the results of an experiment on teaching students listening skills using experimental and control groups.