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THE USE OF PODCAST MEDIA IN LITERAL
LISTENING SUBJECT TO SECOND SEMESTER
STUDENTS OF ENGLISH TADRIS STUDY
PROGRAM 2020/2021 AT IAIN PALU


Nurhikmah
Muhammad Ihsan
Afifah
Dzakiah

Study Program of English Tadris Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher Training
State Islamic University (UIN) Datokarama Palu
E-mail: [email protected]


Abstract
This paper focuses on the use and response of students related to podcast media in literal
listening subject to second semester students of the English Tadris Study Program at State
Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Palu. The author applies a qualitative research design. The
method used in this research is interview and literature study, the results of the study show that
the use and response of students regarding podcast media is good, this is evidenced by the results
of interviews conducted by researchers with students who are taught using podcast media and
lecturers who present material using podcast media.
Keywords: Use, Podcast, Literal Listening.

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Datokarama English Education Journal Vol.2 No. 2, 2021
1. Background
English is the most important language
used in almost every aspect of life around
the world such as business, industry,
nursing, finance, and especially education.
For this reason, people in the world need to
master English. However, mastering English
requires some basic knowledge. In the
current era of modernization, the generation
that currently dominates in Indonesia is
students with the main characteristic of
knowing digital technology.
The use of learning media in education
is very important. This is based on the
benefits or uses of the media. Learning
media is anything that stimulates the
thoughts, feelings, attention, and abilities or
skills of students to encourage the learning
process. The existing learning media
requires development to be more easily
accessed, used, and understood by students.
1

A podcast is an acronym for iPod
Broadcasting which refers to the Apple iPod
as the first podcast distribution platform
introduced by Steve Jobs.
2
In Indonesia,
podcast makers or so-called podcasters are
still very few. In simple terms according to
Bonini, podcasts are defined as the
technology used to distribute, receive, and
listen to on-demand content produced by
professional and amateur radio.
3

These audio files can be accessed
directly from a desktop, device or sent to a
portable media device such as an MP3
player for listening "on the go". Several

1
Dewi Mayangsari and Dinda Rizki Tiara,
“Podcast Sebagai Media Pembelajaran Di Era
Milenial,” Jurnal Golden Age Universitas
Hamzanwadi 3, no. 02 (2019): 126.
2
Cut Medika Zellatifanny, “Tren Diseminasi
Konten Audio on Demand Melalui Podcast : Sebuah
Peluang dan Tantangan di Indonesia,” Journal
Pekommas 5, no. 2 (2020): 117.
3
Ibid, hlm. 138.
things can be used in using podcasts to learn
English, including as an effective medium to
train and improve speaking, listening,
writing, and reading skills in English. Now
podcasts are here which have experienced
developments from various aspects, such as
technology, content, and other opportunities.
Even though it has only been a year since
the podcast started, the growth in enthusiasts
is quite significant.
This is evidenced by the Daily Social
survey in 2018 of 2023 smartphone users
who state that 68% of respondents are quite
familiar with the existence of podcasts and
80% of them have listened to podcasts in the
last 6 months. These results are a good
starting point for podcasts to continue to
grow audio/audiovisual a digital-based.
4
The
concept of this podcast can be said to be
similar to an audio blog, usually, one
podcast channel has a common theme in the
discussion, for example about education,
business, technology, and so on, and each
channel has episodes with certain titles that
will be discussed. In each episode, listeners
can choose to listen to/watch the shows they
like and can skip the ones they do not like.
This podcast can be done streaming or
downloaded, and we can listen to it offline
anytime. As a mass-consumed technology,
podcasts are expected to help students with
various kinds of information, especially in
terms of education and learning English.
5
As
stated by Abdulrahman in his research that
students or learners have a positive response

4
Ibrahim Adnan Dan Dudi Iskandar,
“STUDI NETNOGRAFI BELAJAR MEMBUAT
PODCAST PADA KOMUNITAS THE
PODCASTERS DI MEDIA SOCIAL DISCORD,”
Jurnal Syntax Transformation 1, no. 8 (2020): 55.
5
Norhayati and Sherly Jayanti,
“Pemanfaatan Teknologi Untuk Mendukung
Kegiatan Belajar Secara Mandiri (Studi Kasus:
Penggunaan Podcast Oleh Mahasiswa Di Kota
Palangkaraya),” Jurnal Humaniora Teknologi 6, no.
1 (2020): 29–36.

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Datokarama English Education Journal Vol.2 No. 2, 2021
to the use of podcasts during listening
comprehension in English lessons.
6

Students feel that by using podcasts,
listening comprehension material becomes
more authentic. For listening comprehension
skills, it will make teaching and learning
activities more enjoyable. This makes them
more motivated to learn English. At the
higher level of students, for example,
students at high school or college, those who
already understand technology, can easily
access podcasts independently. Besides, the
easy use of podcasts allows podcasts to be
played anytime and anywhere even by using
a simple playing device, such as a computer
or smartphone. These students have the
freedom to use the technology they have so
that if they can make good use of it, it can
help them to improve their English skills
independently. In connection with the
situations and conditions that have been
described, the researcher is interested in
researching second-semester students who
have used podcast media when learning
listening courses.
Based on the explanation above, the
researcher wants to know in-depth how the
use and responses of students by using
podcast media on students' English learning
is associated with using descriptive
qualitative methods. Therefore, this study
carries the theme “The use of Podcast media
in literal listening subject to second semester
students of English tadris program through
interviews and literature study”.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Podcast as New Media
The term New Media has been used
in the 1960s to cover a diverse and growing
set of communication technologies.

6
Ibid, hal. 30
McQuail in the book Mass Communication
Theory explains that new media is a variety
of communication technology devices that
share the same characteristics and are
related to digitalization and its wide
availability.
7
According to Dennis McQuail,
the main characteristics of new media are
connectedness, wide access to audiences,
both as message recipients and senders,
interactive, diverse functions and
characteristics that can be reached anywhere
and anytime.
8
One of the most important
parts that cannot be separated from new
media is the internet. The emergence of
new media is an effect of the proliferation of
internet use and is supported by advances in
information technology.
The internet is a supporting
technology in the digital media industry as
well as a tool to convey messages quickly
and widely. With the internet, the need for
information can easily be fulfilled. In
addition, new media has made conventional
media no longer the main choice. People
tend to enjoy streaming services that are
considered more accessible at the desired
time. The development of new media is
marked by the presence of podcasts which
are currently being loved by the public.
Podcasts are becoming a new medium in the
Indonesian broadcasting world, especially in
audio content.
9
In the digital era, podcasts
have become a means of providing
interesting audio-based content and have a
long duration compared to radio. The role of

7
Fadilah, Yudhapramesti, and Aristi,
“Podcast Sebagai Alternatif Distribusi Konten
Audio.”
8
Iskandar Dinata Ramadhany, “peran
podcast sebagai mediapenyiaran modern berbasis
audio (Studi Kualitatif Pengguna Memilih Podcast
Sebagai Media Alternatif Hiburan) Iskandar,”
Universitas Islam Kalimantan Muhammad Arsyad
Al-Banjari, no. 1 (2020): 1–8,
9
Teni Nurrita, “Pengembangan Media
Pembelajaran Untuk Meningkatkan Hasil Belajar
Siswa” 3, no. 1 (2018): 171–187.

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Datokarama English Education Journal Vol.2 No. 2, 2021
podcasts as new media is not to replace
radio, but to provide an alternative option to
turn on audio content that was dimmed.
Even though it only presents an audio
format in its use, it turns out that podcasts
still have a place for some people who
prefer to listen.
Based on the characteristics of new
media described by McQuail above, podcast
can be said to be a new media product. The
reason is, its on-demand nature where the
audience can decide for themselves the time
and topic they want to make podcasts a very
flexible medium. The emergence of various
platforms that provide a comment column
feature also makes podcasts an interactive
medium and allows for wide interaction. In
addition, the "uploading" service makes
easier for the audience to access because
there is no need to rely on streaming, which
requires a large internet quota.
2.2 Definition of Listening
Listening is an active process in
which listeners select and interpret
information which comes from auditory and
visual clues to define what is going on and
what the speakers are trying to express.
10

Active means that the listener is doing more
than simply decoding what is heard.
Listeners get information (from visual and
auditory clues) and relate this information to
what they already know. The process of
listening performance is the invisible and
inaudible process of recognizing meaning
from the auditory signals being transmitted
to the ear and brain.
11
Recognizing the
spoken words in listening is a challenging

10
Michael Rost, Teaching English to
Speakers of Other Language (Cambridge University
Press. 2001),3
11
H. Dounglas Brown, Language Assesment:
Principle and Classroom Practices (England:
Longman, 2004)118
task for most language learners.
12
It is
because learners have limited control over
the rate of input, unlike reading where
learners can read more slowly or even reread
the whole passages. Segmenting the natural
flow of continuous speech into the
individual word is not an easy task, because,
in contrast to written discourse, spoken
language does not have clear word
boundaries. In spoken discourse, the words
are blended into a speech, so if someone
does not know a language, it is very difficult
to pick out the individual words.’
2.3 The Use of Podcasts in English
Language Teaching
“Podcasting” involves placing
material that is recorded on a website, and
can be downloaded and listened to at a later
time. Although originally developed as a
way to provide access to recorded music by
downloading, for a fee, from the Internet,
podcasting is now widely used by radio and
television stations to make interviews or
other interesting material available to
listeners.
13
Podcasts can be downloaded to
portable MP3 devices, for example, Apple
iPods and played back either through
earphones or speakers. The difference
between podcasting and uploading regular
audio recordings in learning is that
Podcasting can be said to involve editing
and indexing the recorded, or uploading
specially designed audio clips, whereas
plain audio is a simple raw audio recording
that records anyone.
14
Podcasting has been

12
Ibid, 53
13
RN Margaret M. Hansen EdD, MSN,
“Podcasting and MP3 Players: Emerging Education
Technologies,” Nursing and Health Professions
Faculty Research and Publications 24, no. 1 (2006):
9–13.
14
Zeynel Cebeci and Mehmet Tekdal,
“Using Podcasts as Audio Learning Objects,”
Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning
Objects 2 (2006): 047–057.

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Datokarama English Education Journal Vol.2 No. 2, 2021
used by educators as a medium of learning
in schools and universities.
15
Providing
material using podcast media can be in
audio or audiovisual form.
Podcasts are serial digital video and
audio broadcasts that can be downloaded
and played on mobile devices. The term
"Podcast" comes from two technologies,
"iPod" and "Broadcast". Podcasts are the
same as radio but there is a fine line
between radio and Podcasts. Podcasts give
listeners full access to select their favorite
program according to their convenience and
listen to it. Podcasts were first recognized in
2004, and they are defined as internet audio
blogs or internet audio publishing. Audio
recordings are designed to be downloaded
and listened to on a portable mp3 player or
on a computer. Podcasts are sent online
automatically via a website, so they are
different from other audio. Podcasts make
use of sound which is the most powerful
tool that gets in touch with the audience
very quickly. Thus, a podcast is a series of
sound files that comprise comprehensive
educational information to make users an
advanced learner. Sloan defines Podcasting
as one of the innovative means of
broadcasting over the internet and it can also
be used to transfer digital audio content
automatically to cell phones.
16
Gromik
claims that podcasting provides students
with "full access to authentic resources" in
non-English speaking contexts.
Additionally, Podcasts offer a 'real-life
listening' resource that all is tuners can

15
Mark J.W. Lee and Anthony Chan,
“Reducing the Effects of Isolation and Promoting
Inclusivity for Distance Learners through
Podcasting,” Turkish Online Journal of Distance
Education 8, no. 1 (2007): 85–104.
16
P. Constantine, “Podcasts: Another Source
for Listening Input,” The Internet TESL Journal. 13
(1). (2007).
benefit from foreign language.
17
Constantine
explains the importance of using Podcasts in
foreign language classes from beginner level
to advanced.
18
Beginners can benefit from
general listening and learning a new
language. For the intermediate level,
students can access authentic material and
are exposed to various voices while for the
advanced level, they can choose podcast
material based on their own needs. Another
benefit of the podcast has been proven by
Lu through his four week study. This study
investigates how podcasts in English, Great
Britain and the US can improve the listening
and speaking proficiency of language
learners in an EFL context involving
Taiwanese students who have never
previously known native English.
Participants were asked to transcribe the
podcast, identify vocabulary and grammar
in context, and discussion of the topic took
place in English at the end of each week.
The study revealed that using podcasts in
listening instruction in this way had a
positive impact and that participants gained
confidence in their ability to understand
English as a whole. Specifically in teaching
listening comprehension, Podcasts are also
used as the primary resource and review tool
in EFL classes.
19
A study conducted by
Ashraf, Naroozi and Salami showed that
podcasts had a significant impact on the
listening comprehension of both EFL
Iranian students.
20
Researcher Hawke's
reported a significant improvement in
science students' scientific English listening
skills via podcast. As supplementary

17
Nicolas Gromik, “EFL Learner Use of
Podcasting Resources: A Pilot Study,” JALT CALL
Journal, 4(2), p. 47-60 (2008).
18
Ibid.
19
Vicenc Fernandez, Jose M Sallan, and Pep
Simo, “Past, Present, and Future of Podcasting in
Higher Education,” Universitat Politècnica de
Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, no. April 2016 (2015):
305–330.
20
Ibid, hlm 325

109
Datokarama English Education Journal Vol.2 No. 2, 2021
material, podcasts help students pay
attention to their content and motivate them
to learn to listen using both bottom up and
top down strategies.
21
Apart from that,
Istanto has also proven that Podcasts
improve students' listening skills and
grammar knowledge.
22
Not only for
Listening comprehension skills, several
studies have also shown a significant effect
of podcasts on students' vocabulary,
pronunciation, speaking, grammar, and
writing skills. Several studies have also
proven that podcasts are a very useful and
easy to download resource that provides
authentic material to students so that they
can expand their knowledge and enable
them to practice listening.
23

Kavaliuskine & Anusiene showed
that students have positive feedback on
podcasts, which is shown by their high
appreciation of the use of podcasts in
English classrooms and their extensive use
of podcasts in listening practice.
24
In
addition, students' enthusiasm in using
podcasts as a learning resource is shown by
their efforts to frequently download
podcasts, listen to them regularly, such as
for listening practice and entertainment,
Several studies have also concluded that
podcasts increase student motivation due to
a variety of topics.

21
Philip Hawke, “Using Podcasts in
Independent Listening Courses: Legal and
Pedagogical Implications,” The JALT CALL Journal
6, no. 3 (2010): 219–234.
22
Johanna Wulansari Istanto and Indrianti,
“Pelangi Bahasa Indonesia Podcast: What, Why and
How?,” Electronic Journal of Foreign Language
Teaching 8, no. January 2009 (2011): 371–384.
23
Ibid, hlm. 364
24
Galina Kavaliauskiene, “Podcasting: A
Tool for Improving Listening Skills,” The Journal of
Teaching English with Technology (TEwT) 8, no. 4
(2008): 1–17,
http://www.tewtjournal.org/VOL%5Cn8/ISSUE%5C
n4/A%5CnWORD%5CnFROM%5CnA%5CnTECHI
E.pdf.
2.4 Podcasting Process

Source: Prachi Parashar
Panday Simplifying
Podcasting
In this case, the lecturer who brings
literal listening material using podcast media
will only act as consumption which will
only download the audio about learning that
will be delivered on certain podcast channels
through the Spotify application, then
distributed as teaching material for students.
3. Methodology
In this research, the researcher applied a
qualitative approach questions includes data
obtained from interviews at Teacher
Training and Tarbiyah Faculty, especially
English Tadris students (TBI). The
researcher also interviewed second-semester
students who studied literal listening courses
and used podcast media in learning. The
researcher conducted interviews when
students took literal listening learning in
online classes. In this case, the researcher
conducted online interviews, online in the
form of personal chat, video call, voice
notes, and documentation with the students
by using WhatsApp application. The
number of English Tadris Study Program
classes 2020/2021 consisted of three classes,
namely TBI-1, TBI-2, and TBI-3, in which
each class had a different number of
students. TBI-1 numbered 22 people, TBI-2
numbered 23 people and TBI-3 numbered
22 people, so the total number of students in
the second-semester majoring English

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Datokarama English Education Journal Vol.2 No. 2, 2021
Tadris was 67 people. The researcher
conducted interviews with the number of
respondents one-third of the total number of
students, namely 23 people, who were active
and were studying the literal listening
course. The researcher interviewed lecturers
who presented literal listening courses,
especially those who used podcast media in
their teaching. supporting data obtained
through written sources. This written source
can be obtained through books, scientific
journals, and others with topics that are
relevant and related to research.
4. Result and Discussion
In this section, the author describes and
discusses the results of this study. The
research was conducted in the midst of the
corona pandemic and students did not carry
out the learning process on campus
effectively, in other words, they did online
learning from home. Where every student
who will be interviewed will be contacted
by the researcher using the WhatsApp
application and make video calls with the
students who will be interviewed. Interviews
were conducted once a week after each
literal listening lesson was completed, the
researchers interviewed 4 students each
week in TBI-1 and TBI-2 classes in turn.
This aims to see how the responses related
to the use of podcast media in literal
listening learning are. research results show
that the use of podcast media in literal
listening subjects is very helpful in learning,
especially for students majoring in the
English Tadris Program. Podcasts are serial
digital video and audio broadcasts that can
be downloaded and played on mobile
devices. In using podcast media, it is quite
easy to access.
5. Conclusion and Suggestions
5.1 Conclusion
The use of podcast media to students of the
English Tadris Study Program of IAIN Palu
got a good response in learning literal
listening. Media podcasts are very effective
in learning literal listening, especially to
improve students' listening skills as students
in English language courses. This media is a
form of technological progress that we can
take advantage of in the teaching and
learning process, in this case an internet
connection plays an important role in the use
of this media. The use of podcast media
makes students think more critically in
analyzing an audio.
5.2 Suggestion
The researcher recommends that students
continue to practice their listening skills
using podcast media to get used to listening
to English audio. In the current digital era,
mastering technology will be very helpful in
the teaching and learning process.

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Datokarama English Education Journal Vol.2 No. 2, 2021
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Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge
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for Listening Input.” The Internet TESL
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Gromik, Nicolas. “EFL Learner Use of
Podcasting Resources: A Pilot Study.”
JALT CALL Journal, 4(2), p. 47-60
(2008).
Hawke, Philip. “Using Podcasts in
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and Pedagogical Implications.” The
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Online Journal of Distance Education
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Di Era Milenial.” Jurnal Golden Age
Universitas Hamzanwadi 3, no. 02
(2019)
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Emerging Education Technologies.”
Nursing and Health Professions
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Belajar Secara Mandiri (Studi Kasus:

112
Datokarama English Education Journal Vol.2 No. 2, 2021
Penggunaan Podcast Oleh Mahasiswa
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