Optimizing Educational Technology To Improve Students’ Listening Comprehension Through Podcast

Abstract

Learning foreign languages in online classes which is currently applicable raises several challenges that must be faced by teachers and students in the teaching and learning process. Listening comprehension in a foreign language invites perceptions that is considered difficult for some students even though it is known that listening comprehension is the most needed skill in learning a language to understand each other. Having good listening comprehension encourages students to be able to participate in listening activities and at the same time, students can receive information, increase new insight, and respond to statements or questions from the other person. Various learning media are used for learning activities because most daily activities nowadays optimize the use of technology to support learning activities, especially in the implementation of online classes. Technology offers many teaching materials in various forms to support the learning process and also indirectly introduces students to be able to dig deeper into the information that can be obtained through the technology introduced by the teacher. A podcast is the use of technology in a form of audio or video that can improve students' listening comprehension through interesting and informative content. The application of podcasts as a medium to improve students' listening comprehension needs to be investigated. This paper describes some of the findings of researchers who initiated the use of podcasts to improve students' listening comprehension.