چکیده:
This paper reports an attempt to see if podcasting can be a valuable tool to improve English vocabulary learning and retention of Persian university students compared with traditional method of vocabulary teaching. Students have been randomly divided into two groups namely experimental and control group. In the experimental group, students are asked to produce podcasts collaboratively and students in the control group are asked to spend the same amount of time in a traditional class practicing vocabulary items. The analysis of covariance shows students in the experimental group significantly outperform students in control group in terms of both learning and retention of vocabulary items.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Mirzaeian** Assistant professor, ELT Department, Alzahra University Abstract This paper reports an attempt to see if podcasting can be a valuable tool to improve English vocabulary learning and retention of Persian university students compared with traditional method of vocabulary teaching.
One of the recent technologies that has attracted attention in the field of education is podcasting (Rahimi and Asadollahi, 2011) which refers to all forms of delivering audio based on the web (Abdous, Facer and Yen, 2012).
Despite scholarly interests in these techniques (Carter, 1998; Stahl, 1999; Eyraud, Giles, Koeinig, and Stoller, 2000; Nation, 2001; Waring and Takaki, 2003) these direct vocabulary teaching methods seem to be insufficient to enable second language learners to acquire basic vocabulary items (3,000-5000 word families; Nation and Waring, 1997) especially in courses such as “General English” offered to almost all the university students regardless of their field of study.
One of the ways to enhance vocabulary learning among students is the implementation of new educational technologies so that the learners themselves take an active role in producing the material.
In this research, we have focused our attention to the effect of podcasting as a collaborative tool compared with the current methods of learning and retention of vocabulary items among Persian university students.
The aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of collaborative podcasting on the learning and retention of vocabulary items among Persian freshman students in a course called “General English.
In other words, using podcasts collaboratively as a teaching method had been quite effective as a tool for learning and retention of vocabulary items.