INVESTIGATING THE EFFECT OF USING PODCAST

ON STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Muhammad RizkyWidodo 1,
*Universitas Islam As-Syafi’iyah, Jl. Jatiwaringin Raya no 12 PondokGede, Jakarta Timur,
Indonesia, Email: rizky6998@[Link]

Agus Gunawan 2,
**Universitas Islam As-Syafi’iyah, Jl. Jatiwaringin Raya no 12 PondokGede, Jakarta Timur,
Indonesia, Email: [Link]@[Link]

ABSTRACT
This research entitled “Investigating The Effect Of Using Podcast On Grade Ten
Students’ Listening Comprehension At SMA Angkasa 2 Jakarta” principally aims to
investigate whether or not Podcast significantly effects on Students’ Listening
Comprehension. The research samples were taken using cluster random sampling, with the
total number of samples being 60 students. The location of this research was SMA Angkasa 2
Jakarta. The research methodology adopted was quasi-experimental method, with the
research design being post-test only control group design. To collect the data, the students
were given objective test, numbering 30 items. The research data were analyzed descriptively
and inferentially. The findings indicated that there was significant difference of post-test
score between the students who were taught using Podcast and students who were taught
without using Podcast. It can be seen from the data analysis using ANOVA that showed
significance value (sig. 0.010) is lower than < [Link] means that Podcast has significant
effect on Students’ Listening Comprehension.
The key words: Podcast, Listening, Listening Comprehension

Introduction
English has been a global language since long ago. English plays an important role in
the international [Link] is also important in education because English is a
language of science. There are so many scientific books were written in English for gaining
knowledge. English is also one of the most studied languages all across the world, most of the
countries teach it as a second language from primary school. Because of those reasons,
students need to know English to excel in science and education.
There are four skills of English subject that must be learnt by Senior High School
students. They are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening is one of the important
skills in teaching and learning English because speaking without listening first are
impossible. It is in accordance with opinion of Rost (1994, p.107), points out there are four
language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening is the most critical things
for language learning at the beginning stages. The enormous of practice in listening first
before speaking or reading may prepare for the learner to acquire a foreign language with a
greater potency than if they were taught all the skill simultaneously. In fact, listening is the

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most regularly used language skill in everyday life. In reality, people, in general, listen twice
or three times as much as we speak, four times as much as we read, and five times as much as
we write.
Based on national educational system in Indonesia, English language teaching has
been stipulated in the syllabus (curriculum) in Junior High level to Senior High level. In
general, as stated in Syllabus (Curriculum Revision 2016), “English language competence at
Senior High Level that students are able to communicate in three kind of text, interpersonal,
transactional and functional in written and spoken context.”(Ministry of Education and
Culture, 2016). However, those aspects are not really happened in reality. We can see many
problems still exist in English learning, such as in listening, speaking, reading and writing.
According to The Ministry of Education and Culture (2017), that stated about the
number of students at SMA / SMK / MA who failed in the National Examination (UN)
increased by 7,6% become 52,57% in 2017 compared to 44,97% in 2016. English is one of a
subject that occurred a lowering achievement in the National Examination (UN) especially in
listening section. The data showed that students’ ability in English are still poor.
Mart points out several factors that influence the low of students’ achievement or
students’ performance. The first factor, the school was seldom conducted the listening class
even only conducted two or three times in a month. It can made students not familiar with the
listening itself and also listening with English native speaker. The students also had a
problem in length and speed of listening. Next, students could not write what they listen
correctly. The last, the listening input by the teachers is rudimentary (as cited in Sabouri,
2016, p.127)
Based on the explanation above, to overcome those problems, teachers need to know
what media to teach English in listening class and teachers should think carefully about how
to make the activities going to be successful and also make the interesting content. There are
many kinds of media in teaching listening. Podcast is one of media that can improve listening
skill.
According to Constantine (2007), Podcast was first known in 2004, and it is defined
as an internet audio blogging or internet audio publishing. The audio recording is designed to
be downloaded and listened to on a portable mp3 player or on a computer. Podcasts are
delivered online automatically via a website, so it is differentfrom other audios. Podcasts
offer a ‘real-life listening’ source that all foreign language listeners are allowed to benefit
from it. The importance of using Podcasts is all learners can benefit from global listening
even if they only listen three or five minutes in a day.
In accordance with listening activity, there was a research conducted by Rizzi,
Rothwell, Nie and Edirisingha (2007) entitled “Podcasting to Provide Teaching and Learning
Support for an Undergraduate Module on English Language and Communication at Kingston
University”. The study describes the teaching and learning context and how the Podcasts
enhance their ability in listening.

Inspired and triggered by the usefulness and benefits of the Podcast as teaching media
discussed above, which have been verified empirically by several writers, the writer would
like to conduct the research in the same area in an effort to investigate whether Podcast can

36
also effect on the grade ten students’ listening comprehension at SMA Angkasa 2, Jakarta, in
the Academic Year of 2017/2018.

Methodology
Hypothesis
To find out whether or not there is significant effect of using Podcast on Students’
Listening Comprehension, the hypotheses are formulated as follows:

1. Null Hypothesis (Ho)

There is no effect of using Podcast on Grade Ten Students’ Listening Comprehension
at SMA Angkasa 2 Jakarta

2. Alternative Hypothesis (Ha)

There is no effect of using Podcast on Grade Ten Students’ Listening Comprehension
at SMA Angkasa 2 Jakarta

Research Design
In this research, the researcher used a quasi-experimental method, in which the
treatment condition did not allow a strict control. This design of this research was post-test
only control group design. The first group namely as experimental group that were taught
using Podcast and another group namely as control groupthat were taught without using
Podcast. Both groups were given post-test.

Participants
The population of this research consists of 270 students of grade ten at SMA Angkasa
2 Jakarta and consisting of 9 classes. To determine sample of this research, the writer used
Cluster Random Sampling. The number of students that participated in this research is about
60 students divided into two classes each class consisting of 30 students in as experimental
class and control class.

Variables and Measures

In this research, independent variable is Podcast. Dependent variable in this research
is Listening Comprehension. To measure students’ listening comprehension, the writer took
score from indicators of listening comprehension, as follows:
1. Students are able to choose the right statementbased on the audio podcast.
2. Students are able to give the best response from the question or statement in audio
podcast.
3. Students are able to identify the main points based on the short conversation.
4. Students are able to identify implied information based on the talks

Validity and Reliability

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 The indicators of listening comprehension were developed to be instrument. The
instrument was objective test with 60 items. Those items were analyzed its validity using
Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, reliability using Alpha Cronbach formula,
difficulty index and discrimination power to obtain good instrument using Microsoft Excel
2010. After the items have been analyzed, the good items that valid, reliable, satisfactory and
medium were chosen to obtain good data. The question items were left 30 numbers.

Procedure
Procedures of the research are:
1. Planning. Planning phase of this research is preparing and arranging the research
design to get the research data. Before conducting the research, the writer formulates
the hypothesis based on some related theories and lesson plan of teaching listening
using Podcast.
2. Collecting Data. The data were collected by giving post-test to the students in
experimental class and control class.
3. Data Analysis. The data collected from the sample classes were analyzed by using
ANOVA, after the pre-requisite analyses of normality and homogeneity have been
fulfilled.
4. Reporting. The research finding is reported and written based on the formal frame of
writing.

Result
The result data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially. The descriptive statistic
can be seen on the following table.

Table 1
Descriptive Statistic

Experimental Control
N Valid 30 30
Missing 0 0
Mean 73.9000 68.2000
Std. Error of Mean 1.3502 1.66306
Median 78.0000 66.0000
Mode 80.00 60.00
Std. Deviation 9.01014 9.65668
Variance 81.183 93.252
Kurtosis .031 -.962
Std. Error of Kurtosis .833 .833
Range 36.00 35.00
Minimum 60.00 50.00
Maximum 96.00 85.00
Sum 2401.00 2041.00

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 From the table above, Mean (Average Score) of Experimental Class was 76.70 and
Control Class was 67.70. In Experimental class, the maximum score was 96 and the
minimum score was 60 while in control class, the maximum score was only 85 and the
minimum score was 50. It is indicated that the students who were taught using Podcast was
higher than students who were taught without using Podcast. After the data were analyzed
descriptively, the data were analyzed inferentially using One-Way ANOVA. The data were
tested its normality (Kolmogorov-Smirnov) and its homogeneity (Levene) as pre-requisite
data analysis. The result of data analysis is presented as follows:

Table 2
ANOVA

Sum of
Df Mean Square F Sig.
Squares
Between Groups 501.621 1 501.521 7.571 .010
Within Groups 1852.679 28 66.157
Total 2354.300 29

The calculation showed that the significance effect (sig.) 0.010 is lower than< 0.05,
so Hawas accepted and Howas rejected. To find out Ftable, the researcher used degree of
freedom (df) (1:60), namely (4.00). The data showed that Fobserved value 7.581 is higher
than>Ftable 4.00. It means that there is significant effect of X variable (Podcast) on Y variable
(Listening Comprehension).

Discussion
This research concerns with the study about investigating the effect of using podcast
on grade ten students’ listening comprehension. The findings revealed that there was
significant effect of using Podcast on grade ten students’ listening comprehension at SMA
Angkasa 2 Jakarta because the sig. value 0.010 is lower than (<) 0.05, so Ho is rejected and
Ha is accepted. It can be seen from the differences between the result of The Experimental
Class which were taught by using Podcast and Control Class which were taught without using
Podcast.
According to Helgesen (2003, p.24) stated that listening is a purposeful process of
making sense of what we hear. More often we hear, more we can understand
[Link] (2005) Podcasting is one of an innovative way of broadcasting through the
internet and also it can be used for transferring digital audio content automatically to mobile
phones. Gromik (2008, p.47) claims that podcasting provide learners with “full access
authentic resources” in non-English speaking contexts.
This finding is verified from the research finding which was conducted by the
previous [Link] (2010) that Podcast can be a way to help students in listening
comprehension. The listeners can be more imaginative because they have to use their
imagination and build pictures of who and what they are listening to in their head.

39
 Moreover, students in this research perceived that they are motivated to learn English
particularly listening skill. This is shown by their enthusiasm during the treatment period
using Podcast media. It is obviously seen that this result is in line with Kavaliauskiene (2008)
that listeners of podcasts generate more vivid images in their minds and have high levels of
emotional involvement in the story and also students face in listening to various authentic
English Podcasts and analyze learners’ self-assessment data on improving listening skills.
Podcast was effective in the post-test score of the experimental class which is given
Podcast media was better than score of control class which is does not given Podcast media.
The same result also reported by Ahmed (2016) in which the participants of the experimental
group using English Podcasts performed better than participants control group in learning
English especially in listening comprehension.
In this research, the writer concluded that there are many benefits of Podcast media in
students’ listening comprehension, such as stimulate students become more imaginative,
enriches students’ vocabulary, help the students to learn new things, help the students become
a better listener and also gain a new interest, make the students more creative, confident, and
the last motivated students in improving their English listening skill.

Conclusion
The application of using Podcast on students’ listening comprehension has finished
successfully. The result of this research has passed stage of data testing such as normality,
homogeneity, and One-Way ANOVA test. By referring the research finding, the researcher
concluded that there is effect of using Podcast on grade ten students’ listening comprehension
at SMA Angkasa 2 Jakarta in Academic Year of 2017/2018. The effect can be seenfrom
improvement on students’ listening comprehension through post-test result.
Using Podcast in the listening class has many benefits effect, such as stimulate
students become more imaginative, enriches students’ vocabulary, help the students to learn
new things, help the students become a better listener and also gain a new interest, make the
students more creative, confident, and the last motivated students in improving their English
listening skill.
Even though Podcast has many benefits, it also has weakness in terms of time
allocation for preparation and learning process. The findings also showed that it is important
for teacher to use appropriate instruction in order to have maximum result. This media will
help the teacher and the students in learning process activity
Furthermore, the research findings of the classroom research were satisfied. Podcast as a
media helped the students to learn and make them active to understand listening material in
learning English process.
Using Podcast not only for making students being more active, but also for the useful
practice and review of language lessons, thus the goal of improving students’ listening
comprehension can be achieved.

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