Examination of the Podcasting System in Second Language Acquisition

Abstract

Since portable music players like iPod are becoming very popular, learners are more motivated to study a foreign language with the use of such tools. Sometimes PCs are inconvenient when used out side the classroom or their home where there is no internet service. Podcasting system is a very effective tool because it automatically sends digital materials to their players via wireless LAN. Our project illustrates how effective the system can be for learners. Compared with general popular shared WBT used in Japan, this paper suggests that the podcasting system introduced in our institution is not very bad for learners as supplementary tools for language learning. On the basis of the questionnaire, this paper concludes that the system serves more than the normal level of satisfaction compared with more high-level PC based learning management systems with much more functions and “costs” in terms of their sound quality and the usefulness of the system.