Podcasts as Teaching Tools: Investigating the Impact of Learners' Transportable Identities on Their Speaking Proficiency

Abstract

In the tertiary level Indian ELT classrooms, learners from regional language medium schools find it difficult to cope with English though they excel in other subjects. One of the most important factors that affect the learning process is the 'baggage' that they bring into the language classroom. Identities that are very personal to the learners and are related to their social, religious, or cultural experience - termed as transportable identities (TI) have an impact on the learners in being involved in the cognitive processes related to language learning. Considering this, it is important to investigate how such transportable identities could be exploited in a language classroom to develop the speaking capabilities of the learners. The present study attempts to investigate how podcasts that match the transportable identities of learners could assist them in developing their speaking proficiency. Though largely designed as a qualitative study, a quantitative approach is used to establish inter-rater reliability of the pre-test and the post-test. The subjects of the study are four first-year engineering undergraduate learners from National Institute of Technology-Tiruchirappalli, India. Data was collected using discussion, pre- and post-tests and feedback. To triangulate data and understand the change in language use and identify learner perceptions, one-to-one interview was also conducted. The present study traces the changes in the learners' speaking proficiency and states the implications of using podcasts as speaking enhancement tools for communicative English classrooms.