INTEGRATING ENGLISH PODCASTS TO FOSTER INTRINSIC MOTIVATION: A PRELIMINARY STUDY FOR A MOTIVATION-BASED LEARNING MODEL

Abstract

This study explores students’ perceptions of English-language podcasts as a medium to enhance listening skills in EFL settings. The objectives were to identify which aspects of listening students feel most supported by podcasts, to surface the enablers and barriers that shape those perceptions, and to derive design implications for podcast-based listening activities. Adopting a qualitative, descriptive–interpretive approach, data were gathered through an online questionnaire combining short prompts and open-ended responses, then analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings indicate that students regard podcasts as authentic input that fosters vocabulary growth and prosodic awareness (pronunciation/intonation) when certain conditions are met. The most significant enablers include: (a) topic relevance and intentional curation aligned with learners’ interests and needs; (b) availability of transcripts or concise glossaries to ease comprehension; and (c) playback-speed control that helps manage processing load. Reported barriers relate to occasional lexical density and speech rate that outpace current proficiency. Overall, podcasts are perceived as motivating and flexible, especially when embedded in tasks that make goals explicit (e.g., guided vocabulary work, brief oral summaries, or targeted shadowing for prosody). The study shifts the focus from whether podcasts are effective to under what teaching conditions they are, and shows how curation, scaffolding, and learner agency can make podcast-based listening engaging and instructionally valuable.