چكيده
The present study attempted to investigate the effect of podcasting on EFL upper-intermediate learners' autonomy and willingness to communicate (WTC). To do the research, 203 Iranian EFL learners from several language institute in east of Tehran were non-randomly selected. To choose a homogenous sample, Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered to the whole population of this study. From the sample, 64 EFL learners who obtained a score between 46-60 on the OPT were considered as the upper-intermediate learners and participated in this study. Then, the participants were divided into two equal groups, namely one experimental group and one control group. Having classified the learners, the autonomy questionnaire was used to measure the learners’ autonomy before the instruction. The purpose of this questionnaire was to check the degree of autonomy of participants. Moreover, to assess the learners' WTC degree before the treatment, WTC questionnaire was given to the participants. The next step was to administer the treatment. In the classes, both groups had the same teacher, the same teaching material, and the same amount of out-of-class practice. The only difference between experimental and control groups was the training approach. The researcher taught experimental group through podcasting while control group received the teaching material through routine instruction. After that, the autonomy questionnaire was used to measure the learners’ autonomy after the instruction. In addition, to assess the learners' WTC degree after the treatment, WTC questionnaire was given to the participants. Data were collected and analyzed through a series of paired and independent samples t-tests. Obtained results revealed that English learning Podcast did have statistically significant effect on Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners' willingness to communicate. Similarly, English learning Podcast did have significant effect on the EFL learners' autonomy.
Key words: Autonomy, Podcast, Upper-intermediate level, Willingness to Communicate
