PERCEPTIONS OF TESL STUDENTS TOWARDS THE USE OF PODCAST AS A

TEACHING TOOL IN SECONDARY EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA

Ellyfah Ilyana Binti Mohmad Yusaini

School Of Education And Social Sciences, Management And Science University
012020021546@sess.edu.my

Angela Rumina A/P Lourdesamy

School Of Education And Social Sciences, Management And Science University
angela_rumina@msu.edu.my

Abstract
Nowadays, educators have started to slowly implement, create and utilise podcast in their teachings. Previous studies mostly
focused on learners’ perceptions and attitudes towards the usage of podcast and no research has looked into podcasting from
the viewpoint of Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) students. This study aims to look into the perceptions of TESL
students towards the use of podcast as a teaching tool in secondary education in Malaysia. In addition, this study also looks
into the factors that influence the perceptions of TESL students regarding podcast as an effective teaching tool. A total of 303
TESL students from Management and Science University (MSU) were the participants of this study. Online questionnaires were
given in order to check on the perceptions and the influential factors of podcast as a teaching tool. The online questionnaires
were distributed through social media platforms and the SPSS version was used for data analysis. The results show positive
perceptions towards the use of podcast as an effective teaching tool. Additionally, the participants responded positively
towards the influential factors of education podcasting. Based on the findings, it could be concluded that podcast has the
potential to be used as an effective teaching tool, due to its convenience, motivational ability and content.

Keywords:
Perceptions, Teaching English As A Second Language, Podcast, Teaching Tool, Secondary Education In Malaysia
 Introduction
English is regarded as a second language in Malaysia, and it is a required subject to master, from primary up to tertiary
level. With that being said, second language learners were expected to have competent communicative and literary abilities
(Nawi, 2016). In order to achieve this expectation, ways in meeting the best demands for teaching and learning should be
implemented. However, some educators and learners still find it difficult to achieve this as recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has
made rapid changes in the learning environment. These changes lead to blended learning, which also means the increase of
implementing technology in education on English as a Second Language (ESL) learning and teaching. Thus, in the
advancement of technology in education, the teaching and learning process is increasingly utilizing digital resources (Qasim,
2013).
Based on a statistic posted by Joschka in 2021, 73.4% of Malaysian secondary school students owned themselves a
smartphone. The same data stated that the average daily time spent using the internet by Malaysians was approximately 9
hours. This indicates that secondary school students can’t be separated from their mobile devices and listening to podcast is
one of the activities that they particularly do in their daily lives (Kohar, 2015). According to Abdulrahman in 2018, he defines a
podcast as a mobile technology that contains audio broadcast and it benefits the listeners as it allows them to choose and
listen to their desired program. Podcasting is popular due to its convenience, as students are able to take in information while
doing something else simultaneously. Therefore, due to its convenience, the usage of podcast in ESL classrooms is slowly
implemented by educators.
Nowadays, implementation of podcast in a second or foreign language learning has been utilised by teachers globally as
most developed countries use podcast in order to assist second and foreign language learners for acquisition (Suparjan, 2016).
For instance, there is a self access centre at Kanda University of International Studies, where podcast are given to students to
listen to audio materials, it may ensure that the students were able to practice pronunciation and do comprehension questions
in the particular centre (Kershaw et al., 2009, p. 154).

Methods
Study Design
The current study uses a quantitative method to gather TESL students' perceptions on the usage of podcast as a teaching
tool for teaching and learning process, necessitating a more in-depth analysis through questionnaires. Closed-ended questions
were implemented in the questionnaire with likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. This questionnaire focuses
on three factors where participants may express their perceptions and influential factors regarding the usage of podcast as a
teaching tool to teach English. The three focuses were motivation, convenience and content. Surveys were distributed through
online platforms in order to collect 303 participants.

Questionnaire Design
The instrument used in this research was a survey questionnaire. The questionnaire was an original questionnaire that
was created by the researcher with the assistance of her supervisor. The questionnaire was created on an online platform
called Google Forms. A total of 26 questions were included in the survey and there were 3 parts divided in the questionnaire.
The first part was Part A, which was the demographic section of the questionnaire, consisting of 3 items in total. In this
particular section, the participants were asked regarding their personal biodata which was their gender, age and year of study.
The second part was Part B, which talks about the perception of the participants towards the use of podcast as a teaching tool.
There were 8 items in this section. Lastly, for Part C, it has been divided into three sub-section, which talks about the influential
factors of the perception towards the use of podcast as a teaching tool. The three sub-section were divided according to the
factors that influence the participants perception towards podcasting as a teaching tool. There were 3 factors which included
Convenience, Motivation and Content. The total number of items in this section consists of 15 items, which also means each
factor consists of 5 items. Overall, the participants were asked to answer a 26-items-questionnaire which consists of the
combination of Part A, Part B and Part C. For both Part B and Part C, a 5 point Likert scale was used, which range from 5
(Strongly Agree), 4 (Agree), 3 (Neutral), 2 (Disagree) to 1 (Strongly Disagree). In order to get a clear understanding of the
survey, a short message was included at the beginning of the questionnaire. In addition, all of the section was labelled clearly
and according to the factors. Not only that, below the instructions Part B, the definition of Podcast was given in order to give a
clear picture of the definition of Podcast to the participants before answering the questionnaire.

Data Analysis
The questionnaire was distributed to 303 random TESL students. A reliability test was carried out once they have
answered the questionnaire. The reliability test was carried out in order to check on the questionnaire whether it is reliable or
not for the study. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software is used to calculate the data for accuracy. It is a reliability
test to see whether the questions in the survey falls between the range of 0.80 - 0.90. The results shows a reliable Cronbach
Alpha reading of 0.892, which also means a green light to proceed to the main study. The data was analysed again once the
main study was carried out by using the SPSS system software. In this part, the descriptive analysis was carried out and once it
was analysed, it was tabulated and graphed into two form, which were pie charts and bar graphs.
Results
The data obtained was collected through a set of questionnaires answered by TESL students from Management and
Science University (MSU). The results shown below are the perception of TESL students towards the use of podcast as a
teaching tool in secondary education in Malaysia.

Item Analysis: Section A

From the total number of 303 students, 64.4% of the respondents are female and 35.6% are male. The average age of the
respondents are between 21-23, at 62.4%, and 43% of the respondents are between 24-26. As for the year of study, both year
one and year two students is at 33.7% and year three students at 32.7%.

Item Analysis: Section B

In section B, a total of 8 items were analysed based on the perceptions of respondents towards the use of podcast as a
teaching tool. The first item, which is Item 1 asks the respondents ‘Podcast is helpful for teachers’, Item 2 ‘Podcast facilitates
both online and face-to-face learning’, Item 3 ‘Podcast is an easily accessible teaching-learning material’, Item 4 ‘Podcast is a
contemporary teaching tool’, Item 5 ‘Podcast is an effective teaching tool’, Item 6 ‘Podcast caters for assessment purposes’, Item
7 ‘I enjoy the podcast sessions with my students’, and the last item which is Item 8 ‘I look forward to podcast sessions’.
 Based on Figure 4.2.1.9, 6.6% of the respondents strongly disagree that podcast is helpful for teachers while 12.3% of
them disagree on it. 8.9% of them answered neutral and the final 2, where 31.1% agreed on it and 41.1% strongly agreed that
podcast are helpful for teachers. A total 124 individuals strongly agree on the statement that podcast is helpful for teachers. It
can be concluded that most of these respondents strongly agree on this statement.
Next, 6.6% respondents strongly disagree and 12.6% disagree that podcast facilitate both online and face-to-face
learning. 14.2% are neutral and 44.4% agree with the statement. 22.2% of the respondents strongly agree and it proves that
134 out of 303 respondents agree that podcast facilitate both online and face-to-face learning. It can be concluded that most of
these respondents agree on this statement.
Meanwhile, 5.3% of the participants strongly disagree that podcast is an easily accessible teaching-learning material. Only
12.3% of them disagree while 15.6% of the respondents are neutral with the statement. 31.1% and 35.8% of the respondents
agree and strongly agree hence based on all the answers gathered, majority of the respondents strongly agree that podcast is
an easily accessible teaching-learning material.
In addition, it can be observed that 4.6% of the respondents strongly disagree that podcast is a contemporary teaching tool
while 14.6% of the respondents disagree and are neutral with it. 32.5% of the respondents agree with the statement, and the
highest was 33.8%, which they’re strongly agree that a podcast is a contemporary teaching tool. Therefore, it can be concluded
that most of these respondents strongly agree on this statement.
Other than that, 7.3% of the respondents strongly disagree that podcast is an effective teaching tool but 10.9% of them
disagree. 17.2% of the respondents are neutral while 30.1% and 34.4% of the respondents which are 91 and 104 individuals
agree and strongly agree. It can be concluded that most of these respondents strongly agree that podcast is an effective
teaching tool.
Then, it can be observed that 7.3% of them strongly disagree that podcast caters for assessment purposes while 11.3%
and 16.2% of the respondents disagree and are neutral with it. The final 2, which are 35.4% and 29.8% of the respondents
agree and strongly agree with the statements and from that, it can be concluded that most of these respondents agree that
podcast caters for assessment purposes.
At the same time, 5% and 15.2% of the respondents strongly disagree and disagree that they enjoy the podcast sessions
with their students while 13.6% of the respondents are neutral towards it. 34.1% and 32.1% of the respondents agree and
strongly agree hence it can be concluded that most of these respondents agree that they enjoy the podcast sessions with their
students.
Last but not least, only 7.9% of the respondents strongly disagree that they look forward to podcast sessions and 12.3%
of the respondents disagree while 11.6% of the respondents are neutral. The final two, which are 33.1% and 35.1% agree and
strongly agree that they look forward to podcast sessions. To conclude, the majority of the respondents which are 106
individuals strongly agree that they look forward to podcast sessions.

Item Analysis: Section C

The third section of the research instrument for this research study is Section C. The aim of this section is to study
influential factors of the perception towards the use of podcast as a teaching tool. This section contains 15 items which are
divided into three sub-section according to factors, which are convenience, motivation and content. The first subsection is
convenience, which contains Item 1 ‘Podcasts are easy to create’, Item 2 ‘Podcast can be shared online for students’ remote
access’, Item 3 ‘Podcast can be paused and rewind’, Item 4 ‘I have trouble using the technologies to operate the podcast’ and
Item 5 ‘The podcast is portable’. The second subsection is motivation, which contains of Item 6 ‘The podcast has improved my
students’ comprehension of the subject matter’, Item 7 ‘The podcast is exciting and fun’, Item 8 ‘The podcast helps me reduce
teacher talk-time’, Item 9 ‘The podcast has improved my students’ attendance to class’ and Item 10 ‘The podcast has enhanced
my students’ performance in the subjects’. The last subsection is content, which contains of Item 11 ‘Podcast is overwhelmed
with information’, Item 12 ‘Podcast contains a broad array of authentic content’, Item 13 ‘Podcast comprises of edutainingly
presented content’, Item 14 ‘Podcast contains knowledge that students need’ and last but not least, which is Item 15 ‘Podcast
comprises content that caters to various activities’.
Convenience

Based on Figure 4.3.1.6, 6% of the respondents strongly disagree and 13.9% disagree that podcast are easy to create while
9.6% are neutral with the statement. 27.8% and 42.7% of the respondents agree and strongly agree hence the most of the
respondents strongly agree with the statement that podcast are easy to create.
Next, the percentage of the respondents who strongly disagree and disagree that podcast can be shared online for
students’ remote access is 9.9% with 30 individuals and 8.6% with 26 individuals. 14.2% of the respondents are neutral while
46% and 21.2% agree and strongly agree with the statement. Most of the respondents agree that podcast can be shared online
for students’ remote access.
Following the statement, 7.6% of the respondents strongly disagree that podcast can be paused and rewind while 12.6%
of the respondents disagree. 10.6% of the respondents which are 32 individuals are neutral with the statement while 28.1%
and 41.1% of the respondents agree and strongly agree. Therefore, it can be concluded that most of these respondents strongly
agree that podcast can be paused and rewind.
Meanwhile, 7.6% and 11.9% of the respondents strongly disagree and disagree that they have trouble using the
technologies to operate the podcast while 12.6% of the respondents are neutral. 39.4% and 28.5% of the respondents agree
and strongly agree hence it can be concluded that most of these respondents agree that they have trouble using the
technologies to operate the podcast.
Lastly, 25 individuals which are 8.3% of the respondents and 36 individuals which are 11.6% of the respondents strongly
disagree and disagree that podcast is portable. 11.9% of the respondents are neutral and the final 2, 31.5% and 36.4% which
agree and strongly agree about it. To conclude, the majority of the respondents strongly agree that podcast is portable.

Motivation
 Based from Figure 4.3.3.6, 5.3% and 13.2% of the respondents strongly disagree and disagree that podcast has improved
their students’ comprehension of the subject matter while 14.2% of the respondents are neutral. 92 individuals which is
30.5% and 111 individuals which is 36.8% agree and strongly agree thatpodcast has improved their students’ comprehension
of the subject matter hence it can be concluded that most of these respondents strongly agree with the statement.
Other than that, 7.6% and 13.2% of the respondents strongly disagree and disagree that podcast is exciting and fun. 11.6%
of the respondents are neutral while 36.8% and 30.8% of the respondents agree and strongly agree. To conclude, the majority
of the respondents with 111 individuals agree that podcast is exciting and fun.
Next, 5.6% and 14.9% of the respondents strongly disagree and disagree that using podcast helps them reduce teacher
talk-time while 11.9% of the respondents are neutral. The final 2, which are 30.5% and 37.1% of the respondents agree and
strongly agree with the statement hence it can be concluded that the most of the respondents with 112 individuals strongly
agree that using podcast helps them reduce teacher talk-time.
Additionally, 8.6% and 12.3% of the respondents strongly disagree and disagree that podcast have improved their
students’ attendance to class while 13.2% of the respondents are neutral. 33.8% and 32.1% of the respondents which are 102
individuals and 97 individuals agree and strongly agree with the statements hence it can be concluded that most of these
respondents agree that podcast have improved their students’ attendance to class.
Last but not least, 7.3% and 13.9% of the respondents strongly disagree and disagree that podcast have enhanced their
students’ performance in the subjects and 9.9% of the respondents are neutral. The final 2, which are 33.4% and 35.4% of the
respondents agree and strongly agree with the statement. Therefore, it can be concluded that majority of the participants with
107 individuals strongly agree that podcast have enhanced their students’ performance in the subjects.

Content

Based on Figure 4.3.5.6, 7% of the respondents strongly disagree and 13.9% disagree that podcast is overwhelmed with
information while 10.6% of the respondents are neutral. 30.5% and 38.1% of the respondents agree and strongly agree hence
the majority of the respondents strongly agree with the statement that podcast is overwhelmed with information.
Next, the percentage of the respondents who strongly disagree and disagree that podcast contains a broad array of
authentic content 7.6% with 23 individuals and 15.2% with 46 individuals. 14.6% of the respondents are neutral while 38.7%
and 23.8% agree and strongly agree with the statement. Most of the respondents agree that podcast contain a broad array of
authentic content.
Other than that, 8.3% respondents strongly disagree while 12.3% of the respondents disagree that podcast comprises
edutainingly presented content. 13.9% of the respondents are neutral while the final two, which are 30.5% and 35.1% agree
and strongly agree hence why it can be concluded that the most of the respondents strongly agree that podcast comprises of
edutainingly presented content.
In addition, 7.6% and 14.6% of the respondents strongly disagree and disagree that the podcast contains knowledge that
students need while 10.9% of the respondents are neutral. 32.8% and 34.1% of the respondents agree and strongly agree,
which concludes that the majority of the respondents strongly agree that podcast contain knowledge that students need.
Last but not least, only 7.3% of the respondents strongly disagree that the podcast comprises content that caters to
various activities and 14.6% of the respondents disagree while 11.3% of the respondents are neutral. The final two, which are
40.4% and 26.5%, strongly agree that podcast comprise content that caters to various activities. To conclude, the majority of
the respondents which are 122 individuals agree that podcast comprise content that caters to various activities.
 Discussion
Based on Section A which is the Demographic Section, more than half of the respondents’ gender are female, followed by
male. Next, the majority of the respondents’ age were 21-23 years old and the second highest were 18-20 years old. As for
their year of study, the majority of the respondents were in their first year of study, followed by the second year of study.
Following that, in Section B, it can be observed that the majority of the respondents have positive perceptions towards the use
of podcast as a teaching tool. Lastly in Section C, the majority of the items were voted with either “strongly agree” or “agree”
for all of the statements in this section.

Discussion of the Research Question 1

Findings related to the first research question- What are the perceptions of TESL students towards podcasting as a
teaching tool among ESL students? - indicate that educators and learners mostly benefited from such experience. The use of
podcast in language learning has been more popular in recent years, and many scholars have attempted to determine the
usage of this technology as a teaching tool for the learning environment. However, the perceptions of podcasting as seen by
TESL students have not been properly examined. This is important for getting the most out of this teaching tool and at the
same time, keeping a proper language learning environment for the students. This discussion sought the perceptions of TESL
students on the elements of podcast incorporated as a teaching tool, since they are anticipated to be future instructors. The
data analysis of item 1 to item 8 from Section B indicated that the research participants have positive perceptions towards the
use of podcast as a teaching tool. According to the findings of this research, podcast are seen as a helpful teaching tool for
teachers. Nigish (2020) stated in his research that learners have a favourable attitude about the usage of podcast because they
regard them as a useful and helpful tool. As a result, instructors should be able to provide instructions through podcast. In
addition, findings of this result also showed that podcast facilitate both online and face-to-face learning. According to Standly
(2006), podcast might be used as a potential follow-up synchronous activity by the instructor as it provides a face-to face and
online language engagement. In this way, students' motivation and English proficiency, especially in hearing and speaking, will
improve as a result of the active learning exercises (Yoestara, 2019). Next, findings of this research also demonstrate that
podcast is an easily accessible teaching-learning material. This finding is in line with the findings of Darwis (2016), who argues
that most educators see podcast positively and that they may be utilising it as an accessible teaching tool for students to learn
English. Not only that, findings also showed that podcast is seen as a contemporary teaching tool. This has proven to be true as
Zahan (2019) mentioned that educational podcasting, or the broadcasting of audio snippets over the internet by teachers and
students, has already shown to be an effective teaching tool in several nations. As a result, podcasting has grown in popularity
to be seen as a contemporary teaching tool. Besides that, findings suggested that podcast is also seen as an effective teaching
tool. According to Cross (2014), outside of the classroom, podcast offer L2 learners with current information and broad
sources of audio and video resources that may help them enhance their language ability, especially their listening abilities.
Thus, based on this statement, podcast may be an effective teaching tool for providing learning input to learners. Additionally,
according to the findings, podcast also caters for assessment purposes. This is true as the findings of a research by Nigish
(2020), finds that podcast can not only be used as additional teaching materials, but also complement the educators’ teaching
materials. Thus, based on the findings above, podcast can cater for assessment purposes. Lastly, the findings demonstrated
that the participants enjoyed and looked forward to podcast sessions. This finding matches with previous studies by Nigish
(2020), where the majority of participants were eager to learn more about how to include podcast into teaching activities as
they have favourable views regarding the use of podcast as a teaching tool. Based on this statement, it can be concluded that
the reactions and attitudes towards the use of podcast as a teaching tool in a podcast session are positive. In short, according
to the findings of this section in this research, podcasting has a favourable influence on educators as a teaching tool, it is seen
as helpful, accessible, contemporary, effective and so on. Nigish (2020) stated that podcast provide learners a lot of freedom as
learners may choose what, when and from where they want to listen to the podcast. Thus, podcast may be an excellent
medium as a teaching tool for providing L2 input to learners, hence making it a favourable influence on educators as a teaching
tool.

Discussion of the Research Question 2

Findings related to the second research question- What are the factors that influence the perceptions of TESL students
towards the effectiveness of podcasting as a teaching tool among ESL students? - indicate that there are different factors that
contributed to the perceptions of an individual towards educational podcasting. This discussion sought the factors that
influence the perceptions of TESL students towards the effectiveness of podcasting as a teaching tool. This discussion also
covers item 1 until item 15 in section C.

Convenience
In section C, item 1 until item 5 covers the first factor that contributed the perceptions of TESL students towards
podcasting as a teaching tool. The data analysis of item 1 to item 5 indicated that the research participants view podcast as an
effective teaching tool due to its convenience. According to the findings, podcast are seen to be easy to create. Ractham and
Zhang (2006) argue that generating podcast is quite easy and simple for educators in their study of podcasting technologies.
However, a study by Nigish (2020) suggested that even though the participants were interested in using podcasting
technology, when it comes to putting technology into practice in the classroom, they still have issues. Therefore, it's worth
noting that some individuals were still cautious to include podcast as a teaching tool as not all people see podcast as
something that is easy to create. Next, findings also demonstrate that podcast as a tool that can be shared online for students’
remote access. This is considered as one of the main key points that podcast carries as podcast enables pupils to listen to the
audio practically anywhere and at any time (Hasan & Hoon, 2013). Therefore, teachers can share podcast online for students’
remote access due to its practicality. In addition, findings showed that the participants strongly agreed that podcast can be
paused and rewind. Podcast is popular due to its flexibility, as the user may pause, rewind and repeat it as often as they wanted
(Evans, 2008). This flexibility and convenience makes it easier for beginners and intermediate learners to take a break if they
need to. Not only that, findings also showed that the participants have trouble using the technologies to operate the podcast.
This is proven to be true as mentioned earlier, some educators are still having difficulties in utilising the technology into
practise in the classroom (Nigish, 2020). Also, insufficient technological devices could be one of the reasons why some
educators are having difficulties in operating podcast (Oestara, 2019). If all educators and learners get access to portable
devices equally, it will definitely ease the process of operating the technology device during podcast sessions (McCarty, 2005).
The last findings under this factor is that the participants strongly agreed that a podcast is a portable device. Podcasts are seen
as such devices as Evans (2008) argues that learners may study whenever and wherever they choose since they can easily
transfer their learning resources onto any portable technology. As a result, it is fully automated, simple to use, portable, and
constantly accessible (Geoghegan and Klass, 2007).

Motivation
Next, item 6 until item 10 covers the second factor that contributed the perceptions of TESL students towards podcasting
as a teaching tool. The data analysis of item 6 to item 10 indicated that the research participants view podcast as an effective
teaching tool due to motivation. According to the findings, the participants are motivated in using the technology tool as the
podcast has improved their students’ comprehension of the subject matter. This can be proven to be true as there is much
research with findings demonstrating that podcast have improved learners' listening and speaking abilities, as well as their
comprehension skills. (O’Brien & Hegelheimer, 2007; Lord, 2008; Istanto, 2011; Knight, 2010; Hasan & Hoon, 2013; Ashraf,
Noroozi & Salami, 2011; Rosell-Aguilar, 2007; Al- Fadda & Al-Qasim, 2013, Stanley, 2006). Additionally, based on the findings,
podcast are seen as exciting and fun. This finding similar with a statement by Hasan and Hoon (2012), who reported that
majority of learners loved listening to podcast because it was a fun approach to learn English. This exciting learning
experience will improve the learners’ interest in studying English and motivate them to do so (O’brien, 2007). Not only that,
findings also demonstrate that podcast help reduce teacher talk-time. This may be true as podcast may promote self-directed
learning. The fact that, firstly, Malaysian secondary schools have a significant number of students. Secondly, there is a
restricted amount of time given in each class. To solve this, instructors may encourage students to use podcast to study
independently (O’Brien & Hegelheimer, 2007). As a result, self-directed learning leads to less teacher talk-time. Lastly, findings
showed that podcast improve students’ attendance and performance in the subjects. To prove this, several researches have
been made to investigate the effectiveness of podcasting as a teaching tool and the findings demonstrate that people are highly
interested in learning via podcast and are quite driven to do so (Nigish, 2020; Yoestara, 2019). For example, an experiment
with Iranian EFL students found that students who listened to podcast had a better listening comprehension score and were
more motivated to learn than those who did not (Shiri, 2015). As a result, learners’ attendance and performance in the
subjects may improve due to the motivation they had towards educational podcasting.

Content
Furthermore, item 11 until item 15 covers the third factor that contributed the perceptions of TESL students towards
podcasting as a teaching tool. The data analysis of item 11 to item 15 indicated that the research participants view podcast as
an effective teaching tool due to its content. According to the findings, the participants believed that podcast are overwhelmed
with information. Cross (2014) mentioned that learners may use podcast to get up-to-date information and access to a wide
range of audio and video resources that can help them enhance their language abilities, especially their listening skills, outside
of the classroom. Plus, with podcast, learners received more material, tools, vocabulary exercises, recordings, and worksheets
for studying language (Chaikovska Olha, 2018). This proves how overwhelmed podcast are with information. Not only that,
findings also showed that podcast contain a broad array of authentic content. This is proven to be true as according to many
researchers, podcast contents span a broad variety of themes with authentic speech and often provided by native speakers
(Rosell-Aguilar, 2007; Thorne & Payne, 2005; Hasan & Hoon, 2013; Stanley, 2005). Thus, learners may be exposed to authentic
content via podcast (Yoestara, 2019). Next, the findings demonstrate that podcast consist of edutainingly presented content.
This finding is similar to a statement by Chaikovska Olha (2018), stating that podcasting may be a fun and rewarding way to
teach as podcast include features such as genuineness, multi-functionality, motivational ability, adaptability, and rapid
information absorption that make them an entertaining teaching technique. In addition, the podcast contains knowledge that
students need. Podcasts contain information and visuals that, according to some experts, might assist people grasp unfamiliar
words by using gestures and facial expressions and with that knowledge, making podcast to be quite useful for students' needs
(Chaikovska Olha, 2018). The last findings showed that podcast comprise content that caters to various activities. According to
Chaikovska Olha (2018), he emphasises that podcast may be utilised with students of various linguistic abilities. It is the
responsibility of the instructor to choose suitable podcast according to the level of proficiency of students.

Conclusion
This study looks into the perceptions of TESL students towards the use of podcast as a teaching tool in secondary
education in Malaysia. The two objectives of this study is to look into the perceptions and the factors influencing it towards the
use of podcast as a teaching tool. The participants chosen were Teaching English as a Second Language students from
Management and Science University. Online questionnaire was given to the participants as data collection. The quantitative
data were collected and the results demonstrated that the participants have positive perceptions towards the use of podcast as
a teaching tool. Additionally, the participants also have favourable attitudes towards the three main factors influencing the
perceptions of podcasting, which are convenience, motivation and content. The study's results revealed that TESL students
view podcast as an effective teaching tool as they are equipping themselves as future teachers by being aware of 21st-century
instructional tools. In light of these results, to implement technology as a teaching tool like podcasting should be prioritised
and it also should appeal to the needs and interests of learners as well as educators. More research is required to ensure that
the long-term viability of educational podcasting is developed. It's also possible to look at the other factors that influence the
perceptions of using podcast as a teaching tool. Finally, a study with the comparison of perceptions and performance between
a controlled and an experimental group, can also be conducted for further data.

Acknowledgement
First and foremost, I want to say thank you to Miss Angela Rumina, my research supervisor, who is a lecturer at Management and Science
University in Shah Alam. She gave me the chance to do research and gave me important advice as I did it. She has taught me how to do
research and how to make the research work as clear as possible. It was a great honour and privilege to work and study under her direction.
I am very thankful for what she has given me. I want to thank her for her understanding and patience throughout this thesis work. I am very
thankful for the love, prayers, care, and sacrifices my parents made to help me get an education and be ready for the future. This research
project would not have been possible without the love and support of my parents. Also, I want to thank my brothers, for their help and
prayers, as well. It means a lot to me to say thank you to my friends and research colleagues, Nuzul Syazwana, Ashitta Morgandran, Daniel
Edry, Gan Irosshini, Megat Syazwan Fauzi and Nur Izzah for their support and encouragement over the years. I also want to thank Dr
Mustaqim for his help. Last but not least, I want to say thank you to everyone who has helped me do this research work, whether they did so
directly or indirectly.

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