505394

LTR

L AN G U AG E
T E A C H IN G
R E S E A R C H

Promoting autonomous
listening to podcasts:
A case study

Language Teaching Research

2014, Vol 18(1) 832
The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permissions:
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D O I: 10.1177/1362168813505394
ltr.sagepub.com

Jeremy Cross
Indonesia Australia Language Foundation, Indonesia

Abstract
This article reports on an exploratory case study of a Japanese learner of English as a foreign
language (EFL) who was introduced to metatextual skills and activities for metacognitive
instruction as a route towards promoting her autonomous use of the BBCs online From
O ur O wn C orrespondent podcasts outside of the classroom to enhance her second language
listening ability. Journal entries and information from weekly interviews over 9 weeks are used to
show how, with regular guidance and feedback, the learner employed aspects of metacognitive
instruction and developed the metatextual skills for exploiting the podcasts in an increasingly
informed, sophisticated and successful manner to develop her listening ability.

Keywords
Autonomy, L2 listening, metacognition, podcasts

I Introduction

Learning to listen in a second language (L2) essentially still takes place in a classroom
envi ronment. Teachers typically manipulate and control the text as they see fit to enab
learners to listen a number of times, complete the given comprehension task(s), and produce the necessary response. Essentially, it is listening practice. Howeve r, in recent
times, teachers have also been encouraged by listening researchers and commentators t
do more to educate learners about how to listen. One way of achieving this is metacognitive instruction, a process-based approach that aims to deepen learners knowledge of
themselves as listeners in a second language context and their understanding of the

Corresponding author:
Jeremy C ross, Indonesia Australia Language Foundation, Jl Raya Sesetan 190, Denpasar, Bali 80223,
Indonesia.
Email: jertzy7 @ hotmail.com

Cross

inherent challenges of L2 listening, as well as teaching them about ways to control their
listening comprehension (Goh, 2008).
W hile such teaching seems undoubtedly valuable for developing learners listening
comprehension, it can only offer limited hours and opportunities for practice and
improvement. This is especially so for learners of English as a foreign language (EFL),
whose exposure to, and use of, English is often essentially restricted to the classroom.
N evertheless, off-the-shelf computer and Web 2.0 technologies are now of sufficient
sophistication to enable such learners to independently access and exploit listening material from within an authentic L2-mediated environment (Robin, 2007). In particular, podcasts provide an up-to-date, varied and extensive online source of audio and video
broadcasts for learners wishing to improve their language learning beyond the confines
of the classroom. Anytime and anywhere, learners can select from, subscribe to, and
download podcasts via the internet according to their needs and interests. Podcasts can
be used, for example, for individual study at home and in self-access centres on a computer, or on the move using a portable player. Furthermore, a number of publications
have recently pointed to the utility of using podcasts for promoting autonomous L2 lis-

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Language Teaching Research 18(1)

1.
2.

knowledge of the structural and functional properties of texts and of associated

learning activities and
the effective proceduralization of this knowledge for decision-making hypothesizing metacognition and strategic ehaviour which enales learners to solve
prolems with and maximize their comprehension and learning (ull Anstey
21 Camourne 25 Rouet me 22).

Metatextual skills include

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11

to be realized through the application of respective metatextual skills when learners

encounter a range of audio and audiovisual text types, e.g. news, documentaries, talk
shows, and soap operas, exhibiting particular production and construction features that
also reflect the sociocultural values and norms of the country or region from which they
emanate (Meinhof, 1998).
Several L2 listening studies have indirectly touched on aspects linked to metatextual
skills. C ross (2009) has pointed to the need for teachers to bring the discourse pattern of
texts to learners attention to inform their strategy use and aid comprehension.
Furthermore, Gruba (2006) suggests that, as with printed texts, teachers should help
learners to develop textual literacy and the ability to navigate text types to facilitate
processing. O f course, L2 listeners may develop a metatextual capacity unconsciously
through regular and extended exposure to various text types, but explicit guidance in
metatextual skills could more immediately provide learners with an important resource
for independently implementing structured, holistic, and effective listening to various
types of audio and audiovisual texts.

2 Metacognitive instruction
In recent years there has een growing interest in L2 listening pedagogy and research
regarding examining the effects of metacognitive instruction. It is an approach to listening pedagogy that is founded on three key principles presented y eenman an outWolters and Afflerach (26) namely

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Language Teaching Research 18(1)

gains. urthermore Mareschal (2) investigated eginner-intermediate and intermediate

proficiency learners of rench who completed a pedagogical cycle journals and questionnaires over 8 weeks. She documented the eneficial effects of the metacognitive
instruction in terms of improvements in awareness interest and confidence in L2 listening and also their listening comprehension. In addition andergrift and Tafaghodtari
(21) measured the comprehension performance of two groups of high-eginnerlower
intermediate rench learners one group received metacognitive instruction for 13 weeks
primarily in the form of a pedagogical cycle ut the other group did not receive any
guidance through the same listening sequence across the same period. The analysis of
pre-test and post-test listening comprehension scores showed that the experimental
group significantly outperformed the control group. Lastly Cross (211) carried out a
study in which pairs of Japanese L learners followed a similar pedagogical cycle to the
other researchers mentioned in each of five lessons. Pre- and post-test results showed
that the metacognitive instruction primarily enefited the weaker listeners in the study.
This concise review of metacognitive instruction and related research findings illustrates that learners can e assisted towards developing their listening aility in a numer
of ways with a pedagogical cycle and journals eing the primary techniques used in the
studies covered. Nevertheless there is little research that illustrates how we can take this
approach to listening pedagogy and educate and guide learners in its application outside
the classroom so that they are ale to operate as informed and independent listeners. Of
course suitale listening texts (i.e. those that cater for a range of personal interests and
levels of listening aility are widely availale and easily accessile offer opportunities
for real world listening across a range of social cultural and linguistic contexts and are
amenale to the use of metatechnical skills for self-paced listening) are also an important
prerequisite for motivating and promoting the autonomous development of metatextual
skills and aspects of metacognitive instruction and podcasts are proposed here as a text
type that meets such requirements.

3 Podcasts
The term podcast is an amalgamation of the words iPod Apples MP3 player and
roadcast and a podcasts is defined here as a multimedia file distriuted over the
internet using syndication feeds for playack on moile devices and personal computers (idd Chen 29 p. 364). While the vast majority of podcasts consist of authentic texts i.e. texts that are essentially aimed at entertaining and informing the L1
population (e.g. see www.c.co.uk www.nationalgeographic.com) there are an increasing numer of podcasts that are semi-authentic i.e. modified authentic texts for L2 users
(Roin 2) or non-authentic i.e. specifically developed as a language learning
resource for L2 users (e.g. see www.SLpod.com www.listen-to-english.com). In addition podcasts can e either audio only or audiovisual (referred to as either vodcasts or
video podcasts) and are often accompanied y links to topic-related written texts and
or a transcript of the listening text.
This availaility of a vast range of authentic semi-authentic and non-authentic audio
or audiovisual podcasts with supporting material accessile through the internet means
that language teachers with the necessary technology can go eyond the confines of more

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13

traditional course content with its often heavy focus on reading and writing skills to the
detriment of listening (and speaking) skills, and also the limitations of many course book
listening texts (e.g. short and artificial texts, few varieties of English, and mundane topics), to address the developmental needs of learners of differing listening abilities and
varied interests by integrating podcasts into their classrooms. Moreover, with direction,
learners who also have access to the technology can independently select and exploit
podcasts and complementary materials to build on their classroom learning whether at
home, on the move, or in a self-access centre, increase their exposure to the target language and culture, and enhance their listening skills.
A number of publications offer pedagogical advice for teachers using podcasts for
helping learners with developing their listening skills (e.g. Guikema, 2009; Hegelheimer
&O Bryan, 2009; McBride, 2009; Rosell-Aguilar, 2007). Drawing together these authors
suggestions, key recommendations for teachers, which also guided this study, are:

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Language Teaching Research 18(1)

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3 Procedure
In the first week of the study Naoko was interviewed and (1) the type of podcast text that
was suitale (2) how she could manipulate the chosen text and (3) what would e a suitale listening sequence with associated tasks were determined. In each of the following
8 weeks Naoko chose a podcast from the C to listen to. She recorded aspects related
to listening to the selected podcast in her journal. She organized this journal y herself
though the content she included was guided y the author through discussion and feedack in the weekly interviews. Rather than provide input and guidance to Naoko on
using the podcasts all at once in the initial week of the study which likely would have
overwhelmed her ideas were gradually introduced over the first few weeks. In addition
a numer of ideas emerged as the study progressed in response to Naokos journal entries
and points of discussion in her interviews.
The data analysis involved examining Naokos weekly journal entries and transcried
interview responses at the completion of the 9 weeks. This was to identify and illustrate
(1) how under guidance she developed the metatextual skills for using the podcasts at
home and (2) the manner in which she employed in her listening practice aspects of
metacognitive instruction that she was introduced to.

4 Preparation
In her Week 1 interview Naoko stated that she was interested in listening to podcasts
related to news and current affairs. The C News wesite provides a wealth of such
material which is downloadale and authentic. owever not all of the podcasts availale are accompanied y a transcript. Transcripts were considered an essential element for
they could e used y Naoko to consolidate and evaluate her own listening comprehension performance. As such after together checking a range of audio and audiovisual
content on the C News wesite it was agreed that the weekly podcasts from the Radio
4 program rom Our Own Correspondent (OOC) (httpwww.c.co.ukpodcasts
seriesfooc) were suited to Naokos aility interests and self-study needs. In addition the
media player used to present programs is very straightforward to operate.
aving decided upon the podcasts to e used we then turned to identifying their construction organization and conventions and exploring how to use this information to
manipulate the texts. Regarding the wesite content for each OOC podcast (http
www.c.co.ukprogrammes13r8f2pk3lxy) the program is approximately 3
minutes long and typically contains 45 stories from around the world. A rief outline of
the complete podcast content and story order is written on the associated we page and
the program host also provides short coverage of this at the start of the podcast. In addition each story is identified y a headline and a few descriptive sentences. This allows
the user to select one particular story if so desired and removes the need for the user to
search through the whole podcast. ach story is presented y a different reporter and is
around 6 minutes in duration. After highlighting the particular features of the wesite we
listened together to several stories and also referred to the accompanying transcripts to
determine any regularity of discourse features that would facilitate text usage. We found
that each story has a rief lead-in from the program host and then the story is typically
presented y the particular reporter in several segments.

15

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Language Teaching Research 18(1)

This initial code-reaking (ull Anstey 21) was an important precursor to eginning to develop Naokos approach to meaning-making. She was informed that she could
use elements such as the story headlines and the various written and oral introductions to
stimulate her ackground knowledge. This knowledge could then e exploited to start to
form predictions make inferences and draw conclusions aout the possile content of the
story she had chosen to listen to. She was told that doing so could etter prepare her for and
orientate her to the listening and potentially facilitate her understanding of the story.
Susequently we explored how she could est exploit the podcast stories for listening
and meaning-making. It was decided that Naoko should first listen to just the hosts short
introduction and use this input to check and add to the predictions inferences and conclusions she had previously formulated ased on related written information on the wesite. After this she should listen to the whole story and check her ideas again. ollowing
this she should listen to approximately 2-minute segments of the text for more detailed
understanding of the story elements and note down the main ideas.
These initial suggestions on text usage formed the asis of and were elaorated into a
form of pedagogical cycle an integrated experiential activity for metacognitive instruction involving a structured task sequence of predicting monitoring prolem identification and evaluating (e.g. see Cross 211 andergrift Tafaghodtari 21). aving
covered predicting previously the focus turned to promoting monitoring and prolem
identification. Naoko was asked to listen to each segment twice and make notes reflecting
her understanding of the main points. After listening the first time it was suggested that
she think aout what she had understood and consider what gaps existed in her under
standing. The second time she listened to the given segment she should selectively attend
to points she had previously only partially understood check her understanding and make
corrections. To enale Naoko to consolidate and evaluate her comprehension she was
asked to access the storys transcript and read and listen to the story simultaneously then
compare her understanding of the story with the transcript content to gauge how well she
had performed. Lastly it was suggested she review the transcript for new language.
In the Week 1 interview we also discussed the content to include in her journal which
is a way of implementing guided reflections on listening for metacognitive instruction
(e.g. see oh Tai 26 Mareschal 2). Naoko was asked to include notes aout
her predictions segment timings and notes reflecting her understanding of the main
points made in each segment. Moreover she was advised to include the transcript in her
journal with unknownunfamiliar vocaulary and phrases highlighted.

IV Findings and discussion

The research question for this study was:
What is the effect of metatextual skills guidance and metacognitive instruction on an L2
listeners autonomous use of podcasts?

The following sections illustrate the practical outcomes of the eWek 1 discussion and
preparation, and the subsequent guidance for using the FOOC podcasts Naoko received
as the study progressed.

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17

1 Task sequence
In the Week 2 interview the focal point of the discussion was the content of Naokos
journal with respect to her first attempt at using the OOC podcast. Overall she stated
that she was satisfied with the approach to manipulating the podcast story in the manner
discussed. owever she wrote that she had found segmenting the selected story into sections of around 2 minutes was prolematic. As such she had independently decided to
listen to the story in full a second time to identify natural oundaries in the story content.
Naoko reported that she used the shift in content focus rhetorical questions y the reporter
and pausing to achieve this. She had identified 6 sections made a note of the times and
then had twice listened and taken notes for each section in turn. It appeared from the inter
view and contents of her journal that with appropriate guidance Naoko had quickly
egun developing code-reaking meaning-making and text-usage skills. She had also
started employing a structured sequence of listening tasks for independently exploiting
the podcasts in a suitale manner for listening practice. uring this interview Naoko was
also asked to consistently record the manner in which she used the podcasts in susequent
weeks to ensure she adhered to the task sequence we had estalished at that stage.
There were several further modifications to the task sequence in the coming weeks. In
her Week 4 interview Naoko mentioned that she had particular difficulty with understanding one section after two listenings. We decided that she should replay the segment she had
struggled most to understand a numer of further times and transcrie the contents. She
should susequently check her transcription against the story transcript when she had finished listening as well as consider the content organization. Also Naoko egan to give each
segment a su-heading in her journal to reflect her road understanding of segment content.
She mentioned that this had helped her a lot to maintain her focus on the gist rather than
concern for details. In her Week 5 interview Naoko indicated she had listened to the story
once more in full following listening to each section to review and evaluate her overall
understanding of the whole story. Tale 1 summarizes the final task sequence Naoko used to
organize her listening to the podcasts in Week 5 and the remaining weeks of the study.
Tale 1 shows that podcasts can e fruitfully examined to determine discourse features and an appropriate task sequence for independent listening estalished. This structured sequence contains an array of listening tasks that can develop a range of top-down
skills (e.g. prediction in Step 1) and ottom-up skills (e.g. detailed listening in Step 6). In
addition the task variety may help to maintain learners interest and motivation an
important facet for promoting sustained independent listening at home or in self-access
centres. It is not suggested that the task sequence presented should necessarily e rigidly
adhered to for individual learners listening to similar podcasts are likely to have differ
ent listening goals time availale and levels of interest and motivation. owever it does
provide learners with useful options to experiment with and adapt to meet their own
particular developmental needs.

2 Text analysis
In Week 5 Naoko was made aware of how her understanding of the OOC stories could
e extended to include the cultural-ound conventions and qualities of the stories in

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Table 1. Naokos task sequence for podcast listening practice.

1. podcast task sequence;
2. generate ideas based on written preface;
3. listen to introduction to check and refine ideas;
4. listen to full story and check ideas;
5. listen to full story and determine segment boundaries;
6. listen to each segment twice in turn;
7. transcribe most difficult content;
8. listen to full story and confirm understanding;
9. listen and read transcript and estimate understanding;
10. review transcript.

terms of the patterns of discourse employed and why the stories were perceived newsworthy y the text producers. This media literacy perspective is an important one to
nurture in L2 listeners yet it is rarely addressed in listening pedagogy. It takes listeners
eyond comprehension at the textual level alone and promotes appreciation and under
standing of the social historical and political connotations and underlying ideologies of
texts (rua 25 26). It also fosters a critical stance towards the text (rua 25)
when listeners are asked to consider the value of the suject matter andor the logic and
integrity of facts and opinions presented and make judgements. Listening critically is a
higher order aility and one that requires a relatively solid understanding of content in
order to weigh up the arguments proposed in the text. Moreover it is shaped y an individuals propensity towards certain stereotypes and personal iases indicative of his or
her life experiences and socio-cultural ackground.
After her final full listening Naoko was asked to review her understanding at that
stage as efore ut also to make notes in her journal regarding the storys discourse
construction (i.e. the sequence of the story and how it creates meaning) and production
(i.e. how information is presented such as the positive and negative viewpoints of the
reporter). urthermore she was asked to consider why she felt the story had een considered newsworthy for the C and its audience. To exemplify and help clarify what
Naoko should do we explored related ideas ased on the story she had listened to in
Week 5. The following week Week 6 the contents of Naokos journal reflected she
had egun to consider the construction production and newsworthiness aspects of
stories (see Tale 2). When interviewed Naoko stated she felt it was interesting to
consider the newsworthiness of the story ut she was still not fully sure aout the
concepts of production and construction. With reference to her journal entries we
again looked at and discussed oth of these aspects to provide clarification and to
strengthen her understanding.
In the following weeks Weeks to 9 Naoko had ecome etter at exploring and
descriing the construction and production features of the podcast story compared to her
initial attempt in Week 6 when she had mentioned her prolems with understanding the
concept. or example her related journal entry for Week is shown in Tale 3 and it
illustrates that she was ale to express her ideas more fully and coherently.

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Table 3. W eek 7 text analysis.

N ewsworthiness
Because of global warming, people are interested in nature and environment. This news draws
peoples attention to the love of indigenous people for nature and economical threat to them.
C onstruction

Production

1)
2)

1)
2)

Funny account of the trip

+ very positive account of the tribe

3)
4)

negative reality around the area

= after knowing 2) and 3), assures a
different perspective

3)
4)

Introduction
Pastoral description of the life of the tribe
(with full happiness)
Reality: problem of loggers
Peaceful description of the life of the tribe,
again with a shade of reality

It seems that L2 listeners may face initial difficulties with considering and conceptualizing ideologies and connotations intrinsic to L2 texts, as well as developing critical interpretations, which it not unsurprising as it is something they are rarely asked to consider in
their listening learning as mentioned. Ho wever, with guidance and exemplification they
can begin to extend their meaning-making and text analysis beyond the level of language
when exploring a text, and take their comprehension of that text to a higher level.

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Table 4. Examples of Naokos self-evaluation of successes with metatextual and

comprehension aspects.
Metatextual aspects
Listening to the story and dividing it into segments for further listening
Dividing the story into segments at points where the reporter used long pauses, as well as
using what she termed transition signals (e.g. though), the shift in the subject of the sentence
(e.g. the reporter started using I frequently), and the evident shift in topic focus
Breaking the story into segments and give them headings based on her understanding of the
content rather than using pauses, which had been too numerous
Predicting the structure of the report after listening to the anchor, which made it easier to
divide the report into segments
C omprehension aspects
Being able to get the gist from longer segments (e.g. over a minute long), and that she had
been able to create a sub-heading for each segment based on her understanding of the gist
Predicting before listening had helped her to listen to the story calmly because she had been
able to be more focused with her listening
Rating her understanding objectively in the first listening
Understanding the anchor, which helped her listen to the report more calmly
C omprehending what the anchor had said, though she wondered if this was because she was
becoming familiar with the anchors voice

(comprehension aspects). Tale 4 presents several examples of these types of successes

reported y Naoko.
It is evident from Tale 4 that Naoko had not only reflected on her successes in terms
of comprehension of OOC podcasts ut had also adopted a metatextual perspective to
her use of these podcasts and had accordingly reflected on this aspect. It seems that
manipulating the podcasts to organize her listening had ecome an important and conscious consideration for her and is indicative of progress in terms of her application of
metatextual skills.
In addition Naoko was asked to record the difficulties she experienced and any ideas
she had for overcoming those difficulties. ncouraging Naoko to consider her difficulties
was to help her increase her prolem-solving capacity a key metacognitive attriute in L2
listening. Tale 5 shows examples of these difficulties and her own suggested solutions.
The findings presented in Tale 5 show that Naoko experienced a variety of difficulties with comprehending the podcasts. er difficulties however were essentially with
linguistic elements in the podcasts that had caused her comprehension prolems. Naokos
solutions were pertinent and realistic and reflect her capacity for prolem-solving at a
linguistic level (e.g. vocaulary knowledge) and eyond (e.g. input processing) when
prompted to consider and address prolems she experienced.
Moreover in her interview in Week 4 to help Naoko more clearly and precisely compare her performance with previous weeks as the study progressed it was suggested she
give herself a percentage rating (e.g. 6) for how well she felt she had done for each of
the full listenings and for each segment. This was influenced y the complexity of the

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Table 5. Examples of Naokos self-evaluation of difficulties and corresponding solutions.
Difficulty
Solution

Difficulty:
Solution
Difficulty
Solution

Dealing with the foreign names in the story, which was set in Venezuela. She
had been distracted by not understanding the names, causing her to become
confused and lose track of the storyline.
To still initially deal with understanding the main ideas across the two listening
to segments. Then, if she felt it was necessary, she could replay the segment,
selectively attend to the names mentioned, and establish/confirm the given
persons viewpoint.
Some grammatical structures had confused her (e.g. double negatives such as not
unusual).
Avoid mentally translating sentences into Japanese while listening, which had
compounded her confusion.
Understanding political and military vocabulary.
Read and listen more to material related to the story topic to build her
background knowledge and vocabulary.

Table 6. Naokos self evaluation percentages each week.

Listening

W eek 5

W eek 6

W eek 7

W eek 8

W eek 9

First full listening

Second full listening
Final full listening

50
65
85

75
78
90

70
88
93

60

73

60
78
83

story she listened to, but was still felt to provide her with a more concrete measure of her
performance and any improvement. Table 6 shows Naokos full listening self-ratings
from Week 5 to 9.
Naokos self-ratings for her comprehension shown in Table 6 indicate an improvement in comprehension performance from Weeks 5 to 7. Ho wever, there is a comparative
drop in percentages in Weeks 8 and 9. It would be somewhat unrealistic to expect to see
a consistent increase in performance from Weeks 5 to 9 as any L2 listeners development
tends to fluctuate across listening activities due to a number of internal and external factors, including text complexity (speech rate, accent, lexis), motivation, and tiredness.
W hile the F O O C podcasts do possess discourse regularities, several of the podcasts
Naoko selected covered unfamiliar contexts and contained enough unknown vocabulary
to create comprehension problems. For example, Naoko mentioned such issues in her
journal for the podcast in Week 8 about Nigerias efforts to reduce poverty. She confirmed this in her corresponding interview regarding parts of the podcast and added that
this difficulty she had experienced was reflected in her lower self-ratings for that weeks
podcast. O f course, learner self-ratings are rather subjective, open to affective biases, e.g.
confident learners overate their ability and vice versa (MacIntyre, N oels, & Clm ent,
1998), and rely on the learner adopting a rational approach. N onetheless, related research
does regularly show a correlation between learners performance self-ratings and more
objective measures (e.g. see Alderson, 2005). As such, Naokos self-ratings in the latter

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Language Teaching Research 18(1)

half of the study of etween 3 and 93 comprehension for the final full listenings are
encouraging.

4 Rationale and aims

To encourage Naoko to choose a story each week in a thoughtful and reasoned manner
and thus help her to maintain interest and enthusiasm for completing the listening practice for that story she was asked in her Week 3 interview to indicate in her journal her
rationale for selecting each podcast story. In addition to help make Naokos listening
practice with the podcasts more goal-oriented she was asked to consider her aims efore
listening each week and note them in her journal. When learners activity is goaldirected it promotes focused attention to the given task greater intensity of effort the
setting of appropriate expectations for task performance as well as reducing the risk of
performing poorly (rae 29). Naokos aims for Week 4 were to get the gist from the
first listening to each segment and keep concentrating on listening without eing distracted y unrecognizednew words. In Week 5 her aims were to estalish how well she
could understand the podcast story after the first full listening concentrate on the gist of
the story rather than details or unrecognizednew words and identify what she was unale to comprehend e.g. words which ecame unfamiliar in unconnected speech. rom
Weeks 6 to 9 Naoko had the same single aim which was to understand as much as possile from the first full listening to the podcast story. She considered this to e the true
measure of her development and progression towards native-like listening aility.

5 Way forward
In her Week 3 interview Naoko stated that she had found it easy to understand the main
points in some segments from only listening to the segments once so she had decided that
it was not necessary to do a second listening in such cases. ased on this experience it was
suggested that she should add another section to her journal entitled the way forward. In
this section after listening she should write down her ideas related to manipulating and
exploiting podcasts to keep enhancing her listening practice. In her interview each week
Naoko was also asked to clarify her related journal entries. Some of the ideas Naoko gener
ated to enale her to continue to make progress each week are presented in Tale .
The examples presented in Tale illustrate that Naoko was ale to produce coherent
and viale ideas to orchestrate her independent listening in a numer of ways. This shows
that learners can continue to actively determine and organize how est to make progress
or fine tune their approach y themselves when initially given guidance and encour
aged to do so.

6 Journal organization
A comparison of Naokos journal content at the start of the study (Week 2) and at the
completion of the study (Week 9) highlights the development in her aility to utilize the
OOC podcasts for autonomous listening. Tale 8 shows Naokos content focus for

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Table 7. Examples of Naokos way forward.

To note down ideas she picked up from the full listening (i.e. before listening to segments).
She thought this was useful as it provided a visual representation of how much she could
understand the first time she listened to the story.
To listen carefully to the presenter who introduced each story and be able to understand
this content almost perfectly. She felt this would help her to predict the content of the story
more accurately and facilitate subsequent understanding of the story itself.
To summarize each segment in her own words in one or two complete sentences because
she felt this reflected deeper content understanding rather than just jotting down notes. She
considered that, in the process of attempting to achieve this more challenging task, it may
lead to improvements in her listening ability.

Table 8. Naokos journal organization for W eek 2.

Section

Description

Predictions
Segmenting

General content predicted before listening

Timings and notes for each segment

Table 9. Naokos journal organization for W eek 9.

Section
Part 1:
Predictions
Segmenting
Full listening
Segment listening
Part 2:
Rationale
Task sequence
Aims
Successes, difficulties and solutions
W ay forward
Text analysis

Description
General content predicted before listening
Timings for each segment
Self-evaluation of comprehension for each full
listening
Sub-headings, notes, and self-evaluation
Reason for selection of given story
Manner in which listening practice completed
Listening aims
Successful and problematic aspects experienced
Manner in which to make progress
N ewsworthiness, and construction and
production features

Week 2 (see Appendix 1, Figure 1 for the original journal content). Essentially, she wrote
her predictions and her timings for, and comprehension of, each of 6 segments.
Table 9 presents Naokos journal focus for Week 9 (see Appendix 1, Figure 2 for the
original journal content), which had evolved and been refined over the previous weeks
as discussed above. The structure and range of content of Naokos journal was consistent
from Week 6 through to the end of the study in Week 9. Part 1 covered aspects related to
her actual listening to the story. Part 2 was about a broader range of elements beyond the
story listening itself.

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Language Teaching Research 18(1)

y comparing Tales 8 (Week 2) and 9 (Week 9) it is possile to recognize the

extent of Naokos development in terms of the various metacognitive components
that she addressed in her use of OOC podcasts y the end of the study. With initial
guidance from the researcher she had progressed from focusing merely on including
notes representing her fundamental understanding of the podcasts to considering a
range of elements related to enhancing her use and comprehension of the podcasts.
It is not suggested that this journal structure is appropriate to the needs of all other
learners ut it does provide learners and teachers with various journal content
options that can take autonomous L2 listening eyond isolated concern for text
recall and reflects many of the key pedagogical recommendations for podcast use
mentioned aove.

V Conclusions

This case study has attempted to provide pedagogical insights into promoting independ
ent listening development outside the classroom through exploring the effect of giving
guidance and feedback on metatextual skills and aspects of metacognitive instruction on
an L2 listeners autonomous use of podcasts. Journal entries and interviews provided
information which illustrated that the given learner was able to enhance her metacogn
tive capacity and impose sequence and structure on her listening outside the classroom,
broaden her view of what listening comprehension in an L2 entails, and show some signs
of performance improve ments. Of course, the FOOC podcasts selected by the learner in
this study are but one type of podcast among many available, but it is suggested that the
underlying central principle of this case study regarding introducing learners to metate
tual skills and activi ties for metacognitive instruction is still pertinent to listening to
other podcasts.
Furthermore, case study research has limitations, such as case studies are inherentl
subjective in nature, both with respect to the perceptions of case participants and the
interpretations made by the researcher (Gillham, 200). Also, findings from case studies
are not always readily generalizable to the larger population, with any such generalization requiring great caution (Mackey &Gass, 2005). Howeve r, David (206) does argue
that seeking generalization in this respect is unnecessary, and what is of central
impor
tance is clarity in explaining, describing, and attending to the unique and particular.
Neve rtheless, it is proposed that the podcast task sequence shown in Table 1 and Naokos
journal organization presented in Table 9 do have potential generalizability to other L2
listeners looking to exploit authentic podcasts.
In addition, Naoko was already a self-m otivated learner prior to the study, and her
perseve rance in task and journal completion across the 9 weeks of the study was to some
extent driven by knowing she would be interviewed and given feedback each week. It is
not clear if she continued to independently listen to podcasts or complete a diary once t
weekly interviews ceased. Nonetheless, it is hoped that this study acts as a possible starting point for teachers and researchers looking to explore options for assisting learne
with independently exploiting podcasts at home or in self-access centres to maximize the
development of their L2 listening comprehension ability.

Cross

25

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or
not-for-p rofit sectors.

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Appendix 1.
Naokos journal content for Weeks 2 and 9.

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Figure 1. Naokos journal content for W eek 2.

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Figure 2. Naokos journal content for W eek 9.

Language Teaching Research 18(1)

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