The Effect of Podcasting on Iranian EFL Learners' Motivation and Attitude Mohamad Amin Rostami Department of English Language Teaching, Semnan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Semnan, Iran; Department of English Language Teaching, Semnan Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Semnan, Iran Maryam Azarnoosh Department of English Language Teaching, Semnan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Semnan, Iran; Department of English Language Teaching, Semnan Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Semnan, Iran Seyed Jalal Abdolmanafi-Rokni Department of English Language and Literature, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran Abstract—The objective of this study was to identify the effect of podcasting on Iranian learner’s motivation and attitude. The participants consisted of 60 male students including 30 participants for the experimental group and 30 for the control group. All of them were studying in the second junior high school in Shahed school in Semnan, Iran. Their age ranged from 13 to14. The researchers randomly selected Shahed school from a list of all junior high schools inSemnan province. In addition, data were collected by using a questionnaire and an interview. In the present study, the researchers used Nelson’s proficiency test for homogenizing the learners.Moreover, theresearchers collected the data through one questionnaire and an interview as data gathering instruments and podcasts and ‘Prospect 2’ book as instructional materials. A 46- item motivation questionnaire focused on evaluating English learners’ beliefs and attitudes in Iran. A 7-item researcher-made interview was conducted with 10 participants. The main purpose of this interview was to investigate the effect of podcasting on the learners’ attitude.The results of data analysis revealed that the application of podcasts as a motivational teaching strategy significantly benefited the experimental group to show a higher mean on classroom motivation. It also revealed that the application of podcast changes the learners’ motivation positively. Index Terms—podcast, motivation, attitude, EFL learners I. INTRODUCTION Podcasting’s soul is about creating audio content for those that want to listen where they want, when they want, and how they want. Instead of a central audio stream from a web site, podcasting sends audio content directly to an iPod or MP3 player. Podcast is considered to be digital media file which has been distributed over personal computers and the internet. According to Fetaji and Fetaji (2008), a podcast is a specific type of webcast which can mean either the content itself or the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. As Kaplan-Leiserson (2005), indicate the term ‘podcast’ is a composition of the name of Apple’s portable music player, the iPod, and broadcast; a pod adverts to a receptacle of some sort and the idea of broadcasting to a container. A podcast is identified from other digital media formats by its ability to be downloaded automatically, using software such as RSS or Atom. In addition, there is a need for more reachable classroom syllabus for students absent from the classroom setting. During the school year many students miss classes due to extra-curricular activities, illness, or family events. Podcasting can give students the opportunity to stay current in their classes, even when they are not present. Moreover, the districts look for cost effective ways to implement technology into the content curriculum. According to Abdous, Facer, and Yen (2012), the convergence of telecommunications and hardware technologies is reshaping the higher education information technology landscape. Indeed, the proliferation of the so-called mobile supercomputers powerful of performing drastic computational programs such as real time speech recognition and augmented reality,while providing high-bandwidth access to social networking sites, is transforming students’ ownership and use of technology. Second and foreign language motivation, based on Kormos and Csizér (2008), has been researched in different language learning grounds in the past decades. Fernandez, Simo, and Sallan (2009) consider video podcasts and enhanced podcasts as two frequent types. The enhanced podcast is similar to traditional podcasts. Actually this podcast contains multimedia information such as images, slides, short videos, pictures, and photographs that help users increase their perception about the topic. ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 70-78, January 2017 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0701.09 © 2017 ACADEMY PUBLICATION