Scaffolding EFL Oral Performance through Story Maps and Podcasts and Students’ Attitudes toward it

The present study sought to explore the impact of story maps and audio podcasts as scaffolds on oral proficiency of Iranian EFL learners. The quasi-experimental study was launched with 36 EFL undergraduates in three groups by adopting a counterbalanced 3 3 Latin squared design. All participants were indiscriminately, but in a specified order, exposed to the three treatment conditions of story retelling, story retelling plus story map, and story retelling plus podcast, and post-tested sequentially. The Latin square analysis of the oral assessment scale showed statistically meaningful differences under the treatment conditions for the groups. The post-hoc test also showed overachievements of the participants under the treatment conditions of story retelling plus story map and story retelling plus podcasts. The performance under podcast condition was significantly better than performances under the story map and short story conditions. The post-experiment opinion survey showed the learners‟ preferences for and positive attitudes towards podcast and story map as scaffolds in developing EFL oral proficiency. The participants welcomed integration of the scaffolds into EFL speaking courses.