Using Podcasts in ELL

As we know the internet audio-listening has greatly increased its popularity. Podcasts have been used for English learning purposes. I think that they mainly influence on the learners' listening, vocabulary and speaking skills.
I want to refer to a reasearch which was held in the University of South Carolina. The researchers examined the effects of using podcasts to improve pronunciation in SLL, and how students' attitudes changed toward pronunciation over the semester. The participants in this study were 12 learners of German and 10 learners of French. According to the statistical analysis there were no significant differences in the students' pronunciation from pre-test to post-test over time. Only french students had some improvements in their comprehensibility and accentedness. As for the extemporaneous tasks, students in both languages showed little improvement. This was mainly because of the students' concentrating more on the meaning than on the form.
To tell the truth the results mentioned above were a little surprising to me. I can say from my own experience that using podcasts can be very effective for english learning purposes, mainly in terms of improving listening and speaking skills. I felt the imrovement especially in my listening skills. It also directly affected on my pronunciation skills. I feel very comfortable in using podcasts for improving my linguistic skills. While practicing my pronunciation I tried to concentrate more on the form than on the meaning. Of course understanding the meaning is the first stage, but later I concentrated more on the form by doing a lot of repititions and self-recordings. So, one can, for sure, benefit from using podcasts for improving the linguistic skills.