Pop music podcast: a bop or a flop? / Aqeela Nurinna Ab Shukor and Adi Idham Jailani

Podcasts have been a constant tool used for ESL to help in improving language proficiency. However, there is a debate on podcast topics that is suitable and attractive for ESL learners. The impact of pop culture, specifically in the pop music genre, has engaged a consistent stream of fans willing to learn a foreign language to better understand song lyrics. Fans partake in fandom activities such as analysing lyrics to understand the context and expression of the song. There is an ongoing debate on whether engaging in pop culture activities could result in improving language proficiency. This study researches the suitability of pop culture topics as a podcast topic for ESL learners. Besides that, the study proposes the topic of analysing stylistic features in English song lyrics in podcasts to improve language proficiency. The findings revealed that implementing pop culture topics for ESL podcast learning tools receive positive feedback from listeners and increase learners' engagement in language learning.