THE ATTITUDE TOWARD USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS: DEVELOPING LISTENING IN THE ESL ENVIRONMENT

This study intends to deal with attitudes of teachers and learners toward authentic listening materials at pre- intermediate level. Studies have indicated the positive effect of authentic listening materials on motivation and listening comprehension ability in learners of English as a foreign language (Nuttall, 1996; Peacock, 1997; Miller, 2005; Field, 2008). It focused on EFL teachers and students at pre intermediate proficiency level. Participants included 60 students, from both gender; male and female university students studying at Ayandegan and Aryamanesh Higher Institute Education in the fields of Nursing, Electronic Engineering and Commercial Management and also 30 teachers who taught listening at Ayandegan and Aryamanesh Higher Institute Education. The students were randomly selected and assigned to two groups. Then, Oxford Placement test as a standard test was administered to the participant in order to determine their proficiency level. Then, the participants were divided into two groups of control and experiment. The experiment group received the listening materials taken from UK radio program whereas the other group received simplified listening materials taken from the authentic listening materials. Afterwards, to be sure that they know what authentic materials are, they were exposed to both of related materials, then the questionnaire was distributed among them, the results taken from the questionnaire showed that the participants of this study prefer authentic materials and have positive attitudes toward using them. By the same token, the analysis of teachers‟ questionnaires also showed their satisfaction with authentic listening materials. These findings can have implications for language learning/teaching, and curriculum development paving the way for educational policy makers, teachers and learners to introduce authentic listening materials to EFL learners at pre- intermediate proficiency level.

Keywords:

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) , listening skill , authentic materials , pre-intermediate