Using authentic materials to develop listening comprehension in the

Table 6 Students' Responses on Self-Evaluation Questionnaire

Questions Answers Number of Students

			Start		End
What percentage of a typical	Less than half	5		4
conversation with a native speaker	Half	0		1
do you understand?	More than half	2		1
	All of it	0		1
What percentage of a typical	Less than half	5		2
listening-comprehension exercise in	Half	1		0
class do you understand?	More than half	1		5
	All of it	0		0
Are you generally able to guess the	Yes	5		6
meanings of what you hear?	No	2		1
On the basis of these questions, give	Doing just fine	0		0
yourself a rating on listening:	Not too bad	5		5
	Serious problems	2		2

Figure 2 Line chart of students’ progress in listening inside class

Figure 3 Line chart of students’ progress in listening outside class


Summary of Findings Related to the Influences of Aural Authentic Materials
Based on the outcomes of the interviews, the class observation, and the self- evaluation questionnaire, it can be summarized that the implementation of aural authentic materials in the ESL classroom had some influences on listening ability in ESL students. The exposure to aural authentic language helped increase the students’ level of comfort in listening to native speakers of the target language. Implementing authentic materials in class also helped increase students’ self-confidence to listen to the target language spoken by native speakers of the language. Since the students had limited language skills, they normally avoided a conversation with a native speaker, especially when they first arrived in the United States. An ESL classroom, therefore, was a place where the students primarily practiced the language skills, and concurrently built comfort and self- confidence. When they had confidence in themselves and their language ability, the students tended to expose themselves and use the target language with native speakers.
It can also be summarized that the students’ listening comprehension appeared to have improved after they had experienced authentic language and authentic materials in the ESL classroom. Nevertheless, the students’ progress in listening comprehension was more evident in their ability to understand the language in a structured environment of the classroom than that occurred in a natural setting outside class. Having exposed to English language spoken by various groups of native speakers, the students experienced difficulty in understanding according to certain features of authentic language, including pace, accent, dialects, and formality.


Results for Secondary Research Question #1: Learning Strategy Use
The following section presents the findings related to the secondary research question involving the learning strategies used by ESL students listening to aural authentic language.


Results from the interviews with students. The purpose of the interviews with students was to obtain information about the strategies that the students used to facilitate their English listening and understanding. Table 7 presents the outcomes of the interviews regarding the strategies used by the ESL students listening to English spoken by native speakers. When they did not understand what people were saying, the students generally asked the others to repeat what they just said or to speak more slowly.
Sometimes, the students asked for the definition or spelling of an unknown word. Following is what the students normally said when they were unable to catch what native speakers said to them.


Akiko: “Pardon,” “Speak more slowly.” Cheng: “Would you please say again?” Choi: “Again, please.”
Enrique: “Not too fast,” “I’m not following you,” “I’m sorry, I don’t understand you.” Kim: “Excuse me, please. I couldn’t catch your speak,” “Excuse me, what do you say?” Sonya: “Repeat, please.”
Yuki: “Please repeat,” “Speak again,” “How to say?”