Using authentic materials to develop listening comprehension in the

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methodology that was employed for the present study and the rationale behind the steps that were taken. Procedures for student selection, data collection, as well as data analysis are also discussed.

Summary of the Study
The primary research question addressed in the current study was: What are the influences of aural authentic materials on the listening comprehension in students of English as a second language?
The secondary research questions asked in the study were:

1. 
   What kinds of learning strategies are most frequently used by ESL students listening to aural authentic materials in the classroom?
   
2. 
   What are the influences of aural authentic materials on ESL students' attitudes towards learning English?
   

The fundamental objective of the study was to examine the influences of authentic materials, or language that is used among native speakers of the language, on listening skills in students of English as a second language. Specifically, the study considered how the use of aural authentic materials in ESL instruction facilitated or impeded students' listening comprehension. Another objective of the study was to describe the learning strategies ESL students normally used when they experienced authentic listening

materials. The other objective of the current study was to determine the consequence of aural authentic materials on ESL students' attitudes towards learning the English language.

In order to achieve these objectives, all international students attending the High Intermediate Academic Listening and Vocabulary Development class at a language training center were invited to participate in the research study. The students who voluntarily cooperated in the research participated in two face-to-face interview sessions for data collection. The first interview was conducted in order to obtain information about the students' educational background and their English-language listening experiences. The second interview was conducted in order to determine the students' attitudes and points of view on the use of aural authentic materials in ESL listening. Both the first and the second interviews were audio-taped. One class session was also video- taped to examine the listening activities in the classroom. The data sources of the current study are presented in Table 1.
To analyze the data, transcripts were made of the interviews; notes were made from the videotape on the listening activities and students' performance in the classroom. These data were triangulated with the information obtained from the interviews. All data were examined in order to answer the research questions about the influences of aural authentic texts on listening comprehension in ESL students and about students' attitudes towards language learning as a result of implementing authentic materials in language instruction. The rationale behind each step will be discussed in detail in the following sections.