The Use of Authentic Materials to Strengthen Students’ Listening Skill in the EFL Classrooms

Abstract

This dissertation investigates one of the most problematic subjects in the domain of English language teaching. It originally aims to investigate the effectiveness of authentic materials in teaching English at Biskra University in order to explore their impact on students‟ listening. The present study hypothesizes that if teachers use the authentic materials in teaching English language, then they will strengthen their learners listening skill and motivate them to create a positive learning environment. The present paper consists of two main parts; the theoretical aspect of the study which includes two chapters where we present a historical overview of the authentic materials in the first chapter, while the second chapter examines the nature of listening skill, it also introduces at the end the listening activities with authentic materials. The second part is devoted to the practical aspect of the study; in this part, we put the theory into practice in a form of fieldwork. In an attempt to investigate these facts, a descriptive method has been undertaken and the data were been gathered through three tools; the questionnaire which were administered to (40) second year students at Biskra University, teachers‟ interview that conducts (5) teachers from the current university and the third tool is classroom observation. All participants responded positively and showed the most of interest. The results revealed the students‟ satisfaction about their experience of learning with authentic materials since they shown that authentic materials are the right technique for increasing their listening comprehension and offering the real world in classroom. From their part, teachers have consolidate their students and agreed on the advantages of teaching with authentic materials.