Authentic Materials: Effective Solutions for Listening in Efl Context

AUTHENTIC MATERIALS: EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS FOR LISTENING IN EFL CONTEXT

Fitria Aprilia

Lecturer of Binadarma University Jalan Jenderal Ahmad Yani No.3 Palembang email: [email protected]

Abstact: Listening was previously considered as passive skill but now that assumption has been neglected. Lack of adequate exposure to listening and dearth of attention with regard to these issues sets the ground for authentic listening materials to fill the gaps in EFL context. Authentic materials – unsolicited, spontaneous, natural and covering a wide spectrum of styles from formal to very informal, can truthfully reflect the real life language, narrow the distance between the learners and the target language used in reality, it becomes increasingly attractive to language experts, classroom practitioners and the learners. The fundamental purpose of this paper is to present the power of authentic materials as effective solutions for listening ability in students of English as a foreign language. The authentic materials could be a great help in reaching the goal of improving listening skill and is going to be discussed in greater detail in this paper.

Key words: listening skill, pragmatic appropriateness, authentic materials

Abstrak: Kemampuan mendengar tidak lagi dianggap sebagai suatu kemampuan pasif. Kurang memadainya latihan dan tidak adanya perhatian dalam kemampuan mendengarkan menjadi dasar timbulnya materi/bahan otentik sebagai solusi dalam mengisi kesenjangan yang terjadi dalam konteks EFL tersebut. Materi/bahan otentik – dibuat bukan untuk tujuan pembelajaran, spontan dan natural, serta meliputi jenis formal dan informal, mampu mencerminkan bahasa yang sesungguhnya, memperkecil jarak antara siswa dan target bahasa yang digunakan dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, dan menjadi sesuatu yang sangat menarik bagi para ahli bahasa, praktisi kelas/pendidik, dan siswa. Artikel ini memaparkan tentang fungsi dari materi/bahan otentik sebagai solusi efektif untuk meningkatkan kemapuan mendengar bagi siswa EFL. Materi/bahan otentik mampu menjadi penunjang dalam mencapai tujuan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan mendengar siswa.

Kata Kunci: kemapuan mendengar, kesesuaian pragmatis, materi autentik

INTRODUCTION nine percent on writing. However, listening is usually the weakest point for most EFL Listening is a language skill that can students due to the less and incompatible be developed through practice. It is drawing practice of listening itself. more and more of people’s attention in In regard to the process of language recent years. People recognize its important learning and daily communication, it is role in the language learning and important that students are provided with the communication in the target language. suitable materials to listen to. In most cases, According to Miller (2003), more than forty what students listen to is conversations and percent of our daily communication is spent stories, but in reality they listen to far more on listening, thirty-five percent on speaking, things. The listening exercises, which are about sixteen percent on reading, and only

1 often prepared in advance and are often in concerned too exclusively with theories the forms of true or false questions, without thinking about their application to multiple-choice and short question teaching or by obstinately following answering, are usually recorded on the tape, monotonous routines-opening the textbook and don’t provide students with the kind of and explaining new words, playing the tape practice needed. Conducting this kind of recorder, and asking/answering questions. It class is an easy job for teachers, but it does is essential for a teacher to have an overall not provide learners with realistic understanding of what listening is and why it preparation for real life listening. is difficult for foreign-language learners. The gap between what students Listening and hearing is not the same learn and how the language is used in thing. Hearing can be compared to listening everyday life clearly exists. Miller (2003) just like seeing can be compared to reading. claims that the aim of all listening lessons A person who is dyslexic can see the letters should allow the learners to reach a greater on a page, but unless s/he receives proper degree of interdependence when confronted training, s/he can not really understand their with listening to the foreign language in a meaning. Studies describe most people are real world context, and that means using poor and not natural listeners even though authentic materials. Nowadays, many much of our day requires this skill. Most of classroom teachers turn to the authentic us can speak up to 125 words per minute, but materials for help. They are trying their best we have the ability to understand the spoken to equip learners with limited target word at gusts of up to 400 words per minute language knowledge to meet the challenge of (Islam, 2012). In general, we understand and real life listening. retain only one-fourth of what we hear. Based on the foregoing discussion, Ghaderpanahi (2012), states that this paper discusses the issues concerning listening is probably the least explicit of the the power of the authentic materials as four language skills, making it the most effective solutions to the teaching of difficult one to learn. Students who are fine listening in EFL context. with speaking at their own pace may have DEFINITIONS AND LISTENING trouble in listening to a recording that is a PROCESS regular-speed conversation. Vandergrift

In teaching listening emphasize that listening is a complex, active comprehension, teachers must be careful not process of interpretation in which listeners to go too extremes, either by being match what they hear with what they already

2 know, while listening comprehension is an LISTENING PROBLEMS interactive, interpretive process where listeners use both prior knowledge and Listening is often confusing for an linguistic knowledge in understanding English learner. There are a number of messages (as cited in Liubinienė, 2009, p. reasons for this. According to Ghaderpanahi 89). In this case, the prior knowledge (2012), the reasons why listening is difficult includes the knowledge of the topic, comes mainly from six sources: layers of familiarity with the discipline, awareness of sound, accents, intonation, methods of the listening context, the text-type, and the teaching, bound to the written word, and the culture or other information held in long- last is the teacher’s own accent. term memory. Furthermore, Ronald and  Layers of sound Roskelly define listening as an active Unlike reading in which the learner is process requiring the same skills of given a single text to follow, in real-life prediction, hypothesizing, checking, situations, native speakers speak over each revising, and generalizing that writing and other at different volumes and speeds and reading demand (as cited in Islam, 2012, p. often with frequent interruptions. The 206). written equivalent is having two or three During the listening activity, there texts mixed up with some writing bigger and are two distinct processes characterize some smaller and sentences interrupted by listening comprehension. When learners rely comments and other sentences. on prior knowledge in order to understand  Accents the meaning of a message, they are using While written English is pretty much “top-down” processes. Top-down processing the same all over the world, there are a refers to how we use our world knowledge to myriad of accents in spoken English which attribute meaning to language input and how can make it even more difficult for the our knowledge of social convention helps us learner to follow a conversation. The written understand meaning, meanwhile, “Bottom- equivalent is having different handwriting up” processes are also used by learners when plus having the same words spelt differently they rely on specific components of the L2 depending on who is writing them. for aural comprehension when the meaning  Intonation is constructed from morphemes to words to Intonation is the way in which a grammatical relationships to lexical sentence is sounded. Native speakers do not meanings until the message is decoded speak in monotone but raise or lower the (Liubinienė, 2009, p. 89).

3 pitch of an utterance as they speak. The most understanding that listening exercises could common example is when they make a be divided into three main parts: Pre- simple question. There is no one-stop listening, While-listening, and Post-listening solution to this problem. However, in the activities. The following example made by classroom there are a number of strategies a Miller (2003), may contribute a vivid teacher can use to help students to listen procedure about the teaching of listening: well.  Pre-Listening activities  Methods of teaching A teacher can initiate a short Once the teacher has an idea about discussion with the learners in the pre- the problems a learner faces, s/he can better listening stage as to what they think of the find solutions and effective methods of topic before they listen to the text (activating teaching. Thus it is important to explain to world and personal knowledge). the class how the written sentence can differ  While-Listening activities from the spoken sentence because of the Learners can be helped to focus on reasons above. their listening by careful selection of tasks  Bound to written word that are meaningful and that cater to Many students are bound to the developing specific listening skills rather written word. When doing a listening than on constantly measuring performance exercise, the teacher can have all books through test-like exercises. closed so the students only listen rather than  Post-Listening activities try to match the sounds to words on the Learners can be asked to use page. whatever information they gathered from a  Teacher’s own accent. text to have an extended discussion in a post- The teacher can introduce accents listening stage (allowing for more into the class. The teacher can have the individualization and critical comments to be students listen to a "neutral" text and then developed). the same in an accent and have them point AUTHENTIC MATERIALS AND ITS out and analyze the differences in CLASSIFICATIONS pronunciation. The definitions of authentic materials MAIN PARTS OF LISTENING are slightly different in literature written by EXERCISES different researchers of language. However, In the teaching and learning process there is a common point in these definitions of listening, it is crucial for the teachers to which is exposure to real language and its

4 use in its own community (Kilickaya, 2004, from what is called ‘the 3 C’s’, that is to say, p. 1). He argue that since authentic texts culture, currency, and challenge. He donates the learner the feeling that he or she explicates that culture in that authentic texts is learning the real language – the target incorporate and represent the culture/s of language as it is used by social colonies that speakers of the target language; currency, in speak it their use is now regarded as one way that authentic texts offer topics and language for enhancing students’ motivation for in current use, as well as those relevant to learning. The notion of authenticity itself has the learners; challenge, in that authentic texts been much discussed. Nunan (1989) thinks are intrinsically more challenging yet can be that a rule of thumb for authenticity here is used at all proficiency levels (as cited in any material which has not been specifically Sabet & Mahsefat, 2012, p. 218). produced for the purposes of language Based on these definitions, the real teaching. In EFL contexts, the classroom is meaning of authentic materials: they are real the major, or even the sole source of input language, produced for the native speakers; and the only opportunity for interaction. It is designed without the teaching purposes. In also important for teachers to find ways to this sense, there are a large amount of make out of class hours potentially authentic materials in our life such as conducive to language learning as well as to newspaper and magazine articles, TV and promote language awareness. Grundy stated radio broadcast, daily conversations, that it is especially important to encourage meetings, documents, speech, videos and the development of pragmatic knowledge films. because pragmatic errors are judged more To introduce authentic materials in strictly than grammatical ones, and it is language teaching, it’s important to classify therefore crucial for teachers to help learners them first, because some of them are suitable develop pragmatic competence, particularly for the teaching of reading and writing, and for global communication (as cited in some are effective when prepared for the Shomoossi & Ketabi, 2007, p. 152). teaching of listening and speaking. Authentic Furthermore, Martinez (2002), materials can be classified into four defined that Authentic would be material categories (Gebhard, 1996): designed for native speakers of English used  Authentic Listening-Viewing in the classroom in a way similar to the one Materials: TV commercials, quiz it was designed for. Besides, Mishan claims shows, cartoons, news clips, comedy that the focal pedagogical rationale for using shows, movies, soap operas, authentic materials in FL teaching originates professionally audio-taped short

5 stories and novels, radio ads, songs, what native speakers say when they are documentaries, and sales pitches. talking to each other, have been used to  Authentic Visual Materials: slides, define authentic listening material. Bringing photographs, paintings, children’ authentic materials into the classroom can be artwork, stick-figure drawings, motivating for the students, as it adds a real- wordless street signs, silhouettes, life element to the student’s learning pictures from magazine, ink blots, experience. postcard pictures, wordless picture PRAGMATIC APPROPRIATENESS books, stamps, and X-rays.  Authentic Printed Materials: Curriculum reformers and syllabus newspaper articles, movie designers may have to rethink what is meant advertisements, astrology columns, by authenticity in terms of appropriateness. sports reports, obituary columns, Finding authentic materials (produced only advice columns, lyrics to songs, by native speakers and for non-teaching restaurant menus, street signs, cereal purposes) is a major preoccupation in ELT, boxes, candy wrappers, tourist and publishers’ claim that their materials are information brochures, university authentic in the narrow sense of authenticity catalogs, telephone books, maps, TV have been inevitable issues in the past guides, comic books, greeting cards, (Shomoossi & Ketabi, 2007, p. 153). For grocery coupons, pins with messages, current practice, however, pragmatic and and bus schedules. pedagogic appropriateness should be the  Realia (Real world objects) used in primary consideration in syllabus design. EFL and ESL Classrooms: coins and The materials adopted in a teaching currency, folded paper, wall clocks, situation may not contain the tone or details phones, Halloween masks, dolls, and of utterances. It is up to the teacher to puppets, to name a few. Realia are enliven the situation by providing sufficient often used to illustrate points very information to the learners. Materials visually or for role-play situations designers also need to consider the effects or Here, the mainly focus is on the outcomes of what is said to whom, when and authentic listening materials. In literature, how in terms of complying with the demand phrases like: real speech, the spontaneous of being ‘real’, in a sense that materials speech, live or natural language, genuine presented can be perceived as ‘real’ instanced of language use, natural examples of communication in the classroom conversation, what people say in real life, setting. A new dimension in the teaching of

6 English will be added in interactions They provide exposure to real between two speakers of different first language. languages in unpredictable contexts, and in  Authentic materials keep students situations where speakers need to manage informed about what is happening in cross-cultural communication. Therefore, the world, so they have an intrinsic new approaches to materials development educational value. will need to avoid culturally loaded formulas  Textbooks often do not include once borrowed from the native speaker incidental or improper English. variety of English, because the shared knowledge between interlocutors is not  They can produce a sense of necessarily a copy of the native speaker achievement, e.g., a brochure on norms; Rather, new approaches are likely to England given to students to plan a focus more on materials where the context is 4-day visit. created immediately by the human  The same piece of material can be participants in interaction, the key role being used under different circumstances if assigned to the teacher – whether native the task is different. speaker or nonnative speaker. Ultimately, the  Language change is reflected in the best resource of genuine materials could be materials so that students and the learners themselves, and in particular teachers can keep abreast of such those who have been exposed to real-life changes. situations and tasks.  Reading texts are ideal to

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AUTHENTIC teach/practice mini-skills such as MATERIALS scanning, e.g. students are given a

According to Martinez (2002), using news article and asked to look for authentic materials in the classroom, even specific information (amounts, when not done in an authentic situation, and percentages, etc.) provided it is appropriately exploited, is  The teacher can have students significant for many reasons, amongst which practice some of the micro-skills are: mentioned by Richards (1983), e.g.  Students are exposed to real basic students listen to news reports discourse, as in videos of interviews and they are asked to identify the with famous people where names of countries, famous people, intermediate students listen for gist. etc. (ability to detect key words).

7  Books, articles, newspapers, and so Martinez (2002), added that authentic on contain a wide variety of text materials may be too culturally biased, so types, language styles not easily unnecessarily difficult to understand outside found in conventional teaching the language community. The vocabulary materials. might not be relevant to the student's

 They can encourage reading for immediate needs. Linguistically, they tend to pleasure because they are likely to be more difficult, being unsimplified, with contain topics of interest to learners, more complex syntactic patterns and especially if students are given the vocabulary. Too many structures are mixed, chance to have a say about the topics so lower levels have a hard time decoding or kinds of authentic materials to be the texts. In news stories, novels, and other used in class. authentic texts, grammatical items show up unexpectedly, and without warning, which Furthermore, Tamo (2009) proposes require students to have mastered core some more advantages of using authentic knowledge of grammar, and this generally materials; for instance, authentic materials means more sophisticated understanding have a positive effect on learner motivation beyond the intermediate level of and support a more creative approach to understanding. The special preparation is teaching. necessary which can be time consuming. In addition, authentic texts which For authentic listening materials, the have been mentioned before are often students might deal with too many different regarded as more interesting to the students accents form different native speakers. than textbook materials because they can be Moreover, the material can become outdated more up-to-date, and relate to everyday easily, e.g. News. And the last, there are issues and activities. This would suggest many headlines, adverts, signs, and so on their relevancy is increased and therefore that can require good knowledge of the student motivation naturally follows. To cultural background. Instances of this summarize, we can say that learner-authentic abound in the media, such as headlines that materials are mainly learner-centered, and many times use abbreviations (P.O.W., they can serve effectively to promote M.I.A., G.O.P. and so on). learner’s interest in language learning.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS OF USING CONSIDERATIONS OF SELECTING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

In choosing materials effectively,

8 there should always be an aim in using them In addition, there are also basic and chosen materials should meet the principles of receptive skill lesson objectives of the lesson. The criteria such as development proposed by Laamri (2009): learners’ age, level, interests, needs, goals,  We do not necessarily simplify the and expectations must always be met. text, we simplify the tasks. Laamri (2009) proposed some criteria for  We should always define the task selecting authentic materials: before listening/viewing, so that  Authenticity: The selected material students can look/listen for and find should serve communicative goals. vs. look at/listen to and get lost.  Accessibility: The material should be  We should bear in mind that most easy for the learner to understand and tasks require a separate suitable for the teacher. reading/listening, since our purpose  Appropriateness: It should suit the for listening determines how we learner’s age, level needs and listen. interests.  We should design a hierarchy of  Applicability: It should suit the tasks: pre-activities, global activities, teaching context and makes the specific information activities, objectives attainable. linguistic activities, and post-  Adaptability: It should be adapted to activities. the learners’ level, needs and In relation to learner’s proficiency interests. level and the linguistic demands of the Moreover, he also suggested some listening, Lingzhu and Yuanyuan (2010) special considerations for audio and video proposed the following questions that material. Those are: teachers need to bear in mind:

 How long is the clip or segment?  Is the critical vocabulary in the  How is the sound quality? The rate of recording (words central to an delivery? The register? understanding of a topic) likely to be  How many speakers are involved? familiar to the listener?  Do the visuals support the audio? Do  To what extent does the task rely they give everything away? upon the ability to decode the  Is this a timeless clip, with a linguistic content? universal topic?

9  To what extent can the task be baghban, 2011, p. 11) also recommends the achieved without a full understanding following criteria in authentic material of the linguistic content? selection:

As what have been discussed before,  Topic should be accessible to spoken language is too complex to be learners. introduced in the classroom in the first stage  Length of material should not be of foreign language learning, but in the intimidating to beginning readers. second or intermediate stage of foreign  Linguistic level should be slightly language learning, all the factors of the above the reader’s own level unless spontaneously spoken language come into the tasks are closely structured to action. So, for the lower level learners, involve focused reading. teacher should provide easier materials such In this case, teachers have to think as the short headline type reports, audio and how easy it is to create interest in the topic at radio advertising, or short news broadcasts a pre-listening stage and how familiar the or children’s songs. For the intermediate topic is to the students. Learner’s interest is levels, there is a wider range of choices. another important factor that should be taken Four or five minutes TV or radio news into consideration when selecting authentic reports, the slightly adopted movies, or even listening materials. whole TV programs can be included. As for It’s necessary for teachers to know the advanced level students, they have students’ likes and dislikes on listening learned the target language for years and materials and it’s wise for them to make a have the ability of dealing with the possible survey among students before the selection. difficulties with their linguistic competence In this way, the selected materials may be and world knowledge. Teachers now can accepted by most of the students and choose some political speeches, ceremonial successful listening teaching may achieve. formulae, gossip, family quarrels etc. as the For the cultural appropriateness, if teaching materials. These materials are either there is any cultural specific content in the very formal (ceremonial formulae, political recording, the teachers should consider speeches) or fairly informal (gossip, family whether they can reduce its quarrels), which are considered very difficult comprehensibility to the listeners from other for foreign language learners. cultural backgrounds or whether it can In line with the criteria mentioned potentially cause cultural offence. How before, Galloway (as cited in Vahid- complex are the ideas in the recording? How dense are they? How complex are the

10 relationships between the ideas? How According the study done by complex is the overall argument structure? Lingzhu and Yuanyuan (2010), the Can you design any learning tasks based on following ways of using authentic materials the text to ensure the learners’ are effective to improve students’ listening comprehension? There are other factors need ability: to be considered: the information density, A. Integrating target culture with language the accent, the speed of the speaker, the teaching relevance of the listening material to the Language and culture are closely related syllabus and the students etc (Lingzhu & with each other. Language is a part of culture Yuanyuan, 2010). and plays an important role in it. On one hand, To sum up, it be can concluded that without language, culture cannot be transmitted. although authentic materials are abundant, On the other hand, language is influenced and the selection to fit them into the shaped by culture. Language and culture interact learning/teaching context is not with each other and the understanding of one influences the understanding of the other. accomplished effortlessly. First and foremost, learners’ language level must be In the teaching of listening considered in selecting the listening material comprehension, we can find that listening materials, especially authentic materials, often and they must be carefully examined for have much cultural content that is closely related their lexical and structural difficulty. to the knowledge of American and British Moreover, to choose appropriate themes and culture, society, and economy. If students lack topics, learners’ needs and interests are this kind of knowledge, there will be difficulties required to be reflected on. in their listening comprehension. Maybe many of us have this experience: when we are listening to APPLYING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS something familiar to us, whatever is concerned, Authentic materials have many we usually find it easy to understand. Even if advantages compared to inauthentic there are some new words, we are able to guess materials. However, it does not mean that their meanings from the context. However, if the choosing and using appropriate authentic materials are unfamiliar to us, or too culturally based, we may feel very difficult. Even if there materials in teaching listening can really are no new words in the materials, we can only improve students listening ability. The most get the literal meaning. We don’t understand the important thing is what kinds of methods are meaning in depth, because of the lack of cultural adapted to utilize these materials. As for the information. For instance, here is a sentence question of utilizing, different people have from a report, “The path to November is uphill different opinions. all the way.” November literally means “the

11 eleventh month of the year”. But here it refers to the context. Some English idioms mean much the presidential election to be held in November. more than the literal meanings. Authentic Another example is “red-letter-days”—which is materials are likely to contain many idioms, a simple phrase and easy to hear, meaning especially in films. The teacher should explain holidays such as Christmas and other special the idioms and ask students to accumulate them. days. Without teachers’ explanation, students are Students can benefit from this in the long run. usually unable to understand them. In order to 3. Encouraging students’ self-learning solve the problems in this respect, teachers are Time in class is limited. Teachers’ suggested to pay attention to culture teaching in teaching is just one of the learning resources listening comprehension for the students. Teachers should raise 1. Introducing background knowledge students’ cultural awareness, and encourage

Some listening materials are too them to learn the target culture by culturally based, thus not easy for students to themselves. Here is a long term plan of understand. A good suggestion for teachers is to culture learning: the teacher asks the introduce some background information before students to learn the target culture in their listening. For example, if what the students are spare time in group. Students are supposed going to listen to is a piece of BBC or VOA to have discussions on their interested topics news, the teacher had better explain the names of with their group members and prepare a countries, places, people’s names and ages etc. report for the whole class. In this way, they appeared in the news, which are a little difficult can accumulate their information and learn for second language learners. If the materials are on western customs, the possible way for the more. It’ better for the teacher to give the teacher is to ask students to search the relevant students one hour to report each week. This information in advance and then share what they plan emphasizes students’ self-learning. have found with the whole class. If teachers prepare original English films for students, it’s B. Helping students to adapt to authentic wise for them to introduce the characters, the listening situation settings, and the general plot and tell students The goal of listening teaching is to how to watch these original films. In this way, help students to understand the “real speech” students may feel easier to listen to the authentic to communicate in real life. Listeners must listening materials. be able to understand natural listening 2. Explaining idioms speech to meet their own needs as members Idioms are important in any language of the English-speaking community. and culture. They are often hard to understand However, many learners complain that and hard to use appropriately. We know that it’s authentic listening situations are in most usually impossible to understand them without

12 cases out of their control. To solve this D. Integrated skills on activating students’ problem, Mendolsohn put forward that authentic response teachers should provide listeners with It is important to integrate listening strategies training. His way is to train with other skills because listening is not an listeners’ ability of starting listening from isolated skill. According to Oxford (as as the middle. For example, if students listen to cited in Lingzhu & Yuanyuan, 2010), most a conversation from the middle, they are of the time in real life, listening occurs expected to attune to the conversation while together with speaking and it also occurs simultaneously trying to understand it (as with writing, for example, note-taking while cited in Lingzhu & Yuanyuan, 2010). listening to a lecture. Therefore, activities require such techniques as note-taking, C. Predicting discussing, role-play, or summary writing In listening practice, some students etc. can be introduced in listening tend to believe that unless they understand comprehension, and activate students’ everything, they will understand nothing. authentic response to authentic materials. They always want to gain the total and It is said that the activities based on thorough comprehension. In fact, even native authentic materials are generally the same as speaker do not impose a standard of total the traditional listening class activities, comprehension on themselves, and they except that these activities require more indeed tolerated a certain degree of productive responses. The most common vagueness. listening activities proposed by Rixon (as In using authentic listening materials, cited in Lingzhu & Yuanyuan, 2010) are: we should learn to tolerate vagueness. It is  Posing of problems (pre-questioning necessary to encourage students to make or discussing work sheet) most of their incomplete comprehension, and  The class listens and gives individual predict what they will hear next. answers on worksheet; Understanding is not something that happens because of what a speaker says, the listener  The class discusses their results in has a crucial part to play in the process by pairs or small group. The teacher activating various types of knowledge withholds “correct” answers at this applying what he knows to what he hears stage; and trying to understand what the speaker  The class listen again as necessary to means. solve anomalies or settle disputes as far as possible;

13  Whole-class discussion of results, exploited. Therefore, applying authentic elicited by teacher. materials with the right teaching methods

 Teachers play back tapes to whole would possibly become an effective class. Final discussing of language solution to the students’ listening skill in points that have lead to dispute or EFL context. misunderstanding. REFERENCES The main focus is on the skill of discussing. In fact, in teaching practice, Gebhard, J.G. (1996). Teaching English as a foreign or second language. Ann teachers have many choices. After seeing a Arbor, MI: University of Michigan film, they can ask students to do the role Press. play of certain scenes or make oral Ghaderpanahi, L. (2012). Using authentic comments on some characters; after listening aural materials to develop listening comprehension in the EFL to a lecture, help students to organize an classroom. English Language interview; they can also use discussing, Teaching, 5(6), 146-153. retelling, etc. All of these are effective ways Islam, M. N. (2012). An analysis on how to of using authentic materials in listening improve tertiary EFL students’ listening skill of English. Journal of comprehension. Studies in Education, 2(2), 205-214.

CONCLUSIONS Kilickaya, F. (2004). Authentic materials and cultural content in EFL To conclude, some teachers think classroom. TESL Journal, 10(7). that listening is the easiest skill to teach, Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kilickaya whereas most students think it is the most -AutenticMaterial.html. difficult to improve. This contradiction tells Laamri, S. (2009). Authentic materials: that there are some things about teaching Towards a rational selection and an listening that need to be explored. This effective implementation. Univ- Biskra, 31, 1-23. paper has tried to explore the issues of some implications of using authentic Lingzhu, J., & Yuanyuan, Z. (2010). The use of authentic materials in teaching materials for listening skill in the EFL listening. Humanising classroom. Authentic materials can do Language Teaching, 12(4). Retrieved from some things that other materials are not http://www.hltmag.co.uk/aug10/mart capable of. However, inevitably they have 03.htm. Liubinienė, V. (2009). Developing listening to be used in small doses, must be carefully skills in CLIL. Studies About selected and controlled, and need well- Language, 15(1), 89-93. thought out teaching exercises to be fully

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Nunan, D. (1989). Designing tasks for the Tamo, D. (2009). The use of authentic communicative classroom. materials in classrooms. LCPJ, 2(1), 74-78. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vahid-baghban, Z. Z. (2011). A review on the effectiveness of using authentic Sabet, M.K., & Mahsefat, H. (2012). The materials in ESP courses. English for impact of authentic listening Specific Purposes World, 10(31), 1- materials on elementary EFL 14 learners’ listening skills.