The Concept of Authentic Listening Materials and Criteria for Their Selection

One of the most urgent problems methodologists have faced over years is the issue of utilizing authentic materials which are not deliberately made to teach language learners in a classroom; conversely, they are created to accomplish some communicational aims. It is common perception that bringing authentic materials into classroom is likely to infuse vitality into learning process as well as enhancing students' language skills. Most language experts are adamant that if these sources are applied appropriately during teaching process, they will be quite helpful to elevate learner's communicational competence into a new level.

The effectiveness of these materials in teaching foreign languages spanning the English language is mentioned by a number of scholars. To illustrate, M. B. Kyumova (1993), an author of article entitled «Advantages and Disadvantages of Authentic Materials Use in EFL Classrooms», considers the following virtues of these real sources: 1) Motivation to learning; 2) Authentic cultural information; 3) Real language presentation; 4) Creative approach to teaching [5]. Of course, these four items can not reveal the most elaborate understanding about features of authenticity, but they serve as basic reasons for referring to authentic sources. Continuing with her ideas, the author illustrates some specific functions of these materials as well. She asserts that authentic texts are vital because they widen and reinforce language knowledge, they serve as materials to deal with language, and they improve skills in oral as well as written speech.

The same data is expressed by Philips and Shettlesworth (1978) that authentic materials are regarded for their five crucial features, to be more precise, they have a positive effect on learner motivation; they provide authentic cultural information as well as exposure to real language; they relate more closely to learners ' needs and support a more creative approach to teaching [9].

What is more important here is that both Philips and Kyumova highlight the role of authenticity in increasing students’ motivation. It means one of the most important reasons of bringing authenticity into the classroom is to embolden learners to study. Stating the advantages, Nunan (1999) also claims that the usage of authentic materials entails to «greater interest and variety in the material» that learners strive within the classroom [8]. This authentic material helps to bring «the contact to life», and creates meaningful and easy learning environment for students.

Unlikely, Alicia Anthony (1998), who wrote aboutadvantages of using authentictexts, approaches to the issue in terms of its availability in large scopes [1]. She thinks that authentic materials are easy to find. One can meet them on the Internet, andselect out of dozens. Literature and media do not set a challenge for instructors to search for authenticity as they project «up to date» data. She mostly makes an emphasis on authenticity in reading, and through various researches she proved that real sources are «key factors in advancing comprehension strategies».

Other scholars suggest almost identical advantages of using authentic materials in classroom. To conclude opinions of some experts (Martinez, Nunan, Widdowson and Spelleri), the following virtues of authentic usage can be listed:

– It provides a real discourse;

– It poses intrinsic educational value;

– It develops skills and mini-skills;

– It extends learners’ vocabulary;

Agreeing with all opinions, Harmer (1994) adds «a sense of achievement» to the lists of authentic features [3]. He explores those sources assist learners in three ways:

a) It helps them become better readers and better learners which ultimately helps them produce good language;

b) The acquisition will be better and faster;

c) Students feel triumphant over their accomplishment because the skills that they acquire make them feel that they can handle the situations in the real life too.

Alongside with their advantages, authentic sources have some disadvantages that pose a doubt about whether they should be applied amid the lesson or not. As it has been stated above, these real materials possess a lot of indispensable application, but it does not mean any material considered to be authentic should be introduced to a group of learners. A simple reason is that these sources may not correspond with the objectives of the lesson. In this case, they direct students to another issue distorting a real goal of learning process. Or, if a level of presented materials is higher than the learners' level, some difficulties that trigger confusion will surely arise as it is mentioned by Alicia Anthony. Moreover, Richards (2001, p.253) andMartinez (2002) mention two other weaknesses of using authentic materials [11]. Authentic listening materials are difficult to comprehend because they have so many different accents learners have not practiced yet. The other challenge is that materials may turn into outdated easily, such as news in newspapers or magazines. Bearing these reasons in mind, some teachers consciously ignore authentic materials; however, authenticity is of paramount importance providing it is applied appropriately.

These sources not only reveal pros and cons of authentic materials; in turn, they encourage teachers to be very selective while using these materials in the classroom. Concluding all opinions, it must be stated that instructors are supposed to choose materials very carefully in order to avert the above mentioned negative consequences. Therefore, a number of issues should be considered while choosing authentic materials, especially authentic listening ones.

When it comes to selecting authentic materials to improve learners’ listening which is defined as «the ability to understand spoken language» [10] (Rankin, p.847), scholars hold different opinions. As the scope of criteria for material selection is wide, all suggestions pertaining to the issue should be addressed to draw a final conclusion.

Although some general factors for the choice of authentic materials spanning textual authenticity, suitability, compatibility with course objectives and exploitability prevail [6] (Lee, 1995), they patently need to be specified in terms of their role in listening skill development. Some scholars, therefore, put their own criteria forward tackling this issue in detail. To illustrate, Mc Grath (2002) points out some major aspects of material selection including its relevance to learners’ needs, cultural appropriateness, linguistic demands, cognitive demands and exploitability [7]. According to the author, any authentic listening source should correspond with learning needs and avoid context that is too specific to a certain culture (it surely makes demands on comprehension of people of another culture). Moreover, it is supposed to encompass vocabulary that is known to learners to some extent. In turn, the term «cognitive demands» refers to presence of complicated ideas in a source and their density (whether ideas can easily be perceived by learners or not) while exploitability means listening source should be oriented to skill improvement in any case. This criterion obviously contains the most essential aspects of listening material selection process, but there are some other factors to consider amid material selection.

According to Ji Lingzhu and Zhang Yuanyuan (2010), learners’ language proficiency level and their interest must be taken into consideration to choose appropriate sources [4]. English Language Proficiency (ELP) refers to the ability to communicate in English including proficiency in both academic English or academic literacy as the data by Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (2013) defines. So, learners’ level of English is supposed to be a key point to bring appropriate authentic source into classroom; otherwise, it causes learners’ confusion or frustration during teaching process. Additionally, the authors propose that presented data should engage listeners so that they will be motivated to receive information. Indeed, motivation and interest serve to enhance learning process in most respect. Mc Grath also mentions about learners’ level when explaining linguistic demands; however, Ji Lingzhu and Zhang Yuanyuan’ criteria make a specific emphasis on learners’ interest as a major aspect of selecting authentic listening materials.

Agreeing with Grath’s opinions, another linguist, Field (2008) suggests considering a number of other factors along with learners’ needs, cultural appropriateness, linguistic demands, cognitive demands and exploitability [2]. Field firmly believes that an instructor has to take into consideration the following two factors as well: logistical considerations and quality. Under the term logistical consideration, length and audibility of teaching materials are implied. Patently, presented listening tracks must not be too long as a result of which learning atmosphere is hampered by boredom. Exact constraints on the length of listening source are required to set by an instructor. In addition to this, a quality of audio materials should be considered, to be more precise, speeches in recordings should be audible enough and clear in terms of pronunciation of words.

1) relevant to learner’s needs, level and interest;

2) sufficiently comprehensible regardless of learners’ cultural background;

3) free from too complicated ideas or structure;

4) intended to improve listening skill;

5) adequately long (not too long or short);

6) audible enough; and

7) clear regarding pronunciation.

References:

1. Alicia Anthony (1998). Authentic Materials in Teaching Reading.
2. Field, J. (2008). Listening in the language classroom.
3. Harmer, J. (1994). The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman
4. Ji Lingzhu and Zhang Yuanyuan (2010) The Use of Authentic Materials in Teaching EFL Listening // P. R. China
5. Kyumova M. B. (1993). «Advantages and Disadvantages of Authentic Materials Use in EFL Classrooms». Lincolnwood, Ill: National Textbook Company.
6. Lee, W. (1995). Authenticity revisited: text authenticity and learner authenticity. ELT Journal, 49 (4), 323–328.
7. Mc Grath, I. (2002). Materials Evaluation and Design for Language Teaching. Edinburgh: EUP
8. Nunan, D., (1999). The learner-centered curriculum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (ERIC Document No. ED 388 054).
9. Philips and Shettlesworth (1978). How to ARM your students: A consideration of two approaches to providing materials for ESP, ELT Documents 101, 23–35. London: British Council.
10. Rankin, P. T. (1952). The measurement of the ability to understand spoken language (Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, 1926). Dissertation Abstracts, 12, 847–848.
11. Richards (2001) andMartinez, A. (2002). Authentic materials: An overview. Karen's Linguistic Issues. Retrieved November 20, 2003 (p253), National Textbook Company.
12. Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (2013) ‘Quality Assessment: English Language Proficiency: http://www.teqsa.gov.au/for-providers/quality-assessments.