FIRST-YEAR FELTE MAINSTREAM STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF ENGLISH AUTHENTIC LISTENING MATERIALS =

Abstract

Under communicative approach, authenticity has gradually been integrated in foreign language classrooms, which has also happened to first-year students studying in Faculty of Language Teacher Education (FELTE) in University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS). An obscure example for this is their English course outlines with more involvement of authentic tasks and materials. However, while previous researchers emphasize the role of leaner authenticity, this matter is rather overshadowed in recent studies in ULIS. To fill in this gap, a research on FELTE first-year students' perceptions of English authentic listening materials (EALM) was conducted. This paper investigated the perceptions of 26 first-year FELTE mainstream students selected by convenience sampling method. Three instruments namely journals, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed to collect data which were analyzed by qualitative and quantitiative methods. The results showed that nearly 90% of the participants like being exposed to EALM in their classrooms and their most favourite types of EALM were songs, movies, cartoons and quiz shows. Different opinions about EALM's advantages and disadvantages were also gathered, in which students showed high levels of agreement with all suggested benefits but seemed to be neutral about EALM's disadvantages, except for EALM's inefficiency in language improvement which was generally disagreed. This paper also drew out some factors to consider when choosing EALM and included some unanticipated expectations of students towards EALM exploitation in classrooms. Finally, implications about EALM's position and suggested ways to select and apply EALM in classrooms were remarked for more effective authenticity integration.