The Effectiveness of Instructional vs. Authentic Video Materials for Developing Listening Comprehension Skills

Abstract

Nowadays, technology has emerged into nearly all the spheres of our lives. Language teaching and learning is not an exception. For having new developments and for making changes tothebetter, there is always a need to explore, investigate and to experiment some things. The technological tools used in language teaching are not few. One of those technological tools is video, the effective use of which is claimedby many scholars. The study tried to investigate to usefulness of the two types of video materials as compared to each other: instructional vs., authentic. As there was not much significance for the higher level of usefulness for any of these tools, it was decided to explore thisissue and also to find out EFL learners’ attitude toward these two tools. The experiment was conducted withinone group (10 participants). The students were exposed to both instructional and authentic videos. After each video activity they were given questionnaires, and after each two videos a test was administered. The results of the data analysis showed that there is no significant difference in the usefulness of either type of the videos, whereas the interview revealed that the participants showed greater interest towards authentic video materials. Theresults of the study may be helpful to identify the students’ attitude towards the video materials and also to identify the problems of implementing authentic videos in EFL settings.