VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

PERCEPTIONS OF
THIRD-YEAR MAINSTREAM STUDENTS
TOWARDS AUTHENTIC LISTENING MATERIALS
IN NEWS SHARING ASSIGNMENT

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Kim Phượng (M.Ed)
Student: Ngô Thu Phương
Class: QH2016.F1.E2

HÀ NỘI - 2020


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NHẬN THỨC CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM BA HỆ
CHUẨN VỀ TÀI LIỆU NGHE XÁC THỰC TRONG
BÀI TẬP CHIA SẺ TIN TỨC

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Nguyễn Thị Kim Phượng (Th.S)

Sinh viên: Ngơ Thu Phương

Khố: QH2016.F1.E2

HÀ NỘI – 2020

ii


Approval of Supervisor:

Signature

Date
June 11, 2020.

iii


ACCEPTANCE PAGE
I hereby state that I: Ngo Thu Phuong (QH2016.F1.E2), being a candidate
for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL), accept the requirements of the
University relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper
deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited
in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care,
loan or reproduction of the paper.

Signature

Date

June 11, 2020.

iv


ABSTRACT
In light of communicative language teaching, authentic listening materials
have been encouraged in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, to
provide a sense of realism for learners. Unlike earlier studies on students of
intermediate and lower levels, this paper seeks to examine that of upperintermediate English, specifically third-year mainstream students in FELTE. The
present study aims at investigating the perceptions of students towards authentic
listening materials’ influences, in terms of students’ participation and their
listening comprehension improvement. Participants of this research includes 116
survey respondents selected by convenience sampling method, and 4 interviewees
chosen by maximum variation sampling. In order to take advantage of both
quantitative and qualitative data, the researcher adopted convergent parallel
mixed-methods design that yield several important results. As regards the findings,
third-year students in FELTE confirmed relevance to real-life situation, personal
and professional interest, the drive of challenge and variability of accents to be the
positive effects, while speed of delivery and lack of outline at the beginning
discouraged them to participate in the News Sharing. Moreover, better
performance were not clearly recognized, but improvements of four sub-skills,
namely listening for main idea, listening for details, listening for organization and
note-taking skills, along with critical thinking skill, were admitted by half of the
participants. Notably, not only the language but also the content played an
inevitable role in their skill enhancement. Lastly, suggestions are proposed for
teachers to invite students’ interest, regarding their professional and personal
interest, and for students to prepare for the session more thoroughly.

i



ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, I would like to show my sincere gratitude to my beloved
supervisor - Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong for her infinite patience, constant
support and profound feedback throughout this study. Without her, I would never
reach this stage of writing an acknowledgement and completing the paper.
I am also thankful for the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education
for extending the deadlines from time to time. With the appearance of Covid-19
pandemic, things have been extremely hard for us to deal with lately.
Moreover, I am indebted to my dear participants, whose support has been a
deciding factor in the accomplishment of this study. Heartfelt thanks, especially,
to my Lionet people that provided me with endless assistance and valuable
insights.
I will forever appreciate my friends, who are also my influencers on this
journey. I count myself fortunate to have Tran Hoai Linh as an amazing
encourager, Hoang Thi Minh Nguyet as a caring companion and Le Thuy Duong
as a supportive friend.
Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my family
whose love and understanding never fail to keep me going. Also, I would show
appreciation to myself for not giving up, even in the darkest time.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ..............................................................................................iii
LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... v

LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... vi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1
1.1. Statement of the problems and rationale for the study ................................................ 1
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study ..................................................................................... 2
1.3. Scope of the study ............................................................................................................. 2
1.4. Significance of the study .................................................................................................. 3
1.5. Organization ..................................................................................................................... 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................... 4
2.1. Authentic materials .......................................................................................................... 4
2.2. Authentic listening materials........................................................................................... 5
2.3. Authentic listening materials in the News Sharing sessions ......................................... 6
2.4. The effects of authentic materials towards students’ participation and listening
comprehension ......................................................................................................................... 7
2.4.1. Authentic materials’ effects on students’ participation ..............................................................7
2.4.2. Authentic materials’ help to foster students’ listening comprehension......................................8

2.5. Related studies on students’ perceptions of authentic listening materials ................ 10
2.5.1. In the world...............................................................................................................................10
2.5.2. In Vietnam ................................................................................................................................11

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .............................................................................. 13
3.1. Research Design: Convergent Parallel Mixed-methods Design ................................. 13
3.2. Setting of the study ......................................................................................................... 14
3.3. Sampling .......................................................................................................................... 14
3.3.1. Sampling for questionnaire.......................................................................................................14
3.3.2 Sampling for interview ..............................................................................................................15

3.4. Data collection ................................................................................................................ 16

3.4.1. Data collection instruments ......................................................................................................16
3.4.1.1. Questionnaire ....................................................................................................................16
3.4.1.2. Interview ...........................................................................................................................23
3.4.2. Data collection procedure .........................................................................................................25
3.4.2.1. Data from questionnaires ..................................................................................................26
3.4.2.2. Data from interviews .........................................................................................................26

3.5 Data analysis .................................................................................................................... 27
iii


CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .......................................................... 28
4.1. Quantitative data analysis: Numeric data from the questionnaire ........................... 28
4.1.1. Demographic information of participants.................................................................................28
4.1.2. Research Question #1: The Extent to Which Authentic Listening Materials Affect Students’
Participation in the News Sharing Assignment ..................................................................................32
4.1.2.1. Positive effects ..................................................................................................................32
4.1.2.2. Negative effects .................................................................................................................35
4.1.3. Research Question #2: The Extent to Which Authentic Materials Help Students Foster Their
Listening Comprehension ...................................................................................................................37
4.1.3.1. Features that facilitate listening comprehension improvement .........................................37
4.1.3.2. Features that impede listening comprehension improvement ...........................................39

4.2. Qualitative data analysis ................................................................................................ 40
4.2.1. Non-numeric data from the questionnaire ................................................................................40
4.2.2. Interview data ...........................................................................................................................42
4.2.2.1. Demographic information of interviewees........................................................................42
4.2.2.2. Research Question #1: The Extent to Which Authentic Listening Materials Affect
Students’ Participation in the News Sharing Assignment..............................................................43
4.2.2.3. Research Question #2: The Extent to Which Authentic Materials Help Students Foster

Their Listening Comprehension Ability ........................................................................................44

4.3. Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 47
4.3.1. Research question #1: The Extent to Which Authentic Listening Materials Affect Students’
Participation in the News Sharing Assignment ..................................................................................47
4.3.2. Research question #2: The Extent to Which Authentic Materials Help Students Foster Their
Listening Comprehension ...................................................................................................................49

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .................................................................................... 51
5.1. Summary of the findings................................................................................................ 51
5.2. Implication for teaching................................................................................................. 52
5.3. Limitations of the study ................................................................................................. 53
5.4. Suggestions for further research ................................................................................... 53

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 54
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 59
Appendix A: Questionnaire .................................................................................................. 59
Appendix B: Interview questions ......................................................................................... 66

iv


LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Types of authentic materials ................................................................ 5
Table 2: News Sharing procedure ...................................................................... 6
Table 3: Five themes of research question #1 in the literature .......................... 9
Table 4: Four themes of research question #2 in the literature ........................ 10
Table 5: Sample size for 土5%, 土7% and 土10% Precision Levels Where
Confidence Level is 95% and P=.5 ........................................................... 15
Table 6: Illustrative scale for listening skill: Watching TV and films............. 17

Table 7: Illustrative scale for listening skill: Overall listening comprehension.
................................................................................................................... 19
Table 8: Illustrative scale for listening skill: Radio audio & recordings ......... 19
Table 9: Illustrative items for listening skill: news videos & audios, as
perceived by third-year mainstream students in ULIS.............................. 20
Table 10: Questionnaire items of section 2 in accordance with themes .......... 22
Table 11: Questionnaire items of section 3 in accordance with themes .......... 23
Table 12: Interview questions in accordance with 2 research questions ......... 25
Table 13: Interview data analysis .................................................................... 27
Table 14: Changes in news listening level after the News Sharing assignment,
................................................................................................................... 31
Table 15: Questionnaire - Relevance to real-life situation .............................. 32
Table 16: Questionnaire – Personal interest .................................................... 33
Table 17: Questionnaire - Confidence building ............................................... 34
Table 18: Questionnaire - Frustration .............................................................. 35
Table 19: Questionnaire - Speed of delivery and Linguistic problems ........... 36
Table 20: Questionnaire - Better performance ................................................ 37
Table 21: Questionnaire - Language appreciation ........................................... 38
Table 22: Questionnaire - Attention to the content and linguistic limitations . 39
Table 23: Questionnaire - Other limitations .................................................... 40
Table 24: Non numeric data - Authentic materials’ effect on students’
participation .............................................................................................. 41
Table 25: Non-numeric data - Authentic materials’ effects on students’
listening comprehension ability ................................................................ 41
Table 26: Demographic information of interviewees ...................................... 42
Table 27: Listening sub-skill improvement as perceived by students ............. 45

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Participants’ college majors .............................................................. 28
Figure 2: Time spent on preparation for News Sharing session (as a
facilitator) .................................................................................................. 29
Figure 3: Time spent on preparation for News Sharing session (as an attendee)
................................................................................................................... 29
Figure 4: Listening level before and after News Sharing assignment, as
perceived by students ................................................................................ 30

vi


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
No.

Abbreviations

1

EALM

2

EFL

3

FELTE

4


ULIS

Full form
English Authentic Listening Materials
English as a Foreign Language
Faculty of English Language Teacher
Education
University of Languages and International
Studies

vii


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Statement of the problems and rationale for the study
With the appearance of Communicative Language Teaching in the 1970s,
a new focus has been brought on ‘realism’ in language learning materials and
activities. (Buendgens-Kosten, 2014). Taking this into consideration, there has
been a major breakthrough in teaching methodology, lesson procedures, as well as
the use of teaching and learning materials. Krashen and Terrel (1983) claim that
the aim of language instruction is to allow learners to understand language outside
the classroom so that they can make full use of the real world as well as the
classroom, for their own progress. By the same token, authentic materials are
regarded as an useful source as it helps learners to turn to the contextually
appropriate ways that native speakers actually use the language (Feng & Byram,
2002).
In order to fully achieve communicative competence, students are
encouraged to work with all the four skills: listening, speaking, writing and
reading. According to Laborda (2009), listening is probably the most important

feature in daily and professional communication and usually the most neglected in
foreign language learning and teaching. Therefore, the researcher would like to
pay close attention to listening skill, with the focus on how authentic listening
materials are utilized. Widdowson (1978) remarks that authenticity is a feature of
the relationship between the text and the reader, in which appropriate response
plays a vital role. Therefore, the response of students to such materials is of great
importance. Especially in the EFL classroom, students’ engagement in the learning
process contributes to the effectiveness of a listening class. As a consequence, it
can be inferred that students’ perception of authentic listening materials is a key
factor in evaluating authenticity in an EFL classroom.
However, in Vietnam, especially in the context of University of Languages
and International Studies, it is noted by Nguyen (2013) that ULIS studies have not
taken much notice of students’ perspectives on authentic materials. This is

1


particularly true in terms of third-year mainstream students in Faculty of English
Language Teacher Education. Consequently, the author of this research would like
to invite attention to the last course in terms of English proficiency improvement
for ULIS students, which is English for Academic Purposes, briefly known as
English 4B. In the chosen course, students are required to do a News Sharing
assignment, in which the facilitating group has to find an up-to-date (within 6
months) English news item (audio or video news) and then share the news with
the class with some guiding questions and follow-up activities (English for
Academic Purpose 4: Course Guide, 2019). As a result, learners are exposed to
authentic listening materials actively and passively, enabling them to gain more
insights into the effectiveness of such materials in class and at home, in preparation
for the session they host.
With all the reasons mentioned above, the researcher decided to choose

“Perceptions of Third-year Mainstream Students towards Authentic Listening
Materials in News Sharing Assignment” as the title for this graduation paper in
order to bridge the gap in the research field as well as benefit the lecturers and
students in University of Languages and International Studies.

1.2. Aims and objectives of the study
This research aims to investigate the perspective of third-year mainstream
students to authentic listening materials within the course of English for Academic
Purposes 4. In particular, the researcher carries out this study to address two main
questions:
1. To what extent do the authentic listening materials affect students’
participation in the News Sharing assignment?
2. To what extent do the used authentic materials help students foster their
listening comprehension?

1.3. Scope of the study
Regarding the time constraint, this study only narrowed down to a minor
scale. The participants of the study are third-year mainstream students in Faculty

2


of English Language Teacher Education, who have completed four semesters in
English throughout their first two years in university. Also, as stated in the course
guide, this course is devised to boost students’ English level from B2+ to C1
according to CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) (English for
Academic Purposes 4: Course Guide, 2019). Therefore, the author believes that
they have gained sufficient knowledge of the language and considerable
experience in terms of utilizing learning materials.
In addition, though students’ perception is claimed to be the topic of the

whole study, this paper only concerns two aspects that are students’ perspectives
upon the influences of authentic materials on students’ participation in the News
Sharing session, and the extent to which authentic materials help them foster their
listening comprehension.

1.4. Significance of the study
As the research inquires into the perceptions of students towards authentic
materials, it is hoped that course providers could benefit from it to evaluate the
materials, better facilitate future lessons and modify the current course.
Additionally, by giving thorough feedback via the data collection instruments,
students stand a chance of self-reflection and self-improvement after a whole
semester with News Sharing assignment. For researchers who are interested in the
field, this study might play the role of a reference for them to base their future
research on. Last but not least, by conducting this research, the author hopes to fill
in the gap in the literature field, by investigating the context of ULIS third-year
mainstream students.

1.5. Organization
The rest of the paper consists of the following chapters:
Chapter 2 - Literature review - covers the explanation of key concepts as
well as the review on related studies.
Chapter 3 - Methodology - introduces research design; describes the
settings, sampling schemes, data collection instruments and procedures.

3


Chapter 4 - Findings and Discussion - presents the results achieved from
the data collected with further discussion
Chapter 5 - Conclusion - summarizes the main issues investigated in the

research; states the limitation of the study and the recommendations for future
studies.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, the author would like to explain some key concepts as well
as provide an overview and analysis of related theoretical viewpoints. From that
review, the gap of the research is pointed out with regard to the context of the
study.

2.1. Authentic materials
Along with the development of Communicative Approach, also known as
Communicative Language Teaching, authentic materials have become a familiar
term in EFL classes. Martinez (2002) defines authentic materials as the materials
which are prepared for native speakers and not designed to be used for teaching
purposes. However, in the context of English as an International Language, this
definition seems to be no longer appropriate, as a wide variety of countries are
using English as a second or foreign language, beside English native speakers. To
address this shortcoming, Kilickaya (2004), in addition, refers to authentic
materials as exposure to real language and usage in its own society. By the same
token, Nunan (1988) provides a thorough definition of authentic materials, which
is:
Authentic materials are usually defined as those which have been produced for
purposes other than to teach language. They can be culled from many different
sources: video clips, recordings of authentic interactions, extracts from television,
radio and newspapers, signs, maps and charts, photographs and pictures,
timetables and schedules. (p.99)

In this paper, the author decides to adopt the definition of Nunan (1988), as
it is the most updated and fully developed, with examples of sources to exploit
authentic materials from.


4


2.2. Authentic listening materials
According to Gebhard (1996, cited in Oura, 2003, pp. 67-68), authentic
listening materials is one of four types of authentic materials, as classified below:
Authentic Listening/ TV commercials, quiz shows, cartoons, news clips,
Viewing Materials
comedy shows, movies, soap operas, professionally
audio- taped short stories and novels, radio ads, songs,
documentaries, and sales pitches.
Authentic Visual
Materials

slides, photographs, paintings, children’s artwork, stickfigure drawings, wordless street signs, silhouettes,
pictures from magazines, ink blots, postcard pictures,
wordless picture books, stamps, and X- rays.

Authentic Printed
Materials

newspaper articles, movie advertisements, astrology
columns, sports reports, obituary columns, advice
columns, lyrics to songs, restaurant menus, street signs,
cereal boxes, candy wrappers, tourist information
brochures, university catalogs, telephone books, maps,
TVguides, comic books, greeting cards, grocery
coupons, pins with messages, and bus schedules.


Realia (Real world"
objects) Used in
EFL/ ESL
Classrooms

coins and currency, folded paper, wall clocks, phones,
Halloween masks, dolls, and puppets, to name a few.
(Realia are often used to illustrate points very visually
or for role-play situations.)
Table 1: Types of authentic materials

In an attempt to define authentic listening materials, Lingzhu and Yuanyuan
(2010) claims that it is unscripted, natural and spontaneous spoken language
materials, such as interviews, lectures, dialogues, discussions, and conversations
etc. As regards the same term, the UCLA Institute (2007) refers to materials which
are made for native speakers, including audio, video, CD, or other digital medium
for example. Nevertheless, both aforementioned definitions restrict the materials
within native speaking context, which is not appropriate now as English is being
used in a larger scale. On the other hand, Field (2008) considers authentic listening
materials to be recordings of people speaking naturally and without the purpose of
language learning in mind. Therefore, of all the definitions above, the author
chooses to adapt the definition of Field (2008) as it manages to fill the gap of the

5


other two definitions, and investigates more on one type of authentic listening
materials listed by Gebhard (1996), which is news clips or audios.

2.3. Authentic listening materials in the News Sharing sessions

According to English for Academic Purposes 4: Course guide (2019, p.37),
the following procedure is compulsory for all students.
Step

Facilitating group

Participating group

Before

● Prepare an up-to-date (within 6
months) piece of news story (audio or
video news) in English related to the
theme of the week (about less than 3
minutes long). The news must be
shared with the teacher and the
audience 01 week in advance.
● Prepare some guiding questions
and send them to the class along with
the news (01 week in advance)

● Listen to / watch the
piece of news provided by
the facilitating group.
Remember to note down
main ideas and important
details of the news.
● Answer the guiding
questions.


During
(in 20
minutes)

● Step 1: Share the news with the
Share the answers to the
class (play the audio/video of the
guiding questions.
news)
● Step 2:
+ Present the answers to the guiding
questions (preferably with the help of
visual aids such as PowerPoint,
charts, infographic, poster, etc...)
+ Organize and lead one activity
(game, discussion, etc...) for the class
to share their answers to the given
guiding questions.

After

Submit the following documents:
- Links of the news.
- The list of guiding questions and
answers
- A glossary of at least 10 words from
the news.

Submit the following
documents:

- Link of the news
- The answers to the
guiding questions provided
by the facilitating group.
- A glossary of at least 10
words from the news.

Table 2: News Sharing procedure

6


2.4. The effects of authentic materials towards students’ participation
and listening comprehension
2.4.1. Authentic materials’ effects on students’ participation
With regard to students’ motivation in the classroom, various studies
proved that EALM help encourage students to participate in the lesson and bring
about better atmosphere. As suggested by Martinez (2002), authentic materials
arouse a sense of achievement in learners’ minds since they acknowledge what
they learn from the materials is close to and even benefits their real life. Also,
learners are able to read or listen for pleasure if the topics are diverse and likely to
be of their interests. Likewise, Ross (2006) believes authentic sources are, in all
likelihood, relevant to the students’ life and personal interests. With such
relevance, students are motivated to boost their language as they find improvement
in proficiency level gives rise to meaningful values in their real life. As far as the
relationship between authentic materials and learners’ motivation is concerned,
Omari (2009) puts forward the fact that these materials can invite students' greater
participation, help them build confidence, and facilitate learner’s autonomy.
Nonetheless, there are certain concerns that demotivation might arise on
account of students’ lack of necessary language to understand the materials.

According to Guariento and Morley (2001), unlike at post-intermediate level,
using authentic materials at lower levels may prevent students from replying in
meaningful ways and also cause them to feel frustrated, baffled and more
significantly,

demotivated.

Correspondingly,

Kilickaya

(2004)

specifies

demotivation may emerge when the students are short of lexical resources and
grammar points used in the target language. Such shortcomings, as suggested by
Omari (2009), are likely to make the materials unnecessarily difficult and leads to
a complete loss in both students' motivation and interest.
In this study, as the participants are third-year students who are in B2 level
of the CEFR (English for Academic Purposes 4: Course Guide, 2019), language
is not a big issue affecting their understanding of materials. Therefore, the author
would like to dig deeper into the extent to which authentic materials affect
students’ participation in News Sharing Assignment.
7


2.4.2. Authentic materials’ help to foster students’ listening
comprehension
Considering language proficiency, there exist certain progress made by

students, confirmed by several scholars in the field. Different researchers like
Miller (2005) and Thanajaro (2000); Herron and Seay (1991) suggest who students
that listen constantly to authentic radio tapes demonstrate greater listening
comprehension than those who do not. In the same regard, Otte (2006) found that
exposure to authentic materials would result in the enhancement of listening skills
after his study on adult ESL learners at an American university. In another study,
Sabet and Mahsefat (2012) managed to examine the influence of authentic
listening materials on EFL students at elementary level. The data showed that the
experimental group of participants who received authentic input performed much
better than the control group using simplified one. As a consequence, these two
authors conclude that authentic materials give noticeable support to the progress
of students’ listening comprehension.
On the contrary, the difficulty caused by linguistic feature can be traced
back to factors only occurring in authentic listening sources such as pace of
delivery, the variability of accents and background noise (Omari, 2009). To
specify, a study by Kienbaum et al. (1986, cited in Al-Musallam 2009) reveals no
distinctive difference in language improvement of students who use authentic
materials and those learning in traditional classrooms with text books. Likewise,
Ngai's 2003 research found out some of the respondents believed that authentic
materials provided no help for language proficiency as learners just paid attention
to the contents of the materials, rather than practice their skills.
To sum up, the researcher would like to categorize the effects of authentic
materials towards students’ participation and listening comprehension into
different themes in the following table, in order to form a clearer picture of it in
the literature, as a basis of the questionnaire (see: Appendix A).
In terms of authentic materials’ effects on students’ participation, positive and
negative effects are divided into five themes as follows:

8



No.
1

Effect
Positive
effects

Theme

Authentic materials arouse a Relevance to
sense of achievement in
real-life
learner’s mind since they
situations
acknowledge what they learn
from the materials is close to
and even benefits their real
lives.

2

Authentic sources are, in all
likelihood, relevant to the
students’ life and personal
interests.

3

Authentic materials invite

Confidence
students' greater
building
participation, help them build
confidence, and pave the
way to learner’s autonomy.

4

5

Negative Authentic materials lead
effects
students to feel frustrated,
confused and more
importantly, demotivated.
Demotivation arises when
students lack many lexical
items and structures used in
the target language.

Reference
Martinez
(2002)

Personal interest Ross
(2006)

Omari
(2009)


Frustration

Guariento
and
Morley
(2001)

Linguistic
problems

Kilickaya
(2004)

Table 3: Five themes of research question #1 in the literature
In terms of authentic materials’ help to foster students’ listening
comprehension, there is a total number of four themes in the literature, regarding
both positive and negative effects.
No
6

Effect
Features that
facilitate
listening
comprehension
improvement

Theme


Experimental group of
Better
participants who receive performance
authentic input performed
much better than the
control group using
simplified one.

Reference
Sabet and
Mahsefat
(2012)

9


7

8

Features that
impede
listening
comprehension
improvement

9

Authentic materials
provided no help for

language proficiency as
learners just paid
attention to the contents
of the materials, rather
than practice their skills.

Attention to
the content

Ngai
(2003)

difficulty caused by
varying accents

Linguistic
limitations

Omari
(2009)

difficulty caused by
speed of speech delivery
and background noise

Other
limitations

Table 4: Four themes of research question #2 in the literature


2.5. Related studies on students’ perceptions of authentic listening
materials
2.5.1. In the world
Squad (2016) studies the influence of authentic aural materials use on EFL
learners’ listening skills, particularly the case of second-year university students
in Algeria. After a procedure of classroom observation. questionnaire and
proficiency tests, the triangulation of results indicated that teachers made use of
different sources to acquire authentic aural materials. Obstacles consisting of the
speed of delivery, pronunciation, and vocabulary were pointed out to be the most
frequently faced by students upon using these materials, yet they were found to
impose a positive impact on their listening comprehension and motivation.
However, the study paid more attention to teachers’ perception and how they
designed activities with authentic materials, while students’ perspectives were
generally discussed, with few clarification afterwards.
Ngai (2003) investigates students’ perception of authentic materials and its
association with language proficiency, in which EFL students with from high to
low levels of language competency took part in. The results inferred that students
not only were aware of different authentic sources but also had detailed sharing
about the materials' advantages and disadvantages. Although Ngai’s research
manages to put emphasis on learners’ opinion about such problems related to using
10


authentic materials, the study lacks a wide range of clear-cut criteria to base the
opinions on. Also, students’ reflection were not illustrated in a well-organized
design, causing difficulty for later data analysis.
Gunduz (2017) examines the impacts of authentic materials on the students’
listening competence in EFL classes. To conduct the study, Gunduz applied a fivepoint Likert questionnaire, which help him find out that students were able to
comprehend and utilize the language, with useful authentic materials. However,
some reported they preferred artificial materials to authentic ones that frustrated

them in the classroom. Thorough was the questionnaire, Gunduz’s study lacked a
transparent framework, which led to the inconsistency in administering some
items. Also, lack of detailed explanation for responses from his participants
resulted from having only questionnaire as a data instrument.
This research, accordingly, echoes the idea proposed by Gunduz (2017) to
fill in the gap of the literature in the context of ULIS, with the inclusion of further
interview to explain the questionnaire protocol.

2.5.2. In Vietnam
In the Vietnamese context, the Ministry of Education and Training in
Vietnam gave approval of the project "Teaching and learning foreign languages in
the national education system period 2008 – 2020" in 2018. In this project, there
is one objective concerning with training and teaching students at colleges and
universities to confidently make use of foreign language in communication (Tran,
2011), which infers the need of exposing students more to real-life language.
Therefore, increasing investigations have been made on using authentic materials
to bridge the gap between the classrooms and practical usage.
Regarding Vietnamese researchers in the field, Vu (2006) studied "Using
authentic materials on websites as supplementary materials for teaching listening
to 2nd year students at VNU-CFL". This paper attempts to describe the usage of
the materials including types, sources, methods and reasons for using them
primarily from teachers' perspectives. Vu also aims to explore students' general
viewpoints about EALM's efficiency or preference of how to exploit EALM. As a

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consequence, the author portrayed benefits and drawbacks of EALM to conclude
suggestions about some exploitable sources and measures to utilize EALM
effectively. Nonetheless, Vu’s study mostly emphasizes teachers’ perspectives

towards authentic listening materials, rather than examining students’ perceptions.
Seven years later, Nguyen (2013) conducted a research on “First-year FELTE
mainstream students’ perceptions of English authentic listening materials”. This
study examines the perceptions of 26 first-year FELTE mainstream students by
using three instruments namely journals, questionnaires and semi-structured
interviews. It is reported in the findings that nearly 90% of the participants enjoy
being exposed to EALM in their classrooms and their most favourite types were
songs, movies, cartoons and quiz shows. According to the aforementioned study,
news is not a preferable source of EALM, and the participants are freshmen who
might not have a high level of language ability.
It is without doubt that such studies have greatly contributed to the EALM
research field. Nevertheless, they play a vital role in investigation of either
teachers’ perception or perspectives of first-year students who gain little
experience and knowledge of language materials. To bridge this gap in the
literature, the researcher of this study aims to address third-year students in their
last semester of language learning, specifically their perception towards of
authentic listening materials in News Sharing session.

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the author would like to provide the description and
justification of the research design, as well as the setting and sampling used. Also,
both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis will be discussed in
details.

3.1. Research Design: Convergent Parallel Mixed-methods Design
Creswell and Plano Clark (2011) defined mixed-methods research design
as a procedure for compiling, analyzing and combining both quantitative and

qualitative methods in a research or a series of researches to comprehend a
research problem. Specifically in this study, the perceptions of students towards
authentic materials would not be generalized without the use of quantitative
approach, since specific numbers which are statistically analyzed can yield
findings to measure the frequency and magnitude of trends, and can supply useful
information regarding a large quantity of people (Creswell, 2012). Considering the
population of third-year students in FELTE, ULIS exceeding 400 people, the
research decided to take advantage of quantitative approach to generalize the case.
However, in-depth understanding and description of students’ perceptions would
not be gained by quantitative approach only, resulting in the researcher’s decision
to incorporate a qualitative data collection instrument in this research
methodology.
Of several mixed-methods designs, the researcher decided to adopt the
convergent parallel approach to conduct this study. By definition, via this
approach, a researcher collects both qualitative and quantitative data, then
conducts separate analyses, followed by comparison to check whether the results
confirm or contradict each other. (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). A major rationale
for this design is that each data collection instrument provides strengths to
compensate for the weaknesses of the other one, and that a more insightful picture
of the research problem stems from collecting both quantitative and qualitative
data, according to Creswell (2012). To be specific, survey responses from
hundreds of third-year students in this research supply strengths to compensate for
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the weaknesses of qualitative interviews from a small number of participants.
Alternatively, information-rich interviews of a few students are beneficial to
explaining and describing the bigger picture, which can be done with distributing
questionnaires only.


3.2. Setting of the study
The study took place in Faculty of English Teacher Education (FELTE) in
ULIS. According to Nguyen (2013), this university has long gained its prestige as
a reputable center of foreign language teaching. Third-year mainstream students
in FELTE spend their last year of language learning on the course of English for
Academic Purposes 4B, in which they have the chance to look for authentic
listening materials and design guiding questions by themselves in News Sharing
session. The assignment gives them the opportunity to work with English authentic
listening materials (EALM) frequently throughout the course.

3.3. Sampling
3.3.1. Sampling for questionnaire
Since the target population includes all third-year mainstream students in
FELTE who take English for Academic Purposes 4 for the school year 2019-2020,
the number counts up to 450 students divided into 18 classes of those at the age of
20-21. As a result of the time constraint in this study, the author decided to apply
convenience sampling to save time as well as cost for survey distribution. By
definition, Mackey and Gass (2005) puts forward that convenience sampling is the
choice of individuals that appear to be available for the questionnaire. Therefore,
the questionnaire is sent to all participants that are willing to partake in the
research, until the number satisfies the sample size.
Regarding the sample size, there are three criteria needed to determine the
appropriate sample size: the level of precision, the level of confidence or risk, and
the degree of variability in the attributes being measured (Miaoulis & Michener,
1976). As identified by Israel (1992), one way to determine the sample size is to
base on published tables that supply the sample size considering a certain set of
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