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International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World(IJLLALW)

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THE EFFECT OF TEACHING SHORT AUDIO

CONVERSATIONS ON GENERAL PROFICIENCY OF EFL

LEARNERS

Maryam Sadeghi Department of English , Mahshahr Branch, Islamic Azad Univercity, Mahshahr, Iran

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Various research studies on education have identified several factors which should be taken intoaccount in understanding the best ways of teaching and learning a second language. It is

completely clear that learning a second language is a complex process and all technical listening suggestions aimed at establishing a simple way for all learners to learn a new language.

Learning English nowadays is an undeniable need, and listening skill is an important factor inlearning English. The current study, conducted in Iran, investigated the effectiveness of using

short audio conversations on the general proficiency of second language learners. Short audioconversations were taught over 11 weeks during a semester. The learners listened to the

conversation about one hour each week. To conduct the present study 66 beginner students who studying at pre-university course have been chosen. The experimental class (n= 33) who were

taught with the use of short audio conversations, performed better than the control group. The same teacher taught the students in the control class (n=33) who were taught based on Grammar

Translation Method without any short audio conversation or listening activities. A pre and posttest taken from Interchange quizzes assessed the effect of teaching with short audio

conversations on the experimental and control group. The results gathered on the postintervention test revealed that teaching with short audio conversations led to a statistically significant improvement in their general proficiency of English language compared with the

control group.

KEYWORDS: Short Audio Conversation, Communication, General Proficiency

INTRODUCTION

Various research studies on education have identified several factors which should be taken into

account in understanding the best ways of teaching and learning a second language. It iscompletely clear that learning a second language is a complex process and all technical listening

suggestions aimed at establishing a simple way for all learners to learn a new language. Learning

English nowadays is an undeniable need, and listening skill is an important factor in learningEnglish. Listening is central to all learning and precedes the development of the other languageskills. But it must be mentioned that, although listening comprehension is the most often used

language skill, having a key role in communication and is considered to be a necessary prerequisite for development of other language skills, it has been somewhat neglected in Iranian

studies. Researches have shown that listening comprehension is a very complex language skill




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and like the other receptive skills, such as reading, listening is based on very complex process ofunderstanding.

There is no doubt that listening is fundamental to speaking and if someone wants to learn perfect

English, he must learn listening skills perfectly. Listening skill of second language is not derived

naturally it needs some process of learning. The process of listening in the classroom involves ateacher and some students. The main source of listening for students is the voice of their teacher.Brown(2000) stated that a listener would be successful with the proper motivation. It is essential

for the young learners to be stimulated and encouraged to learn intrinsically by their teacher.Students have to be able to understand the main idea of what is said as well as specific details.

The classroom environment must be supportive of active learning and teaching. Although lots ofdifferent researches have been done to find the best and easiest ways of teaching English

language, still there is a constant demand for methods that successfully improve listening skillsand for sure communicative power of learners in English. Some of the researchers suggest that

listening to songs can be really effective, the others believe that documentaries can help thelearners the most and some focus on films or news. But all the researchers believe that what is

really important is the nature of listening as a basic skill. Pescosolido (1990) argued that the useof films can be important in learning and teaching and also highlighted that active learning can be

encouraged and better supported through the use of audio-visual materials from the popularculture arena.

English as a foreign language has the greatest motion in Iran. Status of English as the source of

every science and international communication are two reasons which lead to a greater focus onlearning language, basically for educated people. But unfortunately, since the basic method which

is still used in most Iranian high school and universities is Grammar Translation Method, thestudents will never learn how to communicate in English. Surprisingly, in most English classesin Iran, listening skill is completely ignored! In our schools, colleges, and even in high schools,

instructors direct how to read and write, not how to speak or listen. Ignoring the fact that a personcan speak, write, and read the best who have listened to different sources in the target language,

and has got a bank of words and sentences in his mind.

Using GMT in most of English classes in Iran, makes English classes boring and intolerable bothfor the instructor and the learner. Doing writing and reading exercises three or more hours a week

in a session is not interesting mostly for the students. And the most important thing is that whenthe students leave the class, they don’t have anything new to express.

The researcher has tried to find a better way to make English classes more practical, functional,

and useful for all the college students in Islamic Azad University of Mahshahr. To do so,

communicative approach has been used in two classes and at the same time lots of different shortaudio conversations, which were exactly daily conversations about simple subjects, were playedfor elementary students in classes in order to demonstrate that listening practice is insisted by all

the students and they find it functional in language learning and it encourages the students tocome to English classes and be more active and at the same time when the students listen to some

daily conversations in the class and practice what they have heard right away they can express




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some sentences after each session. Meanwhile the role of an active teacher must not beneglected. A good, patient teacher for sure is able to attract the students and make them believe

that they are able to learn a new language even if it is too much difficult for them. In an activeclassroom environment the role of the teacher is often that of a facilitator, supporting students as

they learn and develop skills in, for example, assessing evidence, negotiation, making informed

decisions, solving problems, working independently and working with others. Pupil participationand involvement in their learning is essential. This is exactly what the researcher is going to prove; practicing English through listening to some daily conversations and dialogues will give

the students the power to boost their knowledge of English in order to use it in a communicativeway. Short daily conversations can be one of the most enjoyable ways to practice and develop

spoken English.

Learning English as a second language in Iran is a crucial issue. Even most of the well-educated people in Iran have got lots of problems with learning practical English. The most and the very

initial problem is that they cannot communicate in English. And the reason for that is completelyobvious. In Iran, at school level, listening skills are not taught due to the predominant use of the

traditional Grammar Translation Method (GTM) which focuses only on reading and writingskills. At university level, depending on the field of study, reading skills are mainly taught for

three hours per week for each term. So the students will never have the opportunity to listen toany English source, so obviously they would not be able to speak in English after their academic

education.

The present research aims at proving the fact that, teaching short audio conversations in theclassroom would actually help the students to be motivated enough in learning English and it

makes them more active and interested to use English as a means of communication. Wheneverthe learners listen to a short conversation they have to focus their attention and concentrate on thesubject. Concentration will help them to learn and even memorize some words and sentence.

Activation is high as long as you are focusing on information, but activation decays or fadesquickly when attention shifts away. That is why the researcher has chosen short daily

conversations. The beginner students are not willing enough to listen to long texts. They loseconcentration as soon as they find the subject difficult to grasp and talk and chat among the

others.

Daily conversations are the most available sources of listening which can bring the students’lives’ to the lesson. Because of the variety of subjects they are less boring and they are also

tangible in daily life so the students would be encouraged to go on with them. After a term or so,they will unconsciously find the ability to express some daily conversations in English. Short

daily conversations act exactly the same as videos. Richards and Gordon (2004) maintained that

Video could enable learners to use visual information to enhance listening comprehension. Theresult showed that using video in the classroom can be seen as a useful teaching tool in that itallows learner to build connection between aural and visual messages.




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REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Teaching listening

As mentioned before, listening skill of second language is not derived naturally. It needs some process of learning. The process of listening in the classroom involves a teacher and students.

Probably the main source of listening for students is the voice of their teacher. In teaching-

learning process, teacher talks when he is giving some instructions to the students, and he should be understood. But in fact the students need variety in listening, not just the voice of the teacher.Mei-ling (2007) examined teaching English listening and speaking through films. The results

suggest that English films pay a positive role in motivating students to learn English listening andspeaking.

We know that during listening activities students need full concentration on the audio being

played, otherwise they may not catch the messages from the audio. Bozorgian (2013) believesthat, Students consequently attribute their difficulty in listening- comprehension either to their

inadequate competence or to the linguistic difficulty of stimulus texts. In order to optimize life-long learning and potential success it is now widely accepted that young people need to have

opportunities to develop personal capabilities and effective thinking skills as part of their well-rounded education.

The aim of teaching listening and short audio conversations

Listening used in language teaching refers to a complex process that allows the listener tounderstand spoken language. The point here is that the process of listening skill instruction is not

given sufficient attention in the classroom and is undervalued globally and in Iran, in particular.Also, in English language, listening is more demanding language skill, due to students’ limited

knowledge of English.

Bently and Bacon (1996) believe that, listeners create meaning from oral input because listening,

as an active process, is a critical part of language learning generally and particularly for the L2learning process. On the other hand Rost (1994) points out that, listening is vital in the language

classroom because it provides input for the learner. Without understanding input at the rightlevel, any learning simply cannot begin. Listening is thus fundamental to speaking. It is really

important that limited listening input fails to promote face-to-face communication by shaping thestudents social development, confidence and self-image. Adequate listening practice could give

the learners essential contact with handy input that might trigger their utterance. Cameron (2004)asserts that, Listening is the receptive use of language, and since the goal is to make sense of the

speech, the focus is on meaning rather than language. Obviously listening influences other skills.Actually the very initial aim of learning listening skill is to promote the ability of speaking and

communicating.

Bidabadi (2012) believes that, all the learners prefer to be communicative, that is, they desire towork in pairs and in groups. That is the students favor communicative types of learning style,

which concurs with the findings of this study. Linse (2005) also considers the teaching oflistening skills as foundational to the development of other language skills.




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We should, however, be aware that any kind of listening comprehension activity needs to be wellguided with clear aims. Even low English listening proficiency learners prefer communicative

approach to learning.

For learners who are studying English in a non-English speaking setting, it is very important to

experience real communicative situations in which they will learn how to express their ownviews and opinions, and to develop their oral fluency and accuracy which are very essential forthe success of FL communication. Listening to some short conversations then is necessary and

useful as an educational strategy to enhance learning. This may be provided through videos andtapes of language input by native speakers. In this regard Bozorgian(2013) believes that, the

process of the skill of listening is not emphasized despite a wide access to listening materials withaccompanying audiovisual technology in the classroom such as CDs, DVD or video.

Why Teaching English through Short audio daily conversations

Various researches have been done to show the effect of watching movies with or withoutsubtitles in English on the students learning quality. According to Champoux (1999), movies are

a comfortable familiar medium to contemporary students that can keep student’s interest in thetheories and concepts under discussion.

Richards (2006) asserts that, In order to use the language effectively learners need to develop

communicative competence - the ability to use the language they are learning, appropriately, in agiven social encounter. Psychologists have argued in favor of impact of films on cognitive

learning of students in the classroom. Blasco et al. (2006) have stated that the use of films inlearning and teaching is crucial to provoking the reflective processes and attitudes in the learner.

For sure watching and listening to an English source at the same time has got very positive and proven effects which could not be neglected but there is only one problem that this research was built up based on short audio dialogues in English; some weak and easy going students may find

it difficult to watch a film, drama, documentary and so on, so the researcher just prepared someshort audio conversations and let them listen to that extract. This way they don’t have any

complaint and are supposed to do their tasks inside and outside the classroom.

The outcomes of the studies reviewed above show that listening to any English source especiallyfilms and dialogues is as important as the other skills. It’s a bit more difficult, but also more

beneficial. It helps the students improve their pronunciation and conversation. It brings real lifeatmosphere to the classroom and forces them to interact with each other. This kind of classroom

is a kind of cooperative one. In a cooperative class the students try to speak with each other,communicate and even they try to correct each other’s mistakes.

Meanwhile, the key role of a skillful teacher should not be neglected. A teacher must be patientenough to inform the students about the best ways to learn listening skills. And give them somestrong reasons to be motivated to learn. Experts in communicative approach suggest that

contextualized and meaningful communication is the best possible practice that language learnerscan engage in. The classroom environment must be supportive of active learning and teaching. In

an active classroom environment the role of a teacher is often that of a facilitator, supporting




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students as they learn and develop skills in, for example, assessing evidence, negotiation, makinginformed decisions, solving problems, working independently and working with others. Students’

participation and involvement in their learning is essential. The students should talk to each otherthrough pairs or groups where each learner gets his time to talk. The concept of interaction has a

significant importance in the classroom too; it is an essential part in learning and teaching

processes. Johnson (1995) supports this idea that if learner-learner interaction is well structuredand managed, then it can be an important factor of cognitive development, educationalachievement of students and emerging social competencies.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The main research questions that guide this study were:

1. To what extent do teaching short audio conversations in the class affect language proficiency of the EFL learners?

2. To what extent does teaching based on traditional methods like Grammar TranslationMethod affect language proficiency of the EFL learners?

METHODOLOGY Research Design

The major aim of this study is to find out the students’ learning proficiencies after being taught by short audio daily conversations compare to the students’ learning proficiencies after being

taught based on grammar translation method. Therefore this study belongs to quantitativeresearch. The research design used is true experiment of two groups’ pre and post-test design,

with one group as the experiment group and the other group as the control group.

Participants

A total of 66 freshmen out of 99 students within the age of 18- 30 studying at the pre-universityEnglish course in Islamic Azad University of Mahshahr, Iran, participated in this study. They

were all native speakers of Farsi (Persian). They were all learning English as a compulsorycourse in order to become graduated. Most of the students were beginner in learning English or

they had a very little knowledge of English. The students’ level was estimated based on a baseline test which was taken from the students at the beginning of the semester.

For enrolment in universities, all Iranian students are required to participate in a University

Entrance Examination. In this exam, English proficiency of the students is examined based onGrammar, Reading Comprehension, and vocabulary. In other words, the exam does not include

any listening test and it focuses on Grammar, Vocabulary, and Reading. The students, who

cannot gain more that 30% of 100% score of the exam, must take part in pre- university Englishcourse. Thus, a majority of the students took part in researcher’s class had lots of problems withreading, pronouncing, and expressing even one short sentence in English, so 25 students left the

class at the beginning of the term.




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Instruments and Data Gathering Procedure

The study involved a baseline test and a pre- test and one post- test. This research used students’

test scores as the data. The scores are derived from a pre-test and a post-test over a period of twomonths. The main job of the instructor began in the third week of the regular semester to ensure

that all the students have got the proper book and its DC’s.

Baseline testA baseline test was used to major the participants ability in listening and understanding the most

elementary and key sentences in English language. The baseline test was a collection of three parts, gathered from Tactics for Listening (beginner book) which contains 15 very simple

questions. Determining the participants listening proficiency was crucial for this study. The book Interchange (intro) was chosen based on the students’ scores on baseline test, and consultation

with two experienced colleagues who confirmed the book’s level was equivalent for those lowerintermediate students.

The students pre-test contains four multiple choice listening test and five more parts containing

filling the blanks, guessing and choosing the best answer part and asking and answering somequestions. Since the purpose of this study was to show that using short audio conversations in the

classroom motivates the students to become interested in learning English and for sure it affectstheir learning quality, both pre and post-tests contain these elements. Each listening question had

four response choices for which the participants had one minute to choose the correct answerafter the audio was played once for each question.

The content of the pre-test was daily conversation, in general focusing on greeting, asking for

phone number and using the correct proposition such as in/on at,… . It is because the studentswere not able to understand and discuss further daily events in English language. The length ofthe audio-listening was less than one minute.

As mentioned before 33 students have been chosen to be the members of experimental group.

There was also a control group with the same number of participants, which received regularclass with traditional instruction: Grammar Translation Method . In experiment group the

students had the opportunity to listen to each part of the lessons native pronunciation at leastthree times. Then they were asked to practice with a partner, try to imitate the native speakers’

intonation and pronunciation and do some pier corrections which really actually motivated thestudents to be active. But in control group the focus was on grammar, translation, vocabulary

learning, and reading comprehension which were not interesting for the students.

Post -test

This test was administrated after 9 sessions teaching English accompanied by listening activitiesfor experimental group and without any listening activity for control group. Again the testcontained four multiple choice listening proficiency tests and four more parts relating to the

evaluation of the students learning quality during one semester. It contains matching items, fill inthe blanks, and asking and answering some questions regarding daily conversations in English.




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The students were asked to answer the questions in 30 minutes which is almost 1 minute for eachquestion.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 RESULTSIn order to answer the first research question, a paired sample t-test was run on the data obtainedfrom the administration of the pre-post tests to the participants of the experimental group first.

Our hypothesis was concerned with the degree to which teaching English with the help of shortaudio conversations might result in variance in learning quality of the participants. We

hypothesized that the class receiving the experimental intervention would perform better than thecontrol class on learning to communicate in English.

According to the descriptive analysis of the language learners’ data in the experimental group

presented in (Table 1), there was a significant difference in the means of the pre-test (M=15.13SD=1.25) and the post-test (M=18.12, SD=0.32). Moreover, the results of the paired-samples t-

test (Table 2) show that the mean difference between the pre-post tests band scores of the participants in the experimental group is 2.99, t (32)=-3.551, and p=0.003 which is smaller than

0.05. A comparison of the two means shows that the mean for the post-test was higher than themean of the pre-test. This implies that the effectiveness of using short audio conversations in the

class was major in improving the learners’ ability to communicate in English in the experimentalgroup.

Table 1: the participants in the experimental group s’ descriptive analysis of the pre-post tests band scores

Tests Mean N SD Std. Error Mean

Pre-test 15.13 33 1.25 0.23

Post-test 18.12 33 0.32 0.41

Table 2: Descriptive analysis of the paired-samples t-test for the experimental group language learners’ data

Tests Paired Differences

T Df Sig. (2-

tailed)

Mean SD Std.

Error

Mean

95% Confidence

Interval of the

Difference

Lower Upper

Pre Band

Score-Post

Band Score -2.99 0.31 0.06 -0.28 -0.03 -3.55 32 0.003




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In order to provide answer for the second research question, the statistical analysis of a pairedsample t-test was also run on the data obtained from the administration of the pre-post tests to the

participants who have been taught based on Grammar Translation Method. We hypothesized thatteaching based on Grammar Translation Method should not have that much effect on learning

proficiency and the ability of the learners to communicate in a new language.

The analysis of the data obtained from the results of the pre-post tests of the participants whohave been taught based on Grammar Translation Method (Table 3) indicated that there was a

minor difference in the mean of the pre-test (M=15.25, SD=1.05) and the post-test (M=16.56,SD=0.33). Additionally, the results of the paired-samples t-test presented in Table 4.4 show that

the mean difference between the pre-post tests band scores of participants who have been taught based on Grammar Translation Method is 1.31, t (22)=-0.720, and p=0.895 which is bigger than

0.05.

A comparison of the two means indicates that the mean for the post-test was higher than themean of the pre-test. The magnitude of the differences in the means was not large (!2=0.066).

Comparing this eta-squared value obtained (!2=0.066) to Cohen’s (1988) criteria, it can beconcluded that the obtained effect size is a small effect size. A small effect size implies that using

Grammar Translation Method was not effective in improving the learners’ ability to speak inEnglish in the participants of the control group. Table 3 presents the descriptive analysis of the

data obtained from the administration of the pre-post tests to the participants in the control group.Moreover, Table 4 represents the descriptive analysis of the paired-sample t-test for the data

obtained from participants in the control group.

Table 3: the participants in the control group s’ descriptive analysis of the pre-post tests band scores

Table 4: Descriptive analysis of the paired-samples t-test for the control group language learners’ data

Tests Mean N SD Std. Error Mean

Pre-test 15.25 23 1.05 0.05Post-test 16.56 23 0.33 0.66

Tests

Paired Differences

T Df Sig. (2-

tailed)

Mean SD Std.

Error

Mean

95% Confidence

Interval of the

Difference

Lower Upper

Pre Band

Score-Post

Band Score -1.31 0.43 0.08 -0.049 -0.14 -0.720 22 0.895




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Taking a quick look at the tables will lead us to the fact that teaching short audio conversations inthe class has got a very effective feedback and it is really helpful for almost all the students. On

the other hand using traditional method not only was not that much effective and beneficial, insome cases it makes the students exhausted and bored of learning English.

DiscussionThe results of this study provide evidence that using short audio conversations help theexperimental class, and improved the students’ learning quality and language proficiency. This

finding suggests that using short audio conversations in the classroom, allow learners to better participate in classroom activities and help them to be more active. It really makes them wishful

to learn something new because the atmosphere is interesting for the students. It is to some extenta new and tangible experience and the students can feel it.

The results suggest that using short audio conversation in the class enhance students’ ability to

take great care in the class so they will focus their attention to what is being said. That is exactlywhat Rost (1994) points out; listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input

for the learner. Without any input, the students would not have anything to express. This fact iscompletely evident in newly born children. In order to receive correct input the students have to

focus their attention and it is exactly something undeniable.

The interesting result, however, obtained from the control class in that students receiving theirregular traditional classroom activities had not achieved much progress in learning English.

Teaching English based on GMT tends to make students overly passive and indifferent to what is being taught. As it was obviously clear from the tables 4.3 and 4.4 the participants in the control

group did not have progress in learning English. So using GMT in English classes is not effectiveat all and it doesn’t have any positive influence on learning quality and language proficiency ofthe students. Paying attention to reading, writing and memorizing some words cannot boost the

students’ knowledge of English and would not be functional.

In a classroom based on Grammar Translation Method of teaching, there is too much teachingand too little learning. Wenjie, Cai. (2009), believes in the traditional methods, there is lack of

attention being paid towards speaking and learning of pronunciation, there is no oral or pronunciation work, since it is the written language which is taught, and ‘mental discipline’ is

stressed rather than any ability actually to use the language.

As mentioned before our hypothesis was concerned with the degree to which using short audioconversation can help the students to learn English better and to use English as a means of

communication. In this regard Pescosolido (1990) argued that the use of films can be important in

learning and teaching and also highlighted that active learning can be encouraged and bettersupported through the use of audio-visual materials from the popular culture arena. After doingthe present research this statement can be truly proved and there is no doubt that any audio aid

can be really beneficial in learning English better and more functional.




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It was clearly observable that after some sessions almost all the students tried to participate inthe class actively and they all try to express themselves. They wanted to communicate with the

instructor and with each other in English and it seems really fantastic. For instance, speaking canhelp students to develop their vocabulary and grammar and then it improves their writing skills.

Nowadays many researchers claim that through classroom interaction knowledge can be

constructed and skills can be developed. For learners who are studying English in a non-Englishspeaking setting, it is very important to experience real communicative situations in which theywill learn how to express their own views and opinions, and to develop their oral fluency and

accuracy which are very essential for the success of FL communication.

Classroom Interaction is necessary and useful as an educational strategy to enhance learning. Theclass atmosphere was really active and it helped active learning, it encouraged the students to be

interested in learning more and new. In the classroom pair work and group work it is verycommon as it requires cooperation between learners. It is very important to develop students’

confidence and thus the teacher should use a lot of fluency-based activities. At the end of eachclass the students were asked to mention their ideas about the amount of their progress in learning

English with the help of audio aids which were used in the class and most of the time they claimthat it was good. The students believed that listening to an English source along with the

teacher’s, can help them to learn the correct pronunciation and intonation of the words andsentences and gradually it helps them to improve their accent and be self-confident enough to

speak in public. Some of the students believe that while listening to a conversation they have tofocus their attention and take a lot of care to what is being said in the conversations. Whenever a

person listens carefully, the words and sentences for sure will stick in his mind and with somerepetition the students would be able to express what they have learnt. On the other hand,

communication in English is the result of concentrated listening activities. Meanwhile the teacherhas got a very important role as Tran Van Co (2009), asserts that, weak students are the studentswho usually lack basic knowledge or skills, have difficulty in comprehension. Students who

participated in this study stated that using short audio conversations in communication class wasa very enjoyable and rewarding learning experience for them. They believed this way they could

improve their language competence and skills. They believe this way they can improve their pronunciation and would be familiar with native speakers way of speaking.

Generally speaking, based on the statistical results which were gained through this study, and

also based on the facts which have been observed in the classroom by the teacher, it is completelyclear that using short audio conversations in the class was really, truly helpful in motivating the

students to learn English as a second language. Listening, as a very fundamental skill not only prepared an active atmosphere for the learners and motivate them to learn but helped them to be

familiar with real life situation and keep the students in touch with reality. So they would be in a

situation that they like to learn, not as a duty but as an interesting activity.

CONCLUSION

The main purpose of the present research was to examine whether short audio conversations can

be helpful in improving general proficiency of the second language learners. Developing listening




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skills is a fundamental element of any language learning process, and short audio conversationsare regarded as one of the most effective techniques to this end. Short audio conversations have a

definite place in English classroom; they provide meaningful and joyable language practice,especially in fostering listening skills.

To prove these facts two groups, one as control group with 33 participants and the otherexperimental group with the same number of participants have been chosen. The experimentalgroup has been taught with the help of short audio conversations in the class and the control

group has been taught based on Grammar Translation Method, after 8 sessions of studying eachof about one hour and a half, the learners were given the posttest. The experimental group who

has been taught with short audio conversations showed a considerable improvement in theirlearning ability while the control group who were taught based on GMT showed little

improvement. Unfortunately listening skills seem to be undervalued in Iran and it makes learningEnglish a crucial issue for most of the people.

Learning to listen properly is equal to learning to communicate. Whenever a person listens to an

original source of English with great care, he will learn how to pronounce the words andsentences and unconsciously he would become self-confidant enough to communicate in the

target language. This way listening becomes as a tool for active learning. Listening to short audioconversations in the class has got some advantages and some disadvantages.

Advantages

While listening to a short audio conversation, first, the students focus their attention to hear whatis being said. So they concentrate on the subject and they try to learn something new. Second,

they try to express what they have heard it makes the class atmosphere more active and enjoyablefor the students, even they try to speak English with each other. Third, communicating in Englishwould be an inseparable part of such English classes that is the main aim of using short audio

conversations. Even sometimes the students try to speak the way the native speakers speak and itis really interesting.

Disadvantages

As any other way of teaching this method also has got some disadvantages or it is better to saysome shortages; first, this way of teaching is time-consuming, a very short audio conversation has

to be repeated several times and almost all of the students are eager to express themselves so theyhave to be given the chance. Second, selecting attractive and beneficial conversations is a bit

difficult and challenging for the instructor. And third, the students might get used to memorizingthe sentences and in some situation it might cause some problem for them.

Here by it is the time to answer the first question of this study. Using short audio conversations inEnglish classes is truly helpful in motivating the students to learn a new language which is tosome extent difficult for them. It makes the class atmosphere friendly and enjoyable and attracts

the students to the process of learning. Since listening is an active process not a passive one,doing listening activities in the class produce positive energy both for the instructor and the

students and the class would not be boring anymore.




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The answer to the second question is completely clear based on the statistical results obtainedfrom chapter four. The students focus and emphasize mainly on the learning of grammar rule and

vocabulary and as such do not pay much attention to listening or speaking. , there is lack ofattention being paid towards speaking and learning of pronunciation, there is no oral or

pronunciation work. So there is no improvement in communicative competence and no

improvement in general proficiency of the learners.

Pedagogical Implementation

Since learning English is the most crucial issue even among the legitimate people in Iran, theresult of the present research would be too beneficial for many people. Using short audio

conversations in high schools is a very simple job to be done. On the other hand it has anincredible effect which could help the students to be motivated in learning correct English from

high school or even lower levels. Implementing such a method doesn’t need any special tool andit is not expensive so it is accessible. In all English institutes also, this method have to be used at

least for beginners to encourage them to learn a new language. Even in high schools and alluniversities this method of teaching can be beneficial. This method can provide much of the

input and data that learners receive in language learning.

To achieve active involvement, classroom activities must be task-oriented and engaging. Doinglistening activities in the class, help the process of active learning. In this study, students were

asked to listen to short audio conversations and try to express whatever they have memorized orlearned. These activities made the students focus their attention and helped them to be engaged in

the process of active learning and communicating.

Limitations and Suggestions

This study has some major limitations. First, this study didn’t distinguish learning quality ondifferent genders, male and female. That is meant that all the participants known as experimental

and control groups were randomly arranged in number of males or females in each class. In fact,the only consideration for taking this course was their educational level.

The other limitation of this attempt was that the sample population of this study was beginner

level EFL learners at university. Therefore more studies are needed to generalize the findings tointermediate and advance levels of students. Shortage of time was another limitation which didn’t

let the researcher to complete her plan in the classes. This study at least needs 20 sessions eachone hour and a half. Because of the shortage of time the researcher didn’t have enough time to fill

some questioners about their level of satisfaction and hey just express their ideas orally.Further research could involve different audio aids of diversified contents such as news

broadcast, documentary films, academic lectures, or movies. An oral test in which the test items

are designed very carefully with considerable attention and a standard oral quiz scoring sheetwould be very helpful to inform both the teacher and the students about how well they learnedthe material and what material.

Furthermore, investigating the recall success rate after a long time laps would be a good topic for

further investigation. Some of the experts believe that delayed posttests are most meaningful if




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implemented in a 3-4 week range, and they are much less likely to be meaningful beyond a four-week delay. In sum, the future research should be directed towards investigating the efficacy of

all kinds of audio aids on learning proficiency of the second language learners of different proficiency levels over a longer period of time.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTHereby, the author would gratefully like to acknowledge Islamic Azad University, Mahshahr

branch, Iran, for funding the current project entitled as “The Effect of Teaching Short AudioConversations on General Proficiency of EFL Learners”. In fact, without it this project would not

have been possible.

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