A STUDY OF ADULT ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES AND INTEREST TOWARDS THE USE OF AUDIOBOOKS IN FOREIGN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Abstract

This paper aims at presenting a survey conducted in 2022 among adults learning English as a foreign language, which explores their attitudes and interest in listening to audiobooks for the purpose of learning English as a foreign language. This study was provoked by the increase in the popularity of audiobooks in the last few years especially during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2022. It covers the age group of adult learners who are educated both in the formal education system and outside of it. 280 adults, who have studied, are studying or are fluent in English, from different parts of Bulgaria and those who live abroad have taken part in the survey. It includes two sections with the total number of 25 multiple questions. The results of the survey emphatically show that audiobooks are not a popular teaching tool for learning English, which confirms the current situation regarding the implementation of audiobooks in foreign language teaching, although academic sources reveal abundant evidence of their effectiveness in developing all language competences at all levels of language proficiency. The outcomes of the conducted survey could serve English language teachers as a starting point for the wider use and dissemination of listening to audiobooks as a method of teaching English as a foreign language.