The Effect of Authentic and Inauthentic Materials in Cultural Awareness Training on EFL Learners’ Listening Comprehension Ability

Abstract

This paper aimed to examine the effect of authentic and inauthentic materials in cultural awareness training on the listening comprehension ability of EFL learners. To this end, the Cambridge ELT placement test was given to 116 students, 60 of them who were at intermediate level were chosen as the sample. The participants were randomly divided into two equal groups, the control and experimental groups. They also took a listening pretest to investigate the possible difference between them. The control group underwent listening activities through inauthentic materials, while the experimental group dealt with authentic materials. Test scores in pre- and post-test were compared. Using SPSS, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test of normality was run for the post-test scores to check the applicability of parametric statistics. A Paired-Sample T-Test proved that the listening comprehension ability of the participants has improved in a statistically significant way. A One-way ANOVA test was then run to compare the mean-scores of the groups in the post-test. All tests were at the alpha level of .05. The results revealed that the listening ability of learners in the experimental group had improved better than the learners in the control group. This study may have implications for improving EFL learners’ listening ability.