The Effects of Audio Comedy Test on Listening Comprehension Skills of EFL Learners

Anton Subarno,Mei-Ying Chien,Wen-Fu Pan

doi:10.22158/jecs.v3n2p90

Abstract

<p class="Abstract"><em>This study aims to investigate the effects of audio comedy on English listening comprehension test results of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. The English listening test comprises four sections; each section has a seven-minute comedy audio mode and 13 questions, and participants listen to the four sections successively. This study was conducted with 117 sophomore, junior and senior students at Sebelas Maret University in Indonesia. Two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was adopted to distinguish between male and female students on the four successive test sections measuring English listening comprehension skills. The findings are: 1. Successive practice tests will stimulate English listening skills; and 2. Successive practice tests will improve students’ English listening skills. The comedy audio mode creates a low-stress English listening atmosphere and reduces the learner’s anxiety.</em></p>

Highlights

Learning English is important because English is a lingua franca of practice in the education field (Hsu, Hwang, & Chang, 2014; Jain & Sidhu, 2013)
All questions of the test are arranged based on the content of the audio comedy. 3.1 Experimental Design and Hypothesis This study adopts a time series design to investigate the effects of using a repetitive comedy audio mode on the English listening comprehension skills of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners
The hypotheses tested in this study are: (a) Students’ performance on successive sections of the practice test will exhibit a significant difference; (b) There will be no significant difference between male and female students in terms of English listening skills; and (c) Students’ English listening skills will gradually improve with exposure to audio comedy. 3.2 Participants This study was conducted with undergraduate students in Indonesia, where the students learn English as a second language

Summary

Introduction

Learning English is important because English is a lingua franca of practice in the education field (Hsu, Hwang, & Chang, 2014; Jain & Sidhu, 2013). Vol 3, No 2, 2019 as problem-based learning environments which integrate technology in classes (Hanna, 2002) English learners at this level are mature enough to prepare for their future careers and responsible enough to take their commitment as students seriously (Baptista, 2011). In the context of English as a foreign language (EFL), learners start to learn listening by recognizing standard words which are clear and comprehensible sounds. Learners may have rehearsed vocabulary knowledge in various contexts, when they listen to English being used in real conversation with native speakers, the learning atmosphere changes and becomes more stressful, leading to anxiety about misunderstanding meaning (Wu & Huang, 2017). This study aims to investigate the effect of using comedy on the English listening skills of EFL learners at the undergraduate level. Participants’ scores on successive practice test sections are evaluated to consider whether exposure to comedy multimedia improves their English listening skills, and a comparison is made between male and female students in this regard

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion