The Impact of Using TED Talks as a Learning Instrument on Enhancing Indonesian EFL Learners’ Listening Skill

Abstract

Regarding the popularity of TED Talks which are freely accessible online, we were encouraged to examine the impacts of this online resource on Indonesian EFL learners’ listening skills. The Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) was used to recruit 70 Indonesian intermediate respondents for the research. They were then split into two groups: one experimental group (EG) and one control group (CG). After that, a listening test was administered to both groups. After that, the EG participants watched TED Talks via mobile devices, and the CG participants practiced listening skills via DVDs and CDs of the course textbook for 13 sessions. When the treatment ended, a posttest of listening skills was administered to the participants of both groups, and the collected data were analyzed via running paired samples and independent samples t -tests. The results indicated that both groups had better listening performances in their listening posttests, but the EG outperformed the CG after the treatment. Overall, the results showed that using TED Talks was more advantageous for listening development than using DVDs and CDs of the course textbook. The implications of this study can encourage EFL teachers to integrate TED Talks into their English classes.