VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION
GRADUATION PAPER
A case study on using authentic
materials in teaching Listening for
high school students in Ha Noi
Supervisor: HOANG HONG TRANG, M.A
Student: TRAN NHAT ANH
Year of enrollment: QH2010
Hanoi – 2014
ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH
KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP
NGHIÊN CỨU CÁ THỂ VỀ VIỆC
SỬ DỤNG TÀI LIỆU THỰC TẾ
TRONG GIẢNG DẠY KỸ NĂNG NGHE
CHO HỌC SINH THPT TẠI HÀ NỘI
Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Th.s Hoàng Hồng Trang
Sinh viên: Trần Nhật Anh
Khoá: QH2010
HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2014
ACCEPTANCE
I hereby state that I: Tran Nhat Anh, class QH. 2010. F1. E9, being a candidate for
the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating
to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the
library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance
with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or
reproduction of the paper.

quantitatively and qualitatively, it was found out that authentic materials were
sometimes used besides the course books and both teachers and students have
positive attitude towards the use of authentic materials in teaching and learning
listening despite some possible difficulties caused by this type of materials.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE
Acknowledgements i
Abstract ii
Table of contents iii
List of figures vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale for the study 1
1.2. Objectives of the study 3
1.3. Research questions 3
1.4. Significance of the study 3
1.5. Scope of the study 4
1.6. Organization 4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Listening as a skill
2.1.1. Definition of listening 5
2.1.2. Status of listening skill in an English language curriculum 6
2.1.3. Difficulties of learners with listening 8
iii
2.2. Authentic Materials
2.2.1. Definition of Authentic Materials 9
2.2.2. Classification of Authentic Materials 10
2.2.3. Advantages of Authentic Materials 11
2.2.4. Disadvantages of Authentic Materials 12
2.2.5. Criteria to choose Authentic Materials 13
2.3. Related studies on using Authentic Materials in teaching listening 16

listening in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 38
4.2.2. The attitude of teachers and students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai
high school towards the use of authentic materials
in teaching listening 39
4.2.3. Overcoming the constraints 42
4.2.3.1. Vocabulary 42
4.2.3.2. Speed 45
v
4.2.3.3. Time consuming of choosing authentic materials 46
4.2.3.4. Unavailability of equipment 49
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
5.1. Summary of findings 50
5.2. Limitations 51
5.3. Suggestions for further research 51
REFERENCES 53
APPENDICES 58
Appendix A: Questionnaire for students
Appendix B: Questionnaire for teachers
vi
LIST OF FIGURES PAGE
1. Figure 1: Difficulties in listening faced by tenth form
students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 30
2. Figure 2: Purposes of learning listening of tenth form
students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 31
3. Figure 3: Activities to practice listening of tenth form
students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 32
4. Figure 4: Sources of authentic listening materials exposed
by tenth form students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 33
5. Figure 5: Frequency of exposure of authentic listening materials
by tenth form students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school 34

of great help. The topic about authenticity of teaching materials itself has had a long
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history beginning from 1890s. Until now, most of the researchers consider authentic
materials as beneficial in teaching and learning English skill (Henry Sweet (1899),
Little, Devitt, & Singleton (1988), Lee (1995), Gebhard (1996), Peacock (1997),
Shrum and Glisan (2000), Shei (2001), Lin (2004), Khaniya (2006) and Oguz and
Bahar (2008)). Moreover, authentic materials are available in our life. According to
Gebhard (1996), there are unlimited sources for teaching materials. For those who
live in countries where English is a foreign language, it is simply a matter of
searching creatively. Teachers in urban areas of these countries can access authentic
materials from cable TV, English language newspapers and magazines, and even
from popular music on the radio. In large cities, modern grocery and department
stores carrying imported products and the tourist industry such as hotels can offer
useful authentic resources. Or else, during travel to English-speaking countries,
teachers could pick up useful materials that could be adapted for their English
lessons. In fact, Viet Nam is not an English speaking country, however, in the
technological era, mass media such as the Internet, cable television and radio which
contain nothing but authentic materials are accessible for almost all high school
students, especially those in big cities like Hanoi. Furthermore, in comparison with
listening materials given in course books which are modified to be suitable for
students’ level, authentic materials are close to life and challenging. Therefore, it
might be possible to use authentic materials to motivate high school students to
listen and facilitate their listening skill so as for them to listen better.
For those main reasons, the researcher has decided to do research into “A
case study on using authentic materials in teaching listening for high school
students in Hanoi”. Hopefully, the research could contribute to the literature on
using authentic materials to improve four language skills in an English-as-a-foreign-
language environment like Vietnam
1.2. Objectives of the study
2

teachers of English in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school, Tu Liem District, Hanoi.
1.6. Organization
Chapter 1 Introduction presents an overview of the thesis including rationale,
objectives, research questions, significance, scope and organization of the thesis.
Chapter 2 Literature Review provides a theoretical background for the study
including related theories and/ or studies about listening as a skill, and using
authentic materials in language teaching.
Chapter 3 Methodology details the method employed to carry out the research
together with data collection instrument, participants, procedures of data collection
and method of data analysis.
Chapter 4 Results and Discussion presents and discusses the results of the
research and some suggestions for overcoming constraints of the use of authentic
materials in teaching listening for students in Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school.
Chapter 5 Conclusion summarizes the main findings, draws the conclusion,
acknowledges the limitations of the study and suggests further study.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Listening as a skill
2.1.1. Definition of listening
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Among four language skills, the most frequently used skill in the course of a
daily life is listening (42%), followed by speaking (32%), reading (15%) and writing
(11%). Therefore, it could be said that listening is the most important skill for
communication. Saricoban (1999) insists that listening is one of the fundamental
language skills. It is a medium through which children, young people and adults
gain a large portion of their information, their understanding of the world and of
human affairs, their ideals, sense of values and their appreciation.
Regarding the term “listening”, there are various definitions given by
language researchers.
According to Anderson and Lynch (1988), listening is an internal process,
which cannot be observed directly. This means it is difficult to assess whether the

(Rost, 2002; Vandergrift, 2004), it remains the least researched and understood of all
four language skills (Nation & Newton, 2009) and “such neglect is surprising”
(Hedge, 2003, p. 228). While the other three language skills, i.e., reading, writing,
and speaking, received direct instructional attention, listening skill in language
learning was regarded as a solely passive activity (Mendelsohn, 1984: Oxford,
1993). In teaching listening, teachers often expected students to develop their
listening skill by Audio-lingual method and without assistance (Mendelsohn, 1984).
In the Audio-lingual approach, it is believed that if students listen to the target
language all day, they will improve their listening comprehension skill through the
experience. The fact that listening has been neglected or poorly taught may have
stemmed from the belief that it is a passive skill and that merely exposing students
to the spoken language provides adequate instruction in listening comprehension
(Call, 1985).
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In addition to the American Audio-lingual Approach, the English language
teaching programs of the British Situational Approach did not pay much attention to
listening beyond its role in grammar and pronunciation drills and learners’ imitation
of dialogues during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s (Morley, 2001).
Arguments for listening comprehension began in the mid-1960s by Rivers
(1966) who said that “Speaking does not itself constitute communication unless
what is being said is comprehended by another person” and that “Teaching the
comprehension of spoken speeches is therefore of primary importance if the
communicative aim is to be reached”. In 1969, at the Second AILA (International
Association of Applied linguistics) Conference held in Cambridge, England, the role
of teaching and learning listening was focused on through new views on the
importance of the following issues: (a) individual learners and the individuality of
learning, (b) listening and reading as non-passive and very complex receptive
processes, (c) listening comprehension’s being recognized as a fundamental skill,
and (d) real language used for real communication as a viable classroom model
(Morley, 2001). Then, slowly and steadily, more attention has been given to

There are also other problems identified by other writers such as problems
concerning how to approach the task of decoding spoken English (Brown, G., 1990;
Carrier, 1999; Chien & Wei, 1998), difficulties in understanding reduced forms,
distinguishing word boundaries and recognition of non prominent words (Cauldwell,
1996), short term memory capacity (Call, 1985; Ellis, 1996; Rost, 1990) and
learners may lose their interest in the topic or the activity (Rost, 1990).
2.2. Authentic materials
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2.2.1. Definition of authentic materials
The definitions of authentic materials are slightly different in literature
written by different language researchers. Nunan (1989, as cited in Adams, 1995)
refers to authentic materials as any material that has not been specifically produced
for the purpose of language teaching. To be more specific, Widdowson (1990) noted
that “Authentic materials would be materials designed for native speakers of English
used in the classroom in a way similar to the one it was designed for”. For example,
a radio news report brought into the class so students discuss the report on pollution
in the city where learners live. Similarly, Harmer (1991) defined authentic texts as
real texts designed for speakers of the language, not for language students. Jordan
(1997) seemed to be in agreement with Harmer (1991) when he referred to authentic
texts as texts that were not written for language teaching purposes.
In short, this research adopts the view of Nunan (1989), Widdowson (1990),
Harmer (1991) and Jordan (1997) mentioned above, that is, authentic materials are
considered as the kind of materials designed for native speakers out of purpose of
learning language.
2.2.2. Classification of authentic materials
Gebhard (1996) based on the presentation of the materials to classify
authentic materials teachers could use in their classes into four categories and gave
examples for each category:
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1. Authentic Listening - Viewing Materials TV commercials, quiz shows,

Singleton (1988), Peacock (1997), and Shei (2001) also claim motivation effect of
authentic materials. This, according to Lin (2004), is because learners see authentic
materials as being only more interesting and stimulating. Oguz and Bahar (2008)
contend that if learners’ interaction with authentic materials is established with
interest and without difficulty they can participate actively in learning and in the
same way their motivation levels may raise.
Secondly, using authentic materials exposes students to real language.
Chavez (1998) agrees that using authentic materials is to the benefit of the students
because they are more enjoyable and students find a chance to interact with the
language and its use. According to Shrum and Glisan (2000), authentic materials
provide an effective means for presenting real language, integrating culture, and
heightening comprehension. They bring two reasons for believing that authentic
materials are beneficial. Firstly, by exposure to such materials, students will be
provided with the opportunity to see language as is used in real world to serve a real
purpose. Secondly, such materials can be considered as a rich source of cultural
content. In addition, Haley and Austin (2004) and Velazquez (2007) encourage the
use of authentic texts since they believe that such texts can provide a connection
between the students on one hand and the target language and culture on the other
hand. Also the teacher is provided with “more opportunities to bring the real world
aspects into the class” (p.93). Thus, it could be said that authentic materials not only
functions to provide students with real language used everyday by native speakers,
but give authentic cultural information as well.
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Other advantages listed by experts are authentic materials are related more
closely to students’ needs, encourage to improve other language skills actively,
produce a sense of achievement and support a more creative approach to teaching.
2.2.4. Disadvantages of authentic materials
According to experts, authentic materials not only have advantages in
teaching and learning language, but also include disadvantages. For Kim (2000),
Guariento & Morley (2001) and Martinez (2002), authentic materials often contain

Nuttal (in Berardo, 2006:62) as suitability, exploitability, and readability. Similar to
the opinion of Oguz and Bahar (2008), according to Nuttal, the most important
criterion, suitability, refers to the idea that texts must be chosen based on learners’
interest and they should be relevant to their needs. By exploitability he means the
way through which learners’ competence as readers may be developed. Readability
means choosing texts’ difficulty based on learners’ language level. Besides the
purpose and interest of learners, Rogers and Medley (1988) add some other
characteristics such as quality, appropriateness, and naturalness of the language
which must be considered and for Shomoossi et al. (2007) it is the context of use
needs. Galloway (1990) recommends the following criteria in authentic material
selection:
1. Topic should be accessible to learners
2. Length of text should not be intimidating to beginning readers
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3. Linguistic level should be slightly above the reader’s own level unless
the tasks are closely structured to involve focused reading
4. Clues to meaning should be abundant such as contextual, verbal,
pictorial, and linguistic.
(Cited in Haley and Austin, 2004: 160-161)
In agreement with Galloway (1990), according to Tungesh G.M (2012), it is
the most important for teachers to choose authentic materials suitable for interest of
students and the proficiency level of the class. Of them, the latter is also mentioned
by Fei and Yu-feng (2008) as a determining factor in choosing appropriate authentic
materials. In order to have the best choice, Tungesh G.M (2012) proposed some
suggestions: (1) select shorter texts or articles with simpler, less complex language,
(2) use extracts from longer articles, (3) select topics that are likely to be of interest
to the learners, too, (4) most of these materials contain a lot of visuals that can be
used as interesting stimuli to generate language, (5) particularly, brochures,
magazines and newspapers are readily available and teachers should look out for
these and collect and compile them for use in the classrooms (p.107).

progression of students.
5. Authentic listening materials should allow students to engage in higher
order thinking (Valencia, 19910, p. 590 – 591).
Karpora (1999) [cited in (Su, 2007, p. 50)] also provided several guidelines
for selecting authentic listening materials including: (1) content: authentic listening
material should be content appropriate to the age, interests, needs, and goals of
students. (2) Tasks authentic listening materials should contain tasks that present
cognitive and communicative procedures that students could apply to their new
knowledge in the collective exploration. (3) Teacher – learner relationship: authentic
listening material should be balanced between instructors and students „expectations
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