Ted talks as a strategy to improve the skill of listening

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to help students of the English language improve their listening comprehension skills. This is a struggle in particular for students of English as a foreign language as they do not have constant contact with the language in everyday situations. The use of authentic material is known to be of great benefit to students, yet it is a struggle for teachers to allocate the necessary time to give students adequate time for the process. This is due to in part to the time needed to develop the other language skills to become a well-rounded English language speaker. This is where autonomous learning is used to supplement the time not available in the class room. However, it is important to give students guidance so that the time is used in an effective and productive fashion. This is where Ted Talks come in. Ted Talks are videos on a huge variety of topics that are of interest to a wide variety of people. Moreover, the Ted talks have transcripts that can be easily accessed, and a good number have been translated into various languages from around the world. Making this study possible in other parts of the world where English is taught as a Foreign Language. This study did find that there was an improvement in students listening comprehension over the course of the study. More importantly there was an improvement in the perception of listening comprehension on the part of students.