American sitcom and listening comprehension

Abstract

This present study aims to analyze the influence of the American Sitcom (Friends) in the development of listening comprehension in young learners. It is quantitative research with a pre-experimental design through the application of a pre-test and posttest FCE listening part exam for the verification of the research hypothesis. The research was applied to 24 students of the 8th semester of the PINE English Language Training Program at Universidad Técnica de Ambato. For this study, an adapted evaluation rubric was used and designed according to the subskills measured by each part of the FCE listening part. A special attention was paid to the independent variable (American Sitcom) in relation to the dependent variable (Listening comprehension). For the analysis and interpretation of data, a table showed the improvements obtained by the students in each sub-skill. For the development of this research, a standardized pre-test and post-test FCE listening part exam was used. In addition, the students underwent 10 treatments of 30 min each, using American comedy as a tool to develop their listening comprehension. Subsequently, to test the hypothesis, a normality test was performed, followed by a T-test. Finally, it was concluded that the implementation of the American sitcom Friends does influence listening comprehension due to the enhancements in each listening subskill.