Documentaries and listening skill

Abstract

English language learning through the use of documentaries in classes is a different and striking way of teaching. Furthermore, listening is one of the most difficult skills to teach, for that reason teachers need to find an innovative way to teach this skill. The current research aims to determine the influence of documentaries to develop students’ English listening skill. A group of 26 students from the third semester of Pedagogía de los Idiomas Nacionales y Extranjeros major at Universidad Técnica de Ambato was the selected population of this study. For the development of the project, the researcher applied a pre-test and post-test the Preliminary English Test as an instrument. In addition, a pre-experimental design was carried out and treatment was applied during seven interventions using documentaries during the English classes. Moreover, the data collected was analyzed and verified through the SPSS statistic program to allow the investigator to describe the impact of using documentaries for listening skill improvement. Once the treatment and post-test were applied, the results showed that there was an improvement in the listening level of the students. At the same time, it could be evidenced that the students' listening sub-skills such as listening for gist and listening for detail improved, after the treatment the students are able to understand the main idea of a listening and they are more interested in the cultures, traditions and foods of different countries of the world.