International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World

(IJLLALW)

Volume 7 (3), November 2014; 173-187 Sadeghi, M

EISSN: 2289-2737 & ISSN: 2289-3245 www.ijllalw.org

THE EFFECT OF TEACHING SHORT AUDIO

CONVERSATIONS ON GENERAL PROFICIENCY OF EFL
LEARNERS
Maryam Sadeghi
Department of English , Mahshahr Branch, Islamic Azad Univercity, Mahshahr, Iran
Email: [email protected]
Abstract
Various research studies on education have identified several factors which should be taken into
account in understanding the best ways of teaching and learning a second language. It is
completely clear that learning a second language is a complex process and all technical listening
suggestions aimed at establishing a simple way for all learners to learn a new language.
Learning English nowadays is an undeniable need, and listening skill is an important factor in
learning English. The current study, conducted in Iran, investigated the effectiveness of using
short audio conversations on the general proficiency of second language learners. Short audio
conversations were taught over 11 weeks during a semester. The learners listened to the
conversation about one hour each week. To conduct the present study 66 beginner students who
studying at pre-university course have been chosen. The experimental class (n= 33) who were
taught with the use of short audio conversations, performed better than the control group. The
same teacher taught the students in the control class (n=33) who were taught based on Grammar
Translation Method without any short audio conversation or listening activities. A pre and
posttest taken from Interchange quizzes assessed the effect of teaching with short audio
conversations on the experimental and control group. The results gathered on the post
intervention test revealed that teaching with short audio conversations led to a statistically
significant improvement in their general proficiency of English language compared with the
control group.
KEYWORDS: Short Audio Conversation, Communication, General Proficiency
INTRODUCTION
Various research studies on education have identified several factors which should be taken into
account in understanding the best ways of teaching and learning a second language. It is
completely clear that learning a second language is a complex process and all technical listening
suggestions aimed at establishing a simple way for all learners to learn a new language. Learning
English nowadays is an undeniable need, and listening skill is an important factor in learning
English. Listening is central to all learning and precedes the development of the other language
skills. But it must be mentioned that, although listening comprehension is the most often used
language skill, having a key role in communication and is considered to be a necessary
prerequisite for development of other language skills, it has been somewhat neglected in Iranian
studies. Researches have shown that listening comprehension is a very complex language skill
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International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World

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Volume 7 (3), November 2014; 173-187 Sadeghi, M

EISSN: 2289-2737 & ISSN: 2289-3245 www.ijllalw.org

and like the other receptive skills, such as reading, listening is based on very complex process of
understanding.
There is no doubt that listening is fundamental to speaking and if someone wants to learn perfect
English, he must learn listening skills perfectly. Listening skill of second language is not derived
naturally it needs some process of learning. The process of listening in the classroom involves a
teacher and some students. The main source of listening for students is the voice of their teacher.
Brown(2000) stated that a listener would be successful with the proper motivation. It is essential
for the young learners to be stimulated and encouraged to learn intrinsically by their teacher.
Students have to be able to understand the main idea of what is said as well as specific details.
The classroom environment must be supportive of active learning and teaching. Although lots of
different researches have been done to find the best and easiest ways of teaching English
language, still there is a constant demand for methods that successfully improve listening skills
and for sure communicative power of learners in English. Some of the researchers suggest that
listening to songs can be really effective, the others believe that documentaries can help the
learners the most and some focus on films or news. But all the researchers believe that what is
really important is the nature of listening as a basic skill. Pescosolido (1990) argued that the use
of films can be important in learning and teaching and also highlighted that active learning can be
encouraged and better supported through the use of audio-visual materials from the popular
culture arena.
English as a foreign language has the greatest motion in Iran. Status of English as the source of
every science and international communication are two reasons which lead to a greater focus on
learning language, basically for educated people. But unfortunately, since the basic method which
is still used in most Iranian high school and universities is Grammar Translation Method, the
students will never learn how to communicate in English. Surprisingly, in most English classes
in Iran, listening skill is completely ignored! In our schools, colleges, and even in high schools,
instructors direct how to read and write, not how to speak or listen. Ignoring the fact that a person
can speak, write, and read the best who have listened to different sources in the target language,
and has got a bank of words and sentences in his mind.
Using GMT in most of English classes in Iran, makes English classes boring and intolerable both
for the instructor and the learner. Doing writing and reading exercises three or more hours a week
in a session is not interesting mostly for the students. And the most important thing is that when
the students leave the class, they dont have anything new to express.
The researcher has tried to find a better way to make English classes more practical, functional,
and useful for all the college students in Islamic Azad University of Mahshahr. To do so,
communicative approach has been used in two classes and at the same time lots of different short
audio conversations, which were exactly daily conversations about simple subjects, were played
for elementary students in classes in order to demonstrate that listening practice is insisted by all
the students and they find it functional in language learning and it encourages the students to
come to English classes and be more active and at the same time when the students listen to some
daily conversations in the class and practice what they have heard right away they can express
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International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World

(IJLLALW)

Volume 7 (3), November 2014; 173-187 Sadeghi, M

EISSN: 2289-2737 & ISSN: 2289-3245 www.ijllalw.org

some sentences after each session. Meanwhile the role of an active teacher must not be
neglected. A good, patient teacher for sure is able to attract the students and make them believe
that they are able to learn a new language even if it is too much difficult for them. In an active
classroom environment the role of the teacher is often that of a facilitator, supporting students as
they learn and develop skills in, for example, assessing evidence, negotiation, making informed
decisions, solving problems, working independently and working with others. Pupil participation
and involvement in their learning is essential. This is exactly what the researcher is going to
prove; practicing English through listening to some daily conversations and dialogues will give
the students the power to boost their knowledge of English in order to use it in a communicative
way. Short daily conversations can be one of the most enjoyable ways to practice and develop
spoken English.
Learning English as a second language in Iran is a crucial issue. Even most of the well-educated
people in Iran have got lots of problems with learning practical English. The most and the very
initial problem is that they cannot communicate in English. And the reason for that is completely
obvious. In Iran, at school level, listening skills are not taught due to the predominant use of the
traditional Grammar Translation Method (GTM) which focuses only on reading and writing
skills. At university level, depending on the field of study, reading skills are mainly taught for
three hours per week for each term. So the students will never have the opportunity to listen to
any English source, so obviously they would not be able to speak in English after their academic
education.
The present research aims at proving the fact that, teaching short audio conversations in the
classroom would actually help the students to be motivated enough in learning English and it
makes them more active and interested to use English as a means of communication. Whenever
the learners listen to a short conversation they have to focus their attention and concentrate on the
subject. Concentration will help them to learn and even memorize some words and sentence.
Activation is high as long as you are focusing on information, but activation decays or fades
quickly when attention shifts away. That is why the researcher has chosen short daily
conversations. The beginner students are not willing enough to listen to long texts. They lose
concentration as soon as they find the subject difficult to grasp and talk and chat among the
others.
Daily conversations are the most available sources of listening which can bring the students
lives to the lesson. Because of the variety of subjects they are less boring and they are also
tangible in daily life so the students would be encouraged to go on with them. After a term or so,
they will unconsciously find the ability to express some daily conversations in English. Short
daily conversations act exactly the same as videos. Richards and Gordon (2004) maintained that
Video could enable learners to use visual information to enhance listening comprehension. The
result showed that using video in the classroom can be seen as a useful teaching tool in that it
allows learner to build connection between aural and visual messages.

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International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World

(IJLLALW)

Volume 7 (3), November 2014; 173-187 Sadeghi, M

EISSN: 2289-2737 & ISSN: 2289-3245 www.ijllalw.org

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Teaching listening
As mentioned before, listening skill of second language is not derived naturally. It needs some
process of learning. The process of listening in the classroom involves a teacher and students.
Probably the main source of listening for students is the voice of their teacher. In teachinglearning process, teacher talks when he is giving some instructions to the students, and he should
be understood. But in fact the students need variety in listening, not just the voice of the teacher.
Mei-ling (2007) examined teaching English listening and speaking through films. The results
suggest that English films pay a positive role in motivating students to learn English listening and
speaking.
We know that during listening activities students need full concentration on the audio being
played, otherwise they may not catch the messages from the audio. Bozorgian (2013) believes
that, Students consequently attribute their difficulty in listening- comprehension either to their
inadequate competence or to the linguistic difficulty of stimulus texts. In order to optimize lifelong learning and potential success it is now widely accepted that young people need to have
opportunities to develop personal capabilities and effective thinking skills as part of their wellrounded education.
The aim of teaching listening and short audio conversations
Listening used in language teaching refers to a complex process that allows the listener to
understand spoken language. The point here is that the process of listening skill instruction is not
given sufficient attention in the classroom and is undervalued globally and in Iran, in particular.
Also, in English language, listening is more demanding language skill, due to students limited
knowledge of English.
Bently and Bacon (1996) believe that, listeners create meaning from oral input because listening,
as an active process, is a critical part of language learning generally and particularly for the L2
learning process. On the other hand Rost (1994) points out that, listening is vital in the language
classroom because it provides input for the learner. Without understanding input at the right
level, any learning simply cannot begin. Listening is thus fundamental to speaking. It is really
important that limited listening input fails to promote face-to-face communication by shaping the
students social development, confidence and self-image. Adequate listening practice could give
the learners essential contact with handy input that might trigger their utterance. Cameron (2004)
asserts that, Listening is the receptive use of language, and since the goal is to make sense of the
speech, the focus is on meaning rather than language. Obviously listening influences other skills.
Actually the very initial aim of learning listening skill is to promote the ability of speaking and
communicating.
Bidabadi (2012) believes that, all the learners prefer to be communicative, that is, they desire to
work in pairs and in groups. That is the students favor communicative types of learning style,
which concurs with the findings of this study. Linse (2005) also considers the teaching of
listening skills as foundational to the development of other language skills.
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Volume 7 (3), November 2014; 173-187 Sadeghi, M

EISSN: 2289-2737 & ISSN: 2289-3245 www.ijllalw.org

We should, however, be aware that any kind of listening comprehension activity needs to be well
guided with clear aims. Even low English listening proficiency learners prefer communicative
approach to learning.
For learners who are studying English in a non-English speaking setting, it is very important to
experience real communicative situations in which they will learn how to express their own
views and opinions, and to develop their oral fluency and accuracy which are very essential for
the success of FL communication. Listening to some short conversations then is necessary and
useful as an educational strategy to enhance learning. This may be provided through videos and
tapes of language input by native speakers. In this regard Bozorgian(2013) believes that, the
process of the skill of listening is not emphasized despite a wide access to listening materials with
accompanying audiovisual technology in the classroom such as CDs, DVD or video.
Why Teaching English through Short audio daily conversations
Various researches have been done to show the effect of watching movies with or without
subtitles in English on the students learning quality. According to Champoux (1999), movies are
a comfortable familiar medium to contemporary students that can keep students interest in the
theories and concepts under discussion.
Richards (2006) asserts that, In order to use the language effectively learners need to develop
communicative competence - the ability to use the language they are learning, appropriately, in a
given social encounter. Psychologists have argued in favor of impact of films on cognitive
learning of students in the classroom. Blasco et al. (2006) have stated that the use of films in
learning and teaching is crucial to provoking the reflective processes and attitudes in the learner.
For sure watching and listening to an English source at the same time has got very positive and
proven effects which could not be neglected but there is only one problem that this research was
built up based on short audio dialogues in English; some weak and easy going students may find
it difficult to watch a film, drama, documentary and so on, so the researcher just prepared some
short audio conversations and let them listen to that extract. This way they dont have any
complaint and are supposed to do their tasks inside and outside the classroom.
The outcomes of the studies reviewed above show that listening to any English source especially
films and dialogues is as important as the other skills. Its a bit more difficult, but also more
beneficial. It helps the students improve their pronunciation and conversation. It brings real life
atmosphere to the classroom and forces them to interact with each other. This kind of classroom
is a kind of cooperative one. In a cooperative class the students try to speak with each other,
communicate and even they try to correct each others mistakes.
Meanwhile, the key role of a skillful teacher should not be neglected. A teacher must be patient
enough to inform the students about the best ways to learn listening skills. And give them some
strong reasons to be motivated to learn. Experts in communicative approach suggest that
contextualized and meaningful communication is the best possible practice that language learners
can engage in. The classroom environment must be supportive of active learning and teaching. In
an active classroom environment the role of a teacher is often that of a facilitator, supporting
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Volume 7 (3), November 2014; 173-187 Sadeghi, M

EISSN: 2289-2737 & ISSN: 2289-3245 www.ijllalw.org

students as they learn and develop skills in, for example, assessing evidence, negotiation, making
informed decisions, solving problems, working independently and working with others. Students
participation and involvement in their learning is essential. The students should talk to each other
through pairs or groups where each learner gets his time to talk. The concept of interaction has a
significant importance in the classroom too; it is an essential part in learning and teaching
processes. Johnson (1995) supports this idea that if learner-learner interaction is well structured
and managed, then it can be an important factor of cognitive development, educational
achievement of students and emerging social competencies.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The main research questions that guide this study were:
1.
To what extent do teaching short audio conversations in the class affect language
proficiency of the EFL learners?
2.
To what extent does teaching based on traditional methods like Grammar Translation
Method affect language proficiency of the EFL learners?
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The major aim of this study is to find out the students learning proficiencies after being taught
by short audio daily conversations compare to the students learning proficiencies after being
taught based on grammar translation method. Therefore this study belongs to quantitative
research. The research design used is true experiment of two groups pre and post-test design,
with one group as the experiment group and the other group as the control group.
Participants
A total of 66 freshmen out of 99 students within the age of 18- 30 studying at the pre-university
English course in Islamic Azad University of Mahshahr, Iran, participated in this study. They
were all native speakers of Farsi (Persian). They were all learning English as a compulsory
course in order to become graduated. Most of the students were beginner in learning English or
they had a very little knowledge of English. The students level was estimated based on a
baseline test which was taken from the students at the beginning of the semester.
For enrolment in universities, all Iranian students are required to participate in a University
Entrance Examination. In this exam, English proficiency of the students is examined based on
Grammar, Reading Comprehension, and vocabulary. In other words, the exam does not include
any listening test and it focuses on Grammar, Vocabulary, and Reading. The students, who
cannot gain more that 30% of 100% score of the exam, must take part in pre- university English
course. Thus, a majority of the students took part in researchers class had lots of problems with
reading, pronouncing, and expressing even one short sentence in English, so 25 students left the
class at the beginning of the term.

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Instruments and Data Gathering Procedure

The study involved a baseline test and a pre- test and one post- test. This research used students
test scores as the data. The scores are derived from a pre-test and a post-test over a period of two
months. The main job of the instructor began in the third week of the regular semester to ensure
that all the students have got the proper book and its DCs.
Baseline test
A baseline test was used to major the participants ability in listening and understanding the most
elementary and key sentences in English language. The baseline test was a collection of three
parts, gathered from Tactics for Listening (beginner book) which contains 15 very simple
questions. Determining the participants listening proficiency was crucial for this study. The book
Interchange (intro) was chosen based on the students scores on baseline test, and consultation
with two experienced colleagues who confirmed the books level was equivalent for those lower
intermediate students.
The students pre-test contains four multiple choice listening test and five more parts containing
filling the blanks, guessing and choosing the best answer part and asking and answering some
questions. Since the purpose of this study was to show that using short audio conversations in the
classroom motivates the students to become interested in learning English and for sure it affects
their learning quality, both pre and post-tests contain these elements. Each listening question had
four response choices for which the participants had one minute to choose the correct answer
after the audio was played once for each question.
The content of the pre-test was daily conversation, in general focusing on greeting, asking for
phone number and using the correct proposition such as in/on at, . It is because the students
were not able to understand and discuss further daily events in English language. The length of
the audio-listening was less than one minute.
As mentioned before 33 students have been chosen to be the members of experimental group.
There was also a control group with the same number of participants, which received regular
class with traditional instruction: Grammar Translation Method. In experiment group the
students had the opportunity to listen to each part of the lessons native pronunciation at least
three times. Then they were asked to practice with a partner, try to imitate the native speakers
intonation and pronunciation and do some pier corrections which really actually motivated the
students to be active. But in control group the focus was on grammar, translation, vocabulary
learning, and reading comprehension which were not interesting for the students.
Post-test
This test was administrated after 9 sessions teaching English accompanied by listening activities
for experimental group and without any listening activity for control group. Again the test
contained four multiple choice listening proficiency tests and four more parts relating to the
evaluation of the students learning quality during one semester. It contains matching items, fill in
the blanks, and asking and answering some questions regarding daily conversations in English.
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Volume 7 (3), November 2014; 173-187 Sadeghi, M

EISSN: 2289-2737 & ISSN: 2289-3245 www.ijllalw.org

The students were asked to answer the questions in 30 minutes which is almost 1 minute for each
question.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 RESULTS
In order to answer the first research question, a paired sample t-test was run on the data obtained
from the administration of the pre-post tests to the participants of the experimental group first.
Our hypothesis was concerned with the degree to which teaching English with the help of short
audio conversations might result in variance in learning quality of the participants. We
hypothesized that the class receiving the experimental intervention would perform better than the
control class on learning to communicate in English.
According to the descriptive analysis of the language learners data in the experimental group
presented in (Table 1), there was a significant difference in the means of the pre-test (M=15.13
SD=1.25) and the post-test (M=18.12, SD=0.32). Moreover, the results of the paired-samples ttest (Table 2) show that the mean difference between the pre-post tests band scores of the
participants in the experimental group is 2.99, t (32)=-3.551, and p=0.003 which is smaller than
0.05. A comparison of the two means shows that the mean for the post-test was higher than the
mean of the pre-test. This implies that the effectiveness of using short audio conversations in the
class was major in improving the learners ability to communicate in English in the experimental
group.
Table 1: the participants in the experimental group s descriptive analysis of the pre-post tests band scores
Tests

Mean

SD

Std. Error Mean

Pre-test
Post-test

15.13
18.12

33
33

1.25
0.32

0.23
0.41

Table 2: Descriptive analysis of the paired-samples t-test for the experimental group language learners data
Tests

Paired Differences
Mean

Pre
Band
Score-Post
Band Score

-2.99

SD

0.31

Std.
Error
Mean

0.06

95%
Confidence
Interval
of
the
Difference
Lower

Upper

-0.28

-0.03

Df

Sig.
(2tailed)

-3.55

32

0.003

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Volume 7 (3), November 2014; 173-187 Sadeghi, M

EISSN: 2289-2737 & ISSN: 2289-3245 www.ijllalw.org

In order to provide answer for the second research question, the statistical analysis of a paired
sample t-test was also run on the data obtained from the administration of the pre-post tests to the
participants who have been taught based on Grammar Translation Method. We hypothesized that
teaching based on Grammar Translation Method should not have that much effect on learning
proficiency and the ability of the learners to communicate in a new language.
The analysis of the data obtained from the results of the pre-post tests of the participants who
have been taught based on Grammar Translation Method (Table 3) indicated that there was a
minor difference in the mean of the pre-test (M=15.25, SD=1.05) and the post-test (M=16.56,
SD=0.33). Additionally, the results of the paired-samples t-test presented in Table 4.4 show that
the mean difference between the pre-post tests band scores of participants who have been taught
based on Grammar Translation Method is 1.31, t (22)=-0.720, and p=0.895 which is bigger than
0.05.
A comparison of the two means indicates that the mean for the post-test was higher than the
mean of the pre-test. The magnitude of the differences in the means was not large (2=0.066).
Comparing this eta-squared value obtained (2=0.066) to Cohens (1988) criteria, it can be
concluded that the obtained effect size is a small effect size. A small effect size implies that using
Grammar Translation Method was not effective in improving the learners ability to speak in
English in the participants of the control group. Table 3 presents the descriptive analysis of the
data obtained from the administration of the pre-post tests to the participants in the control group.
Moreover, Table 4 represents the descriptive analysis of the paired-sample t-test for the data
obtained from participants in the control group.
Table 3: the participants in the control group s descriptive analysis of the pre-post tests band scores
Tests

Mean

SD

Std. Error Mean

Pre-test
Post-test

15.25
16.56

23
23

1.05
0.33

0.05
0.66

Table 4: Descriptive analysis of the paired-samples t-test for the control group language learners data

Paired Differences
Tests

Pre
Band
Score-Post
Band Score

Mean

-1.31

SD

0.43

Std.
Error
Mean

0.08

95%
Confidence
Interval
of
the
Difference
Lower

Upper

-0.049

-0.14

Df

Sig.
tailed)

-0.720

22

0.895

(2-

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Taking a quick look at the tables will lead us to the fact that teaching short audio conversations in
the class has got a very effective feedback and it is really helpful for almost all the students. On
the other hand using traditional method not only was not that much effective and beneficial, in
some cases it makes the students exhausted and bored of learning English.
Discussion
The results of this study provide evidence that using short audio conversations help the
experimental class, and improved the students learning quality and language proficiency. This
finding suggests that using short audio conversations in the classroom, allow learners to better
participate in classroom activities and help them to be more active. It really makes them wishful
to learn something new because the atmosphere is interesting for the students. It is to some extent
a new and tangible experience and the students can feel it.
The results suggest that using short audio conversation in the class enhance students ability to
take great care in the class so they will focus their attention to what is being said. That is exactly
what Rost (1994) points out; listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input
for the learner. Without any input, the students would not have anything to express. This fact is
completely evident in newly born children. In order to receive correct input the students have to
focus their attention and it is exactly something undeniable.
The interesting result, however, obtained from the control class in that students receiving their
regular traditional classroom activities had not achieved much progress in learning English.
Teaching English based on GMT tends to make students overly passive and indifferent to what is
being taught. As it was obviously clear from the tables 4.3 and 4.4 the participants in the control
group did not have progress in learning English. So using GMT in English classes is not effective
at all and it doesnt have any positive influence on learning quality and language proficiency of
the students. Paying attention to reading, writing and memorizing some words cannot boost the
students knowledge of English and would not be functional.
In a classroom based on Grammar Translation Method of teaching, there is too much teaching
and too little learning. Wenjie, Cai. (2009), believes in the traditional methods, there is lack of
attention being paid towards speaking and learning of pronunciation, there is no oral or
pronunciation work, since it is the written language which is taught, and mental discipline is
stressed rather than any ability actually to use the language.
As mentioned before our hypothesis was concerned with the degree to which using short audio
conversation can help the students to learn English better and to use English as a means of
communication. In this regard Pescosolido (1990) argued that the use of films can be important in
learning and teaching and also highlighted that active learning can be encouraged and better
supported through the use of audio-visual materials from the popular culture arena. After doing
the present research this statement can be truly proved and there is no doubt that any audio aid
can be really beneficial in learning English better and more functional.

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It was clearly observable that after some sessions almost all the students tried to participate in
the class actively and they all try to express themselves. They wanted to communicate with the
instructor and with each other in English and it seems really fantastic. For instance, speaking can
help students to develop their vocabulary and grammar and then it improves their writing skills.
Nowadays many researchers claim that through classroom interaction knowledge can be
constructed and skills can be developed. For learners who are studying English in a non-English
speaking setting, it is very important to experience real communicative situations in which they
will learn how to express their own views and opinions, and to develop their oral fluency and
accuracy which are very essential for the success of FL communication.
Classroom Interaction is necessary and useful as an educational strategy to enhance learning. The
class atmosphere was really active and it helped active learning, it encouraged the students to be
interested in learning more and new. In the classroom pair work and group work it is very
common as it requires cooperation between learners. It is very important to develop students
confidence and thus the teacher should use a lot of fluency-based activities. At the end of each
class the students were asked to mention their ideas about the amount of their progress in learning
English with the help of audio aids which were used in the class and most of the time they claim
that it was good. The students believed that listening to an English source along with the
teachers, can help them to learn the correct pronunciation and intonation of the words and
sentences and gradually it helps them to improve their accent and be self-confident enough to
speak in public. Some of the students believe that while listening to a conversation they have to
focus their attention and take a lot of care to what is being said in the conversations. Whenever a
person listens carefully, the words and sentences for sure will stick in his mind and with some
repetition the students would be able to express what they have learnt. On the other hand,
communication in English is the result of concentrated listening activities. Meanwhile the teacher
has got a very important role as Tran Van Co (2009), asserts that, weak students are the students
who usually lack basic knowledge or skills, have difficulty in comprehension. Students who
participated in this study stated that using short audio conversations in communication class was
a very enjoyable and rewarding learning experience for them. They believed this way they could
improve their language competence and skills. They believe this way they can improve their
pronunciation and would be familiar with native speakers way of speaking.
Generally speaking, based on the statistical results which were gained through this study, and
also based on the facts which have been observed in the classroom by the teacher, it is completely
clear that using short audio conversations in the class was really, truly helpful in motivating the
students to learn English as a second language. Listening, as a very fundamental skill not only
prepared an active atmosphere for the learners and motivate them to learn but helped them to be
familiar with real life situation and keep the students in touch with reality. So they would be in a
situation that they like to learn, not as a duty but as an interesting activity.
CONCLUSION
The main purpose of the present research was to examine whether short audio conversations can
be helpful in improving general proficiency of the second language learners. Developing listening
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skills is a fundamental element of any language learning process, and short audio conversations
are regarded as one of the most effective techniques to this end. Short audio conversations have a
definite place in English classroom; they provide meaningful and joyable language practice,
especially in fostering listening skills.
To prove these facts two groups, one as control group with 33 participants and the other
experimental group with the same number of participants have been chosen. The experimental
group has been taught with the help of short audio conversations in the class and the control
group has been taught based on Grammar Translation Method, after 8 sessions of studying each
of about one hour and a half, the learners were given the posttest. The experimental group who
has been taught with short audio conversations showed a considerable improvement in their
learning ability while the control group who were taught based on GMT showed little
improvement. Unfortunately listening skills seem to be undervalued in Iran and it makes learning
English a crucial issue for most of the people.
Learning to listen properly is equal to learning to communicate. Whenever a person listens to an
original source of English with great care, he will learn how to pronounce the words and
sentences and unconsciously he would become self-confidant enough to communicate in the
target language. This way listening becomes as a tool for active learning. Listening to short audio
conversations in the class has got some advantages and some disadvantages.
Advantages
While listening to a short audio conversation, first, the students focus their attention to hear what
is being said. So they concentrate on the subject and they try to learn something new. Second,
they try to express what they have heard it makes the class atmosphere more active and enjoyable
for the students, even they try to speak English with each other. Third, communicating in English
would be an inseparable part of such English classes that is the main aim of using short audio
conversations. Even sometimes the students try to speak the way the native speakers speak and it
is really interesting.
Disadvantages
As any other way of teaching this method also has got some disadvantages or it is better to say
some shortages; first, this way of teaching is time-consuming, a very short audio conversation has
to be repeated several times and almost all of the students are eager to express themselves so they
have to be given the chance. Second, selecting attractive and beneficial conversations is a bit
difficult and challenging for the instructor. And third, the students might get used to memorizing
the sentences and in some situation it might cause some problem for them.
Here by it is the time to answer the first question of this study. Using short audio conversations in
English classes is truly helpful in motivating the students to learn a new language which is to
some extent difficult for them. It makes the class atmosphere friendly and enjoyable and attracts
the students to the process of learning. Since listening is an active process not a passive one,
doing listening activities in the class produce positive energy both for the instructor and the
students and the class would not be boring anymore.
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The answer to the second question is completely clear based on the statistical results obtained
from chapter four. The students focus and emphasize mainly on the learning of grammar rule and
vocabulary and as such do not pay much attention to listening or speaking. , there is lack of
attention being paid towards speaking and learning of pronunciation, there is no oral or
pronunciation work. So there is no improvement in communicative competence and no
improvement in general proficiency of the learners.
Pedagogical Implementation
Since learning English is the most crucial issue even among the legitimate people in Iran, the
result of the present research would be too beneficial for many people. Using short audio
conversations in high schools is a very simple job to be done. On the other hand it has an
incredible effect which could help the students to be motivated in learning correct English from
high school or even lower levels. Implementing such a method doesnt need any special tool and
it is not expensive so it is accessible. In all English institutes also, this method have to be used at
least for beginners to encourage them to learn a new language. Even in high schools and all
universities this method of teaching can be beneficial. This method can provide much of the
input and data that learners receive in language learning.
To achieve active involvement, classroom activities must be task-oriented and engaging. Doing
listening activities in the class, help the process of active learning. In this study, students were
asked to listen to short audio conversations and try to express whatever they have memorized or
learned. These activities made the students focus their attention and helped them to be engaged in
the process of active learning and communicating.
Limitations and Suggestions
This study has some major limitations. First, this study didnt distinguish learning quality on
different genders, male and female. That is meant that all the participants known as experimental
and control groups were randomly arranged in number of males or females in each class. In fact,
the only consideration for taking this course was their educational level.
The other limitation of this attempt was that the sample population of this study was beginner
level EFL learners at university. Therefore more studies are needed to generalize the findings to
intermediate and advance levels of students. Shortage of time was another limitation which didnt
let the researcher to complete her plan in the classes. This study at least needs 20 sessions each
one hour and a half. Because of the shortage of time the researcher didnt have enough time to fill
some questioners about their level of satisfaction and hey just express their ideas orally.
Further research could involve different audio aids of diversified contents such as news
broadcast, documentary films, academic lectures, or movies. An oral test in which the test items
are designed very carefully with considerable attention and a standard oral quiz scoring sheet
would be very helpful to inform both the teacher and the students about how well they learned
the material and what material.
Furthermore, investigating the recall success rate after a long time laps would be a good topic for
further investigation. Some of the experts believe that delayed posttests are most meaningful if
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implemented in a 3-4 week range, and they are much less likely to be meaningful beyond a fourweek delay. In sum, the future research should be directed towards investigating the efficacy of
all kinds of audio aids on learning proficiency of the second language learners of different
proficiency levels over a longer period of time.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Hereby, the author would gratefully like to acknowledge Islamic Azad University, Mahshahr
branch, Iran, for funding the current project entitled as The Effect of Teaching Short Audio
Conversations on General Proficiency of EFL Learners. In fact, without it this project would not
have been possible.

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