THE ROLE OF MASS MEDIA TOOLS ON EFL SPEAKING SKILLS

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of mass media authentic materials on EFL students’ success in listening and speaking accurately and fluently. Two elementary level classes of the English Preparatory School were chosen randomly as the subjects of this study. There were 40 students grouped into two, one as experimental and the other as control. The subjects in the experimental group studied mass media authentic materials designed for them only. The subjects in the control group studied the standard curriculum. Besides, to get to know the students better and observe their common perspectives towards listening and speaking, an attitude questionnaire was given to both groups at the beginning and a similar one was given to the experimental group at the end of the study to determine whether the students have developed a positive attitude or not. The Hypothesis put forward for this study was; ‘if I use authentic mass media tools such as television, radio, films, videos, songs, and teach the expressions used in daily life, my students will pick up the colloquial language and will be able to use them’. Data was gathered from two examination results and tests. As a result of data analysis, a statistically significant difference has been found between the scores of the first and the second examinations and tests. When the scores were analyzed, the findings indicated that mass media authentic materials were effective in foreign language listening and especially speaking skills development and these techniques raised awareness on how to speak accurately and fluently in a foreign language.