The effect of using audiobooks as an extensive listening strategy on anxiety and development of listening and pronunciation skills of high school students learning English as a foreign language

In spite of being primary receptive and productive channels of human communication, research has displayed that listening and speaking skills are still problematic areas in language classrooms in Turkey. A large body of research has also shown that one of the prominent affective factors which are influential in the development of language skills is anxiety. Besides, the language teaching literature suggests that integration of technology to the learning process and exposure to target language contribute to language learning. Due to this situation, the current study attempts to investigate the effects of listening to audiobooks in Reading while Listening mode as an Extensive Listening strategy on high school English as a Foreign Language learners' listening comprehension skill, pronunciation accuracy, foreign language listening anxiety and foreign language pronunciation anxiety as well as to investigate the correlational relations between these variables. The study was carried out at Konuralp Anatolian High School in Akyazı, Sakarya with 109 participants in the 2018-2019 academic year spring semester. The study adopted a mixed-method research design. Data collection instruments consist of listening comprehension tests, pronunciation accuracy tests, Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale, Measurement of Pronunciation Anxiety in Foreign Language Classroom, and a follow-up survey for eliciting learners' views about audiobooks. The pre-post conditions of experimental and control groups were compared quantitatively by using statistical procedures after the experimental group participants have listened to audiobooks for eight weeks, one for each week. Finally, follow-up qualitative data were subjected to content analysis. The results showed that listening to audiobooks has a positive impact on the improvement of learners' listening comprehension skills and pronunciation accuracy. Besides, the study revealed that the experimental group's FLLA and FLPA levels decreased more significantly than the control group. Moreover, the participants displayed positive views on the use of audiobooks as language learning materials. Finally, negative correlations were found between both listening comprehension and FLLA, pronunciation accuracy and FLPA.