The listening skill of EFL students are relatively low. One thing that influences students' listening skill is the listening materials. One source of listening materials is Voice of America (VOA) Special English. It can be used to support teaching and learning process. This research aims to (1) find out the benefits of using VOA to teach listening skill and (2) find out the development of students' listening skill taught by using VOA. To obtain the... This research aims to (1) find out the benefits of using VOA to teach listening skill and (2) find out the development of students’ listening skill through VOA. To obtain the data needed, this research employed library research. The researcher used documents as the data sources. In analyzing the data, the researcher used content analysis. The data were collected by reviewing the research related to VOA and listening skill. The findings of this research showed that VOA brought many benefits in the educational field, it also develops students’ listening skill. It means that VOA is a useful platform for teaching and learning process. This paper contributes to the first more extended discussion in the TESOL literature on the importance of VOA Special English -- a prime paradigm of a 'graded' American English, at low intermediate level, based on 1,500 word families, simplified for global listening and reading. I wish to argue that it is imperative that Special English be explored in multiple ways as a simplified form of English as an International Language (EIL) for the greater multitude of ordinary learner/users. Special English remains a kind of 'Cinderella' in EIL research and everyday teaching practice. My guiding thesis is that Special English (SE) is a prime example of "pleasurable comprehensible input" in the sense of Krashen (2004c, pp. 28-34) and his concept of free voluntary reading (ibid., 1-17). Although Special English has been rechristened by the US State Department as ‘Learning English’ (http://learningenglish.voanews.com/) since publication of this paper in 2008, and its materials divided into three ‘levels’, it still remains essentially what it has been for over 50 years, a simple, downshifted potential ‘target level’ or ‘threshold plateau’ for many learners of English as a usable lingua franca. Many of the simplified classic stories in American literature recast in Special English are still available on the learningenglish site and the broader Internet. Here a link to classic short stories in Special English by Nathaniel Hawthorne: http://goo.gl/CGs70f Here tales in easier VOA English by other famous American authors: http://goo.gl/RWvSKG Be sure to click on the Videos category in the menu bar, or scroll all the way to the website's footer area where you'll also find links to some other valuable resources: "Learning English TV," "English in a Minute," "English @ the Movies," and "Everyday Grammar TV." In the footer area, you'll also find a link for the Learning English Word Book, which explains the 1,500 or so words used on the site. The Pronunciation Guide listed here can also be of value to teachers and students when trying to find the proper pronunciation for challenging names and places mentioned in various world news stories. Sorry, we just need to make sure you're not a robot. For best results, please make sure your browser is accepting cookies. Type the characters you see in this image: Try different image Conditions of Use Privacy Policy © 1996-2014, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates |
