A transcript analysis of listening tapes: The authenticity across locally published listening materials for primary schools in Hong Kong

This paper investigates the authenticity of listening materials produced by a local textbook publisher for primary schools in Hong Kong. It adopts the approach of transcript analysis, with the use of listening tapes designed for the six levels of primary education – from primary 1 to primary 6. Through a detailed analysis of the mentioned materials, the development of authenticity across the materials written for all the six years will also be examined. In this study, authenticity will be measured based on a list of measurement that contains a series of discourse features. The development of authenticity will then be observed through a comparison among the results obtained from the analysis. Results reveal that the listening materials show varied authenticity in three different dimensions, namely the situational context, the purpose, and the discourse features. For the analysis of discourse features, the listening materials are further classified into daily conversations and radio interviews. Generally, both radio interviews and daily conversations are not considered authentic as data of each feature display a great inconsistency in terms of the content, occurrence rate and function when contrasting with authentic spontaneous speeches. With the results, the rationale behind integrating non-authentic materials in language classrooms, as well as the impacts, mainly towards students’ communicative competence, of advocating authentic materials in second language teaching will be discussed.