Using Audiobooks in EFL Listening Instruction: Students’ Perceived Benefits and Challenges

Abstract

This study explores EFL students’ perceptions of audiobook use in listening instruction, focusing on its perceived benefits and challenges. Adopting a descriptive qualitative design, the research was conducted at an Indonesian senior high school and involved eleventh-grade students from two classes. Data were collected through classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis, with five students purposively selected for in-depth interviews. The findings indicate that audiobooks support the listening learning process by offering flexible access to materials, increasing instructional variety, and providing exposure to authentic language input. Students perceived these features as contributing to the development of vocabulary, grammatical awareness, and overall listening ability. However, several challenges were also identified, particularly difficulties in processing spoken input, such as recognizing word boundaries, phrases, and sentence structures, which hindered comprehension for some learners. Overall, the study suggests that audiobooks have pedagogical potential for EFL listening instruction, provided that appropriate instructional guidance and listening strategies are implemented.