The Impact of Awareness of the Differences between American English and British English on Iranian EFL learners Listening Comprehension Skill

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of awareness of the differences between American English and British English on Iranian EFL learners- listening comprehension ability at the elementary proficiency level context. Participants were 75 male students that were learning English at elementary level at Kish Language Institute. They were randomly selected and assigned to three groups, American English listening group, British English listening group, and awareness listening group. In order to have homogenous groups, a preliminary standard placement test -Oxford Placement Test- was administered to participants to check their proficiency level. The results revealed that all participants were at the same elementary level. After that, a listening test was used as a pretest to measure the students- potential differences at the beginning of the study. The pre-test and related analysis in three groups proved that all three groups were at the same level based on their pretests- scores. The pre test was a combination of American and British listening materials and which was also according to their level -elementary- from one credited and well-known teaching source; namely Total English to test all group. It has four parts and odd parts -1 and3- were pronounced in British English and even parts -2 and 4- were pronounced in American English. After the instruction phase in the treatment, which was specified to each group based on their group: American was taught American accent, British was taught British, and awareness group was taught the differences between American and British English, the post test -which was the same as pre-test- was administered to all groups. The results from the post-test revealed that awareness groups performed better in listening comprehension. To some extent American group did better in post test in comparison with British group. There were three groups so to determine the significance of these differences several ANOVA were run with SPSS Software. Based on these results, the awareness of the differences between American and British English develop the learners- listening comprehension ability in awareness and to some extent American groups. In other words, it was revealed that making Iranian EFL learners aware of the differences between American and British English develop their listening comprehension ability.