Youtube-Based Authentic Materials for EFL Listening Instruction in Islamic Junior High School

Abstract

This qualitative case study explores how YouTube-based authentic materials are used in EFL listening instruction at an Islamic junior high school (pesantren) in Manggung Jaya, Karawang, Indonesia. Data were collected over three days through classroom observations of two teaching meetings and semi-structured interviews with five purposively selected eighth-grade students and the school's sole English teacher. Thematic analysis produced four themes: student engagement and motivation through YouTube as authentic material; multimodal support for listening comprehension; implementation challenges; and teacher pedagogy within the Islamic/pesantren context. Findings indicate that students responded with high levels of enthusiasm, perceived benefits in vocabulary acquisition and pronunciation, and appreciated the role of subtitles and visuals as comprehension aids. The teacher reported, based on informal in-class monitoring, that students' comprehension appeared to improve after YouTube was introduced. Grounded in Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory and Krashen's Input Hypothesis, the study demonstrates that YouTube, when embedded in a structured three-phase pedagogical framework and culturally adapted to align with Islamic educational values, can serve as an effective authentic resource for EFL listening instruction in pesantren-based schools, a context underrepresented in existing literature.