Weyers: Effect of authentic video....

The author of this report did a study to see whether or not exposure to authentic video in the target language(in this case a Spanish telenovela) would enhance students' oral output. The results of the experiment showed that the class who watched the novelas had significantly better listening comprehension skills and also scored higher on some components of oral speech such as speaker confidence and the scope and breadth of response. I really enjoyed this article. I actually started learning Spanish myself through listening to my husband's CDs and watching the telenovelas every night with his family. I think its great that there are research studies out there that confirm the use of telenovelas as a useful tool in teaching the language!