Authentic Spoken English on YouTube: Integrating YouTube Vlogs into Mobile-Assisted Extensive Listening for EFL Students

Despite unprecedented access to authentic spoken English through digital platforms, EFL listening instruction still largely relies on scripted materials that inadequately represent natural speech rate, pragmatic nuance, and accent diversity, creating a persistent gap between classroom listening and real-world comprehension. Addressing this gap, the present study examines the pedagogical potential of integrating YouTube vlogs as a genre-specific resource within mobile-assisted extensive listening. The study aims to analyze learners’ perceptions, reported learning outcomes, challenges, and self-regulated strategies associated with sustained vlog-based listening beyond the classroom. Adopting a ten-week qualitative-dominant case study design, data were collected from twenty university EFL students through one hundred listening journals, closed-ended questionnaires analyzed using descriptive statistics, open-ended questionnaires, and follow-up interviews, with pattern coding applied for qualitative interpretation. Quantitative findings indicate consistently positive trends, with mean scores above 3.20 for listening comprehension, motivation, pronunciation awareness, and exposure to diverse accents, while qualitative analysis reveals three dominant themes: linguistic noticing, affective engagement, and sociocultural awareness. At the same time, learners reported recurring challenges related to fast speech, unfamiliar accents, slang, and multimodal distraction, which were mitigated through self-regulated strategies such as replaying segments, using captions, and maintaining vocabulary logs. The novelty of this study lies in explicitly positioning YouTube vlogs as a structured extensive listening genre rather than a general digital supplement. The findings contribute empirical and practice-oriented evidence for designing scalable, autonomy-oriented listening pedagogy and inform curriculum-level decisions on integrating authentic mobile-mediated input in EFL contexts.