THE USE OF GOOGLE TRENDS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS

Using authentic materials, such as books, videos, news, and podcasts has received increasing attention in English classes in the last two decades. Among others, Google Trends serves as a platform to choose authentic materials based on their popularity on a global scale. It has been displaying huge data about the most popular news, people, events, books, movies, and songs since 2004. To this aim, 40 Foundation English students who studied at a private university in Erbil, Iraq, were chosen through a simple random sampling method for the 2022-2023 Academic Year. Control group students kept their education according to the principles of the pre-defined curriculum, while experimental group students made a presentation about a trending topic on Google, prepared a listening quiz, and ran a speaking session. The data, collected by exams and surveys, were analyzed by SPSS 26 and NVivo application, revealing that Google Trends enriched teaching mode, increased students' listening scores and enhanced speaking performance significantly in the experimental group, whereas no noticeable progress was observed in the control group. Likewise, students’ motivation towards learning English increased significantly in the experimental group, while it was less than noticeable in the control group. The findings of this study can have some implications for educators who consider integrating Google Trends into the curriculum to present authentic materials. Keywords: authentic materials, Google Trends, listening scores, enhanced speaking performance