Is it time to give up on audio exercises?

If you studied languages in the 80s and even in the 90s, this image from MGLU in Minsk must be familiar.

Desks equiped with headphones and cassette players for learners to practice their listening skills. At a time before YouTube and when finding native speakers was not always possible, recorded audio tracks were often the only way to listen to your target language. Still today all books are equipped with a series of audio tracks and exercises. To the extent that listening comprehension is a part of any language certificate, practice with such audio tracks is necessary to do well in the exams. But what about actually learning the language? I will argue below that such audio tracks are outdated and are not a necessary part of your learning.

☝ The conditions are artificial and hardly relevant to real life. In other words, outside phone calls and listening to the radio how often do you listen to someone without being able to see them? My guess is at best a few hours per week compared to several hours per day you have access to both sound and image (watching movies, video, doing shopping, talking to a friend or neighbour etc).

✌ Context matters. It helps you guess words and guessing is a huge part of learning new words. 

💪Image makes the experience more fun. Stephen Krashen talks about compelling (not just interesting) material. Few things are as compelling as a well made video.

👊Understanding gestures and body language is also part of learning a foreign language and shouldn't be ignored.

🙀It's easier. This is important especially for A1 and A2 learners. My experience as a teacher is that it is virtually impossible for beginners to follow a dialogue without some visual aid. Most of the textbook audio exercises are way too difficult and lead to frustration and disappointment.

😻Videos are great to get a taste of the culture. Whether it's cooking, a visit to a museum, a walk around the center of a famous city or the videoclip of a popular song image can tell you a lot about the culture of your target language.  

Now there are two main exceptions to this.

👍As mentioned earlier, if you want a certificate you simply have to do well in listening comprehension and practice with such exercises. It is what it is regardless of the disputed pedagogical value.

😂A classroom where it's simply not possible to show a video - this is often the case in many language academies in my own country (Greece). An audio is better than nothing in this situation.

It's worth adding that there are some exceptionally well made audios that are part of a network of activities. I wouldn't want to give up on them out of some "puritanism about how language should be taught. That said, they are quite rare especially when compared with the constantly increasing video material on YouTube.

My favourite example is from the Spanish textbook Gente hoy 1, pp. 30-31. Based on the audio it gives you images and related texts that support the comprehension as well as  a wealth of activities. The story is also genuinely compelling which helps a lot. I would recommend this activity for A2 (or even B1) rather than A1 learners but it's still the case that it is exceptionally well made. 

Based on the above, I claim that for learners who don't prioritize success in exams, traditional listening comprehension exercises can be altogether omitted. There is nothing they offer you that you can't find in a more fun way through (free) YouTube videos.