Abstract The study explores the role of listening to textbook audiotapes on Saudi female secondary student' language proficiency and attitude. The study used both quantitative and qualitative techniques in order to 1) identify the role of listening to audiotapes of a school text book on students' comprehension, vocabulary recollection and the formation of properly structured sentences; 2) investigate whether metacognition awareness is risen through this listening exposure; 3) explore learners' attitude shift towards learning the English language through the implementation of this study. A total of 20 female third year secondary Saudi students participated in this study along with their two teachers. Ten quizzes were used to measure their level of a) vocabulary retention and b) sentence structure. Interviews were carried out with the students to investigate comprehension level and student metacognition awareness. Both participants and the two teachers were given questionnaires to identify their attitude shift as well as interviews that were carried out to help explore other areas of attitude change. The findings of the study were as follows: 1) participants showed significant improvement in their level of comprehension, vocabulary retention and sentence structure; 2) they gained metacognition awareness; 3) their attitude towards listening, and in general the English language, was very positive. These results suggest the need for incorporating listening audiotapes into school textbooks and syllabus.