Luận văn teachers’ and students’ perspectives on using authentic materials in teaching english

XI EM Đ EOE PHUNG THI HUYEN ‘TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES ON USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS IN TEACHING ENGLISH: ASLRVEY AT HA NAM ‘TEACHERS’ ‘TRAINING COLLEGE QUAN DIEM CUA GIAO

VIETNAM NATIONAT, UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

XI EM Đ EOE

PHUNG THI HUYEN

‘TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES

ON USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS IN TEACHING ENGLISH: ASLRVEY AT HA NAM ‘TEACHERS’ ‘TRAINING COLLEGE

QUAN DIEM CUA GIAO VIEN VA SINH VIEN VE VIEC SU DUNG

NGU LIEU NGUYEN GOC TRONG VIEC GIANG DAY TIENG ANH:

MỘT KHẢO SÁT TẠI TRƯỜNG CÁO ĐĂNG SƯ PHẠM HÀ NAM

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Ficld: Knglish Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

TIANOI - 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAT, UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

AROSE ER HOR IORI IEA EI

PHUNG THI HUY

TEACIIERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES

ON USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS IN TEACHING ENGLISH:

A SURVEY AT HA NAM TEACHERS’ TRAINING COLLEGE

QUAN DIEM CUA GIAO VIEN VA SINII VIEN VE VIEC SU DUNG

NGU LIEU NGUYEN GOC TRONG VIEC GIANG DAY TIENG ANIL

MOT KHAO SAT TAL TRUONG CAO DANG SU’ PHAM HA NAM

MLA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Lé Van Canh

HANOT - 2017

DECLARATION

I declare that the thesis entitled “Teachers’ and students’ perspectives

on using authontic materials in teaching English: A survey al Ha Nam

‘Teachers’ ‘lraining College” is the result of my own research for the Degree

of Masler of Arts at Universily of Languages and International Studies,

Victnam National University, and that this thesis has not been submitted for

any other degree

Hanoi, 2017

Phing ‘Thi Huyễn

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

the study could not have been fulfilled without the help, encouragement and support of a number of people

First and foremost, | am thankful to to my supervisor, Dr L@ Van Canh

for his never ending support and valuable guidance during this process

Without his continual micrest and cncouragement, this thesis would not have

been completed,

Second, I would like to take the chance to express my great attitude to

our teachers at the Facully of Postgraduaic Studies of Vicinam National

University, University of Languages and International Studies for providing with the precious knowledge from their practical and helpful lectures

Resides, I prcatly approciate my colleagues and the participants in my

research because of their generosity in giving me time and suggestion

Finally, T wish to thank my families, without whose love and support this study could hardly become a reality.

ABSTRACT

This study provides an overview of the current literature aud a survey

of teachers’ and students’ perspectives on using authentic materials This paper mainly aims to (1) explore teachers’ perceptions towards the

advantages and challenges of the use of anthentic materials, (2) explore

students’ perceptions towards the use of anthentic materials, and (3)

investigate the difference between learners’ and teachers” perspectives on autheutic materials, There were 93 students aud L1 teachers participating in the study Findings [rom the descriptive statistics and content analysis were

analyzed based on the questionnaire and semi- structured interview The results of the study suggested that the general perspectives of the participants ou authentic materials were strongly positive The study concludes with some implicatious for classroom use and further research

1.4 Organization of the study

CILAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition: What arc authentic matcrials’?

2.2 Advantages of using authentic materials in teaching English

2.2.1 Developing language skills

2.2.2 Exposing learners to real language

2.2.3, Motivations

2.2.4 Developing intercullural communicative compotunce

2.3 Challenges of using authentic materials in teaching English

2.4 Teachers’and students’ perspectives toward authentic

materials

2.5 Previous studies

CIIAPTER 3: METIIODOLOGY

3.1 Participants 2.00.00 cece ee cece eee e eee nee eee eee

3.2 Insirumenfs che nhehhhhhhHhenredeerree

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23

26

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3.2.2 Semi-structured Interviews

3.3 Questionaire Validation

3.3.1 Cronbach aÏpha - 2c < S222 <*<+

3.3.2 The reliability of students’ questionnaire

3.4, Datla collecHion - cà Server re

3.5 Data Analysis

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

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4.1.1 The results 0Ÿ s(uden(s” quesliunnair€ : e cà

4.1.1 1 Students’ perspectives on the benefils of using authentic

§.2 Implications for classroom use of authentic materials

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further study

LISTS OF TABLES

Table 1: Rules of thumb for Cronbach Alpha

Table 2: Cronbach alpha’s students’ questionaire

‘Table 3: Students’ questionnaire’s Corrected Item-Total Correlation

Table 4: Students’ perspectives on the benefits of using authentic materials Table $: Students’ perspectives on the challenges of using authentic materials

‘Table 6: Students’ perspectives on how to use authentic materials

vi

LIST OF ABBRIVIATION

EFL : English as Foreign Language

HTTC: Ha Nam Teachers’ Training College

vil

CITAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the rationale, objectives, research questions,

scope, and methods of the study Also, it presents the structure of the study

1.1 Rationale

Teaching materials play an important role in teaching Iearning process

According to Grave (2000), using materials is identified as one of the most

important aspects in designing a language course For this reason, teachers rely on a different range of materials to support their teaching and their

students leaming There has been considerable discussion about the use of

authentic matcrials and demand for authentic material is getting stronger Authentic materials have proved useful in fulfilling the goal of

communication of learning foreign languages and the needs of the students In

addition, these materials facilitate and support the teaching-learnimg process

Epstein & Ormiston (2007) believe that a teaching material is a tangible factor

which a teacher can use to deliver mstruction and assist students in learning

and acquiring a language

It is belicved thal using authentic materials correspond the mastery of four skills, make students to produce grammatical sentences and enable

students to function the language effectively in appropriate context and society

Harmer (1991) states that, despite many textbooks’ use of non-authentic

materials to practice specific language points only authentic materials will genuinely improve listening and reading skills Similarly, Allen et al (1988,

as cited m Baird, 2004) maintain that the strategies students develop in

comprehending authentic texts can help them develop writing proficiency in

the target language

Tn order to help the students communicate effectively, students must

be exposed to real life communication activities In ather word, the purpose of

activities in class should be the same in real life and there must be relationship

between classroom aclivilics and real life Authentic matcrials are very uselul

for this purpose Opp-Beckman (2003) also advocates some reasons for using aulhenlis materials in the classroom The author gacs on lo propose that

authentic materials cnahle leamer to hear, read, and produce language as they are

used in target culture Authentic materials are also interesting and motivating By

using authentic materials, learners can develop survival language skills and learn tolerance for regarding things they do not understand

Some previous researches mainly explore either students’ attitude or teachers’ attitude about the use of the authentic matcrial in teaching, yet there

are still only a few studies in which investigate both viewpoints, the leamers”

and the teachers’ It is true that when planning the materials for learning a

foreign language, the opinions and thoughts of both teachers and students

should naturally be taken into account since they know what the best way to teach and leam is The teachers and students are the ones who use the

materials on a daily basis and know what works and what does not In my

study, I will take into account teachers’ and students’perspectives and make

differences belween them with a view to draw reliable conclusions on the

matter of the use of authentic materials in the foreign language classrooms

1.2 Objectives of the research

Objectives of this study are

v To explore teachers’ perspectives on the use of authentic materials

y ‘To explore students’ perspectives on the use of authentic materials

v To identify the differences between teachers’ and students’

perspectives toward the use of authentic materials, if any

1.3 Research questions

Base on the objectives of the study, the study try to look for answers to the following questions

1 What do Leavhers think of the benefits and challenges of authentic

materials to students’ learning?

2 What do students think of the benclils and challenges of authenuc

materials to their learning?

3 Is there a gap between teachers’ and students’ perspectives on

authentic materials? And what docs the gap imply for classroom usc of

authentic materials’?

1.4 Organization of the study

This paper consists of five chapters Hach chapter discusses as

follows

Chapter T - Introduction introduces the rationale of the study, and the

objectives of the research and the research questions The chapter ends with

the organization of the thesis

Chapler II - The Literature Review- reviews the relevant literature in

an attempt to develop the theoretical framework for the study It contains the

definition of authentic materials, the benefits of authentic materials, the

challenges of using authentic malenals, the lachers and students’ perspectives on authentic matorials and a review of previous studies

Chapter III is Rescarch Methodology It presents the methad of the

research Also included in this chapter is the information about of the

research participants, instruments, method of collevting data, and method of

CITAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, a brief review of the literature related to the use of

authentic materials teaching English will be presented The revicw will

include a brief discussion of definition of authentic materials, the advantages and challenges of the use of authentic materials, teachers’and students’

perspectives toward authentic materials and some previous studies

2.1 Definition: What are authentic materials?

A number of authors have given different definitions of authentic

matenals However, they have one fcalure in common: these are materials

not designed for the purpose of leaming a foreign language

Nunan (1989, as cited in Adams, 1995) reters to authentic materials as

any material that has not been specifically produced for the purpose of

language teaching

Little et al (1988) define authentic materials as those that have been produced to fulfill some social purpose in the language community in which

they were produced

Bacon and Fimnemann (1990) deline authenlic materials as texts

produced by native speakers for non-pedagogical purposes

Gardner and Miller (1999) explain that authentic materials means any

texts (printed or digital) or tape which is produced for a purpose other than touching the target language Similarly, Loe (1995) status thal a toxt is usually regarded as textually authentic if it is not written for teaching purposes, but for a real life communicative purpose, where the writer has a

cerlain massage to pass on to the reader In this sense, students are expected to

expose the real language used by native speaker

Textbooks or course books are the main materials in curriculums and authentic materials do not replace them However, authenc materials can be

used as supplementary materials In some cases, if the topics or certain texts in textbooks arc not relevant and well suited for the specific classroom, tcachors

may use authentic materials as substitutions In case students fecl fed up with

textbooks, teachers make use of authentic materials for a change because these

materials are interesting and motivating,

The key point in all these definitions is that authentic materials are

basically not produced for teaching or leaming but give an exposure to

language used in real life and when these materials are used in the classroom

they motivate the learner to participate in a real conversation and thereby

facilitate language leaming It is evident that the uses of authentic text like

newspapers helps the learner develops their communication skills and

stimulate their interest in engaging them with the classroom activities through which they develop confidence and enjoy leaning Further, leamers

are more comfortable when the input is provided from their own culture and

customs in order to relate the content/context to their own lives As

Tomlinson (2008) argues thal the most of the vourse book materials do not

provide meaningful input from the real world As a result, majority of the leamers do not have mmimum knowledge of English and are not able to

communicate in it m their day-to-day communication Incorporating, authentic materials in teaching a foreign language offers more than linguistic

advantages Scholars argue for the motivating power of authentic matcrials

McNeil (1994) and Kilickaya (2004) indicate that the use of authentic texts is

now considered to be one way for increasing students’ motivation for learning

since they give the learner the feeling thal he or she is learning the real

language - the target language as it is used hy the community that speaks it

2.2, Advantages of using suthentic materials in teaching English

2.2.1 Developing language skills

It is acknowleged that authentic materials can help in the acquisition of the four macroabililies In fact, many sludies revealed thal the use of

authentic materials helps improve language skills for the students at

all levels Herron and Seay (1991} also supported the use of authentic

materials for teaching language skills In this respecl, Harmer (2001)

believes that, despite many textbooks’ use of non-authentic materials to practice specific language poinls, only authentic matenals will ‘genuinely’

improve listenmy and reading skills

Ur (1984) argues that exposure to authentic speech affects second

language sludents to Icam best thal which has been planned, taking to

improve students’ability in speaking Moody (1984) highlights that training

in the implementation of speaking can be done in a language classroom

by teachers who have a wide range of knowledge in using authentic

materials

Authentic materials are proved to be beneficial to leaching

listening skills Studies, such as Miller (2005) and ‘Thanajaro (2000),

have shown the use of authentic materials which lead to aural language

development, In addilion, Otte (2006) studied the impact of aural

authentic texts on listening comprehension abilities of adult ESL students of an American universily [le found thal exposure to authentic

materials would lead to better listening comprehension abilities and

motivation of the language leamers It is clear that the authentic listening

materials have some features which are useful for students in developing

listening comprehension skills ‘These features can be listed such as real

communication, hesitations, the use of phrasal verbs, idioms, and

colloquial words, lalse starts, empty pauses, the spced of speech and the

use of English everyday With these materials, teachers will be able to help student ta get used to real specch and situations, overcome the

difficultics of understanding native pronunciation which is found in authentic materials such as news, movies and songs As result of it, students feel comlortable and relaxed to Wain on listening and their

listening ability can improve

General speaking, teaching reading skill through authentic materials brings students opportunitics to have a closer contact with authentic texts

which enable students to interact with the real language and content rather

than the form A radio interview, a newspaper article or report, a novel, a fairy

tale, a contract, a song lyric, and a tourist guidebook are examples of authentic

texts For each kind of authentic texts, students can develop specific skills for zeading contracts, financial reports, or manuals Authentic texts are also

motivating and encourage further reading or reading for pleasure because

authentic materials give the readers the chance to get real information and

know whal is going on in the world around them, Nuttal (1996) said that

authentic texts could be motivating because they were proof that language was

used for real-life purposes by real peuple

Authentic materials play an important role while teachmg writing skill Authentic materials provide a variely of good models of many genres in

writing for students to follow According to Jacobson et.al (2003), authentic

materials also facilzate teachers to introduce types of texts, language styles

and mew vocabularies to Lheir students.

2.2.2 Exposing learners to real language

An argument that has typically been used to back authentic materials is

that they help cxpasing learners to rcal language Authentic materials provide language learners with models of target-like language use and help learners to

interact the real language Language learners feel that they are learning a

language in real life situation outside the classroom ‘This can promote their

ability for using the language in real life situations as they will become acquainted with the active use of the target language (IIyland, 2003) In

addition, Melvin and Stout (1987) state that learners who work with authentic

saterials have an interest in the language that is based on what they know it

can do for them im the luture This can lower the degree of anxicly when

learners face new situations in the target language (Moya, 2000) Nunan (1999) explained this could be realized by bringing the cuntent and subject

matter to their life and cnahlc them making the imporiant connections

‘between the classroom world and the outside world

Authentic materials are considered by Peacock (1997) as a bridge between the classroom and the real world Moreover, authentic books, articles

and newspapers contain a wide varity of text lypes, language styles not casily

found in conventional teaching materials ‘his can encourage reading for pleasure especially if students are involved in selecting the topics or kinds of

authentic materials to be used in class

According to Brinton (1991), authentic materials can strengthen the

direct relationship between the language classroom and the outside world for

students Gebhard (1996) considered authentic materials as a way to

conlextualize language leaming Whon lessons are ocused on

comprehending, language learners tend to concentrate more on content and

meaning rather than the language itself, This offers the language leamers a

valuable source of authentic language imput, so that they are not exposed

only to the language presented by the text and the teacher

2.2.3 Motivations

The type of materials used can also have an obvious effect on

enhancing learners’ motivation, arousing their interest and may increase their

active participation in learning activities

Many researchers agree with the idea that authentic materials have a

positive effect on learner motivation and improve the learning results The

motivation from using authentic materials is attributed to the fact that it can be

selected to meet learners’ specific needs unlike textbooks (Gilmore, 2007) McDonough (1981) has claimed that most of the language teachers would

agree that one of the most important factors influencing students’ success or

failure in learning is motivation Because there is a correlation between allitude/motivation and forcign language learming success, another duty of the teachers is increasing students’ motivation and make leamimg more enjoyable In addition, the use of aulhentic materials in the classroom can

motivate the students bevause there are three layers of learning thal arc

language learning (the structure and vocabulary), cultural insight, and practical

application

Tomlinson (2012) advocates that authentic materials can motivate

loarners and help thom develop a range of communicative competencies and

enhance positive attitudes towards the leaming of a language

Do (2011) found that using authentic materials is one way lo effectively

inercase universily student's motivation in forcign language courses

Nuttall (1996) points out that, “authentic texts can be motivating

because they are proof that the language is used for real-life purposes by real

people ~

lt may be concluded that students make use of authentic materials not only by learning how to use the language in the real world but also by

mastering the linguistic knowledge and cultural knowledge of the target

language Therefore, authentic materials with real-world language and contact

with culture of the larget language can, al ils besl, make learning enjoyable

and motivating

2.2.4, Developing intercultura] communicative competence

Another advantage of incorporating authentic materials in the language curriculum is the way they provide a meaningful context for

raising awareness of cultural issues Using authentic materials in teaching

culture is a great motivational factor and it helps learners to recognize that

there is » community of users who live their lives in this other Janguage

Cmz (2010) quotes from Kramsch (1998) that it is important to be

aware that culture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill; it is present within writing, reading, listening and speaking, Authentic materials

provide authentic cultural information and help facilitate cultural adaptation,

language comprehension, and language use (Sanderson, 1999, Grundy, 1993;

Duquette, et al, 1987)

In other words, an argument in favour of the use of authentic materials is

that authentic materials are believed to be the best types of materials for

developing intercultural communicative competences of forcign language

learners.

2.3 Challenges of using authentic materials in leaching English

Along with the advantages, the uses of authentic materials also bring some

disadvantages

Furst, authentic input has long been perceived as too difficult for

students to understand Martinez (2002) mentions that authentic materials may

be too culturally biased and difficult to understand outside the language

community Learners may expericnes exlrome [Tustration when confronted by

an authentic text, especially lower level students, as found by McNeil (1994)

Schmidt (1994) argues that authentic discourse may panic learners who find

themselves faced with the speed of delivery coupled with a mixture of known and unknown vocabulary and structures; instead, he prefers using simplified

texts that have communicative value rather than using authentic input

The next challenge is that authentic materials often contained difficult

language, unneeded vocabulary, grammar, and too many struvtures, so the

lower level students might have a hard time decoding the texts Students might be less motivated (Martinez, 2002, Peacock, 1997, Byrd, 1997) Many lower-level students felt anxivus and frustrated when they faced unfamiliar

materials The grammar and vocabularies in authentic materials may be

too difficult for foreign language learners because authentic materials are used

for communicating and informing in the society, thus they might use some

abbreviation, slang or imformal words Besides, the content of the text

somelimes is nol appropriale for the students

However, conceming the challenges of using authentic materials,

Guaricnto and Morley (2001) assert that such difficulties can be overcome by designing tasks that require only partial comprehension In order to avoid the

disadvantages, the teacher should be selective in choosing the materials before

delivering them to the students ‘leachers should consider the suitability and

the readability of the text Additionally, in teaching and learming process, the

toacher guided the students in understanding the text and also in finding the

difficult words ‘lo help the students cope with the materials, the dufficulties that the students found im the text were discussed logether with the whole

member of the class

The difficulties ciated with authentic materials did not have a

significant impact on participants’ use of such materials It was also suggested

that a successful authentic materials lesson requires broader knowledge of the

target language, which calls lor training to raise teachers’ language awaroness,

particularly with regard to the use of authentic materials for EL'l’ ‘Teachers can ofien anticipate problems and deal with these when they plan authentic

materials For example, dificult cultural information can be dealt with

when leading in to an authentic text and longer texts can be edited to

accommodate lesson lime

To sum up, although there is still the existence of some disadvantages,

the advantages of authentic materials are more than disadvantages Using

authentic materials in language classes will bring lively educational atmospheres and would return better practical learning results

2.4, Teachers’and students’ perspectives loward authentic materials

There has been a series of studies mvestigaling the relationship belween

student attitude and motivation and foreign language achievement Gardner

and Lambert believed that mastering a second language is not only influenced

by the mental competence or language skills but algo on Jearners’ atliludes and

beliefs towards the target language Horwitz thinks that leamer attitudes and

beliefs are considered to be the most pervasive and affective variable in

language acquisition According to Crystal (1997), attitude towards language

is the attitude which speakers of different languages have towards each other’s

languages or lo their own language Krashon (1985) proposes that attiludes

can act as barriers or bridges to leammg a new language and are the essential environmental ingredient for language lcaming Many other scholars share

this view in this regard such as Gardner, Lambert, Harmer, Otte, and Soliman

They believe that language learner’ attitudes have been reported as an

influential lactor for developing language learning They also advocated that positive attitudes can enhance the process of language leaming, influence the

leamers’ behaviours and beliefs towards the language they leam and will

explore their tendency to acquire that language Thereforc, understanding foreign language learners’ attitudes towards the use of authentic materials

seems to be an essential step for a successful application of this practice in

classrooms

There is significant diflorenec in opinions regarding the use of authentic materials im the classroom Views range from strong caution to

encouragement This paper intends to provide a deeper understanding of

foreign language teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward using authentic

materials

From a icacher’s porspovlive, using authentic texts in the classroom is

time consuming, because it is not always easy to find appropriate authentic

texts and risky, because il 18 not always possible to predict how students will react to the texts Riven more challenging than locating and modifying texts

was the process of finding ways in which the students could themselves

responding an authentic marmer to what they had read.

Furthermore, almost all students give positive responses through the

use of the authentic materials [Jealing with motivation, the students do not

feel learning English as a frightened and boring subject since the learning

atmosphere im classroom is more joylul (Young, 2003 as cited in Su, 2008

'Tarnopolsky and Degriatiova, 2003) ‘therefore , their motivations increase and the intcraction among the students and the tvachers are also buill and

developed well (Kelly ct.al, 2002) In rogard to the functions of’ authentic

materials as teaching aids, authentic visual materials such as video, pictures,

and realia bencfit to students learning (Byme, 1993; Brown, 2001) Those

media can attract and motivate the students and catch their attention

In the survey carried by Chavez, the findings reveal that leamers enjoy

dealing with authentic materials since they cnable them to intcract with the real language and its use Also they do not consider authentic situations or

materials innately difficult [lowever, learners state that they need pedagogical

support from especially in listening situations and when reading literary texts

such as the provision of a full range of cues

One of the most important and essential tools in foreign language

teaching and learning are the materials used during the lessons The

materials can have a significant ctfcct on the language Icarners’ motivation, learning process and desire to leam more For this reason, the materials

should be created from the learners’ point of view since they are the ones

who benefit the most from the materials However, it must be pointed out

that it is impossible to create materials that are considered to be the best possible by every language leamer since the sludents are all different

(Due to this fact, a variety of different material needs to be used in foreign

language teaching Ilowever, some materials are considered to be more

helpful than others and the present study aims lo examine whether learners

feel that authentic material is needed in learning a foreign language

Devitt et al (1988) state that research tends to confirm the widespread

intuition that a favourable attitude and a high level of motivation often leads

to second language leammg success This idea is also true for teachers, Teachers with high motivation and who would like lo implement new idcas in

their classrooms should be aware of their context and try adapt things to suit

their students’ needs However, there are many teachers that tend to reject

aulhenuc materials so they claim that leamers won't be able to understand them because of difficult vocabulary and structures

2.5 Previous studies

A study titled “Using authentic materials for students of tourism in

Slovenia: Knglish language acquisition for students of the Faculty of ‘Tourism

of the University of Maribor” was conducted by Jasna Pototnik Jopler Faculty of Tourism of University of Maribor, BreZice, Slovenia This sludy

examines the process of teaching English for specific purposes at the Faculty

of Tourism of the University of Maribor, Slovenia using coursebooks and

authentic supplementary materials The survey has shown that the students of

the Faculty of ‘ourism prefer supplementary authentic materials to coursebooks because they find them sufficiently interesting or challenging

Specially designed class- room matorials thai are put into the Moodle by the

teacher also offer opportunities for various activities in lesson planning for

teaching, listening, speaking, reading and wriling Another important aspecl of

supplementary materials is that they facilitate the teacher’s creativity Tlowever, there are advantages and disadvantages to using only coursebooks

or only specially propared classroom materials, and both - courscbooks and

supplementary materials - should be used only after careful consideration

Although authentic materials may contain complex grammatical structures

and difficult vocabulary, they bring real-life situations into classrooms, and

students thorelare find them very molivaling the survey has shown

Masoud Zoghi, Fatemeh Moradiyan Zardak, Seyyed Ali Kazemi,

Department of KIT, Ahar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahar, Iran did

research on the topic “ ‘he effect of authentic materials on vocabulary development” This study was published on International joumnal of

language and applied Linguisties World (U.-ALW), volume 5(4), April

2014; 155 -160 This study intended to investigate the effects of authentic

materials on vocabulary auquisilion in International English Language

‘Testing System (IEL'I'S) students of Kimiya-e-Danesh institute, Yasuj, Iran

It focused on how authentic materials facilitate vocabulary development

The rosulls showed that most of the students prefer using authentic

materials for vocabulary acquisition By using authentic material students

deal with outside and real world, they became interested when deal with

real language

Mudra, Heri (2014) conducted a study called “The Uuhwation of

Authentic Materials in Indonesian EFL Contexts: An Exploratory Study on Leamers’ Perceplions.” It was published on Intemational Journal of

English Language & Translation Studics The two mam objectives of the

study are: (1) to investigate the kinds of preferred authentic materials used

by English forcign language learners al Islamic Stale College of Kerinci (STAIN Kerinei), Indonesia; (2) to explore the learners’ perceptions on the

utilization of preferred authentic materials Through the results of the study,

the rescarcher went to the conlusions as follows: the learners utilize various

kinds of authentic materials including inlemel-mediated authentic

materials, printed authentic materials, audiovisual (video) authentic

materials, and audio authentic materials, The advantages of authentic

materials included: improving and devcloping skalls or abilities on listening,

reading, speaking, writing, vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, the disadvantages of authentic malcrials included: unlimited in length and lack

of academic instructions It is suggested that that tcachers should provide

various kinds of authentic materials The authentic materials should be sclected according lo learners’ English abililics or levels and leamers’necds

and interests

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CHAPTER 3: METIIODOLOGY

3.1 Participants

The participants im the study were 93 third ycar non-majored students and 11 full time English teachers in the Department of Informatics

and Foreign Language, at IITTC AU of participant teachers had completed

their graduate study for the Master degree in Knglish Language ‘Teaching

Methodology ‘Vheir English teaching experience ranged from five to twenty years

3.2 Instruments

The study used two research instruments: the sludents’ questionnaire

and semi-structured interviews with the teachers and students

3.2.1 Questionaires

The learners’ questionnaire is designed to explore the Icarners’

perceptions of using authentic materials in a classroom A four-point Likert

scale from Strong Disagree (1) io Strong Agree (4) is uscd to ask the learners

to indicate their degree of agreement with the statement With a view to help

the participants to answer questions at ease, the questionnaire is written in both

Fnghsh and Victnamese and the participants arc offored opportunitics to select

either form that suits them

The questionnaire consists 10 items, 9 positive items and only 1 negative item ‘The first four items try to explore the students’ perspectives on the benefits of the use of authentic materials in their learning The next two items aim Lo examine the students’ perspectives on the challenges of authentic materials ‘The last four items deals with their perspectives on how to use authentic materials (See the full questionnaire in Appendix 1)

3.2.2 Semi-structured Interviews

Semi-structured interviewing is used in this study as another key

research instrament The main reason for conducting interviews is to provide a deeper understanding of teachers’ and students’ perceptions towards the use of

authentic materials in EFL classrooms The semi-structured interview consists

5 open-ended questions for both groups ‘The interviewed teachers were further

probed for clarification when necessary The interviews were conducted in English, and the teachers were interviewed individually Each lasted 15

minutes

With a view to elicit the information concerning the participants’

perceptions lowards the usc ol authentic matcrials in the classrooms, the

questions are structured as follows ‘the first question is about the reasons for using and nol using authentic materials in their teaching and learning English

The second question aims to explore whether the participants know what

authentic materials are and they are asked to give examples of types of

authentic materials The third question deals with the teachers’ perspeclives on

the benefits of authentic materials to their students and the students’

perspectives in this matter to their own learning as well The next question is

about the challenges to be avercome by the teachers when they implement authentic materials in the classes and by the students when they work with

authentic materials Finally, the last question aims at the suggestions made by

both groups (See the Interview Guide in Appendix 2&3)

Cronbach alpha is a reliability coefficient that indicates how well the

items are positively correlated to one another ‘Ihe closer the Cronbach alpha is

to 1, the higher the internal consistency George and Mallery (2003) provide

the following rules of thumb (p 231)

Table 1: Rules of thumb for Cronbach Alpha

3.3.2 The reliability of students’ questionnaire

Corrected Item-| Cronbach's

Correlation Deleted

2 Using authentic materials helps students

to be aware the differences between English 323 -700

in the textbook and Knglish in the real life

3 The content af authentic materials is

motivating lo the students 363 694

4 The cultural content in authentic materials 328 700

6 The language in authentic materials is too

difficult for students to understand

7 Authentic materials are good only for

students whose Knglish is good

8 Authentic materials are goud only i”

teachers know how to design appropriate 312 666

tasks

9 Authentic materials are not necessary

because there is no time for students to use 311 702

them

10 Students should be encouraged to bring

authentic materials into the classroom to 368 -693

Yable 3: Students’ questionnaire’s Corrected Item-1 otal Correlation

The obtained alpha score is 0.714, which indicates that the scale has

high internal consistency (reliability) > 0.6 and Corrected Ttem-Total Correlation > 0.3 indicales that all questions can be used in the study

3.4, Data collection

Data collection was carricd oul using the queslionnaircs and scmi-

structured interviews The questionnaires were distributed to 93 students at

IITTC Then, nine students randomly selected from those who were

volunteered to participate in follow-up interviews and all eleven teachers were

interviewed The interview was conducled and tape-recorded im order to

transcribe far analysis

3.5 Data Analysis

Quantitative and qualitative data analysis proceeded in two phases In the first phase, the data obtained from the learners’ use of authentic materials

questionnaires was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the SPSS pragram

for calculating the total group mean scores and standard deviation Later, the semi-structured interview was analyzed using thematic analysis

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

‘This section is divided into two subsections: the first presents the

quantitative data derived from the questionnaires while the second presents

the qualilative data derived from the intorviews Finally, it will provide a

discussion of the findings

4 Findings

4.1.1 The findings of students’ questionaire

4.1.1 1 Students’ perspectives on the benefits of using authentic

materials

Table extracts students’ perspectives regarding the benefits of using

authentic materials Herc, for the sludent survey Lhe mean seore ranges rom

2.34 to 3.25 so it can be said most teachers agreed with the effects of authentic

1 Using authentic material

helps students understand

how English is used in real

li

11 6 | G5] 55 391 31 | 333 3.25 | 620

2 Using authentic

materials helps stdants ta

be aware the differences

between English in the

textbook and English in the

In regards to the benefits of using authentic materials, I found that the

students gave various perceptions

The highest mean (3.25) indicated that the majority of the students (92.4%) strongly agreed and agreed that authentic materials help them

understand how English is used in the real life (item 1)

Similarly, in item 2, most of the students told that using authentic materials helps students to be aware the differences belween English in the

textbook and Hnglish in the real life (87.1%, mean — 3.19)

For item 3, more than two thirds of the students (78.3%), with a high mean of 3.07, agreed that the content of authentic materials are motivating;

only 21.7% of the students choose “Disagree” and none of them “Strong Disagree”

in item 4, 82.8% of the students said that the cultural content in

authentic materials is interesting while the percentage of 17.2% for the students fclt that it is not interesting

4.1.1 2 Students’ perspectives on the challenges of using authentic

materials

Statements Disagree | 2Disagree| 3 Agree | Agree

Freq | % [Freq] % | Hreq] % | Freq % Mean| sd

5, There are so many

As can be seen, the responses lo item 5 spread all over the four choices

with different percentages ‘The largest number of the students (53.8%)

chooses “Disagree”, 9.7% - “Strong Disagree” while 29.0% of the students is

“Agree” and 7.5% is “Strong Agree”

In terms of item 6, nearly all the participants (88.2% including 32.3%-

Strong Agree, 55.9% - Agree) found it difficult to understand the language in authentic materials, whereas 9.7% did nol think it was too difficult to

understand the language im authentic materials 2.2% chose a “ Strong

Disagree” answer

4.1.1.3 Students’ perspectives on how to use authentic materials

lreq 1% req] % [Freq % Ereq| 5% | Mean| Sd

7 Authentic materials

are good only for students 12 129 36 |38.7) 25 269 20 | 21.5] 2

whose English is good

8 Authentic materials

are good only if teachers

Know how to design

are not necessary because

thera is no time for

studens to usc them

10 Students should be

encouraged to bring

authentic materials into

the classroom to share

with other classmates

kẻ " R a a iB 53 570 kẻ 5 23.7 | 3.02 | 707

able 6 Students’ perspectives on how to use authentic materials

For item 7, just less than half of the students (48.4%) agreed and

strongly agreed that authentic materials are good only for students whose English is good, with the low mean of 2.57) Meanwhile, 51.6% of the students

had different points of view