Luận văn a study on using authentic materials in teaching english in the context of bac giang high school for gifted students

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYÊN DANH HÀ A STUDY ON USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS IN TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE CONTEXT OF BAC GIANG H

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYÊN DANH HÀ

A STUDY ON USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS IN TEACHING

ENGLISH IN THE CONTEXT OF BAC GIANG HIGH SCHOOL FOR

GIFTED STUDENTS (Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng Tài liệu xác thực trong giảng dạy Tiếng Anh tại

ngữ cảnh Trường THPT Chuyên Bắc Giang - Bắc Giang}

MA MINOR THESIS:

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Hanoi, 2010

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYÊN DANH HÀ

A STUDY ON USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS IN TEACHING

ENGLISH IN THE CONTEXT OF BAC GIANG HIGH SCHOOL FOR

GIFTED STUDENTS (Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng Tài liệu xác thực trong giảng dạy Tiếng Anh tại

ngữ cảnh Trường THPT Chuyên Bắc Giang - Bắc Giang}

MA MINOR TIEESIS

Field: English ‘caching Methodology

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Bach ‘Thao, (M.A)

Hanoi, 2010

LIST OF TABLES:

‘Table 1: Summary of selected students

Table 2: Authcntic materials and frequency

‘Table 3: ‘Types of authentic materials used

Table 4: Aulhentic materials and skills

Table 5: Usefulness of authentie materials from students” perspective

Table 6: Problems in using authentic materials

1 Rationale for the study

2 Aims of the stuty

3 Scope of the study

4 Significance of the study

5 Design of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER t: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Authenticity and authentic materials

1.1.1 Antienicity in CLT

1.1.2 Authentic materials

112.1, Definitions

112.2, types of authentic materials

1.1.2.3 Criterta for selecting authentic materials

1, 2 The use of authentic materials in the classroom

12.1 Reasons for using aulhontic materials

1 2.2 Possible problems in using authentic materials

2 3, Research methods

2 3.1, Student Questionnaire

2.3.2 Teacher Interview

2 3.3 Classroom Observation

2 4, Data collection procedure

2 5 Data analysis procedure

2, Contribution of the research

3 Limitation of the research

4 Suggestion for further research

REFERENCES

APPENDIX 1: Student Questionnaire

APPENDIX 2: Teacher Interview

APPENDIX 3: Interview Transcript

APPENDIX 4: Observation Checklist

PART A: INTRODUCTION

‘This part provides the rationale for carrying out the research, the aims that need to be

acquired, the scope, the significance as well as the design of the siudy

1, Rationale for the study

In recent years, English has become onc of the major and compulsory subjects at schools all over Vietnam Together with the expansion of teaching and leaming this subject, students today have heen awars of its importance English is believed to be the basic requirement for anyons who would like to have a good job Thus, groat offeris have been made to halp students leam English better, among which the effort to search for new sources

of materials supporting the process of Linglish teaching and leaming has always been

encouraged

In my observation, using authentic materials as supplementary materials in teaching and leanine English is a good way to inorcase Ivamexs’ language proficiency

‘There are a number of reasons supporting this idea

In the first place, i iy the real situation of teaching and learning English at Bac Giang

High School for Gifted Students, where the research study was carried out Bac Giang High

School for Gifled Students is

mg a few schools in Viena having the best quality of foreign language teaching, The students of the school are carefully chosen fiom all over Bac Giang province and most of them are assured to have high level of proficiency in English comparad wilh those in other schools For this reason, the school cunieulum designed for the textbooks often finishes at the end of the first tem In the second term, it mainly focuses on developing the students’ language skills with the help of other supplementary materials, ‘thus, the damnand for socking new sourecs of matetials has becn laken inte consideration by the

teachers and authentic materials are found to be an effective solution to this task

Secondly, it is the availability of authentic materials Due to technological advancements and the government open-door policy, it is easy to have access to authentic materials rich in content, diverse in forms, and of different levels of lingnistic complexity

ic malerials with much convenicnee An

This assists (oachers and Icarners im using autha

enormous wealth of authentic matertals enables teachers to have a wide variety of choice

based on the objectives of the lesson, as well as leamets’ ape, language leval, interests, needs, expectations and goals Consequently, teachers will be able to make their lessons more flexible, suitable and especially, interesting enough to motivate learners to learn and practice

the language

Thirdly, it is the benefits of using authentic materials in teaching and learning

English The materials obtained from various sources can attract learners’ attention and create

their motivation towards learning a foreign language As the materials help learners bridge the gap belwcon the classroom and the oulside world and enable them to put their theoretical

knowledge into practice, they open a way for positive transfer of learning Therefore,

authentic materials can increase the quality of foreign language teaching

Last but nol least, i is the students’ need of communication in English m and out of

the classroom Besides English grammar and the fixed teaching points given in textbooks,

there should be other materials to develop students’ commmnicative competence, help

students to express their idcas fluently and accurately Thus, authentic materials if used

properly will encourage leamers to communicate in the target language though they are not

designed to loach a forcign tanguage

For the above reasons, the researcher decided to investigate the use of authentic malorials as supplementary materials in teaching English at the contoxt, of Bac Giang High School for Gifted Students IL is hoped that this study would be of praotivat benefits to the teachers at high schools for gifted students in particular and other high schools in general in developing students’ language skills

2 Aims of the study

In doing the rescarch, the author affornpted to address fonr main is:

s Firsily, the study investigated how authentic materials are used as supplementary materials for English leaming and teaching Secondly, it examined teachers and students” evaluation on the effectiveness of authentic materials, Thirdly, the study aimed to identify possible problems

when using authentic materials, followed by suggestions to deal with these problems.

These objectives were accomplished by answering the following research questions:

(2) How are authentic materials used as supplementary materials for English

learning and teaching?

(2) How effective are authentic materials in English learning and teaching?

3) What are problems in using authentic materials?

(4) What solutions can be suggested to solve the identified problems?

3 Scope of the study

The study mainly focused on exploiting authentic materials as supplementary materials for English learning and teaching in the context of Bac Giang High School for Gified Students, The subjects in the study were restricted to three English specializing classes ranging fiom grade 10 to grade 12 and five teachers who dircetly taught English to these classes

4 Significance of the study

It is noteworthy that the study was @ great attempt to examine an important issue in language (caching methodology Therefore, ouec finished, it can bring a number of benefits Lo involved parties namely students, teachers, educational administrators and researchers of the related fields

Teachers and students at Bac Giang High School for Gifted Students arc those who directly benefit from the information the research provides ‘leachers will have an overview of the situation of their own using anthentic malerials lo increase studenls’ language proficiency, identify difficulties that they themselves and their colleagues have encountered and consider solutions to adjust their teaching methods Students are likely to be well aware of the benefits

of authentic materials, which leads to their positive attitudes and effective resulting in

explailation of authentic materials.

Educational administrators may be provided close and comprehensive view into the current situation of using authentic materials in teaching English ‘This urges them to implement necessary amendments in terms of emrricnlum, facilities and so on

Researchers of the related fields can also refer to the present work for literatue

review

In general, students, teachers, educational administrators and researehers are those

who are likely to benafit from the study

5 Design of the study

‘The study consists of three parts:

PART A, Introduction, provides the rationale, the aims, the scope, the significance and the design of the study

PART B, Development, discusses the following contents of the study

Chapter 1, Literature Review, discusses the Titeralure relating authenticily and

authentic materials as well as the use of authentic materials in the classroom

Chapter 2, Methoriology, defines the methodology of the research including fealures

of the participants, scllings, rescarch inothods, dais collection and data analysis procedure

Chapter 3, Results, presents and discusses the findings, which gives comprehensive answers lo the four tesearch qnestions TL also offers suggestions to solve all the identified problems for a higher effectiveness of authentic materials

PART C, Conclusion, summarizes significant findings, highlights contributions of the rescatch, addresses notable limitations, and puts forward practical suggestions for future

Tesearch

References

Appendix

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 1 Authenticity and authentic materials

1

Aufhentieily in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

For many years, there have been many authors discussing the authenticity in language teaching such as Taylor (1994), Widdowson (1996), Michael Tireen (1985) Among these authors, McDonough and Shaw (1993) have provided the most generalized idea that authenticity is much defined with the selection of the materials, the activities and methods leachars use in the classroom, They deseribe authenticity as the following

a term which loosely implies as clase an approximatian as possible to the world

outside the classroom, in the selection both of language material and of the activities and

methods used for practice in the classroom” (cited in Murdoch, 1999),

Anthenticity appears to be naturally associated with CLT According to Richards and Rodgers (1986: 69), CLT is promoted as an approach to language teaching which supports the development of leamers’ abilities to use language Huently and mearingftlly Thus, real communication is considered not only the goal of language teaching bul also the tool helping

teachers to achieve the aim

These authors also stress one of the features of CLT ax “learner-centeredness view of

a lcamer-eemcredi

second language teaching” This means that teachers necd lo or

classroom and engage leamers in authentic and meaningful communications that require meaning negotiations with the goal to increase comprehensible language input for learners and expect them to gencrate more output, In order to do so, teachers should develop imcthods, exploit materials, organize activites, and design tasks based on leamers’ demonstrated needs

communicative necds in real-life situations Thi

understanding language as actually used by native spzakers (Canale and Swain, 1980)

is lo help learners develop strateg

According to Michael Breen (1985: 61), known for his theories on authenticity, there are four types of authenticity within the classroom that have been identified and the strong emphasis is on the use of authentic texts

(CL) Authenticity of the texts that we may use as input data for learners, If the input

is not comprehended, regardless of how applicable and adaptable it is, it

appears to serve no purpose to the learners

(3) — Authenticity of the learner's own interpretations of texts The question arising

is whether s/he understands the material as it was meant to be understood If

so, the material is authentic to the learner regardless of its origin

@) Authenticity of tasks conductive to language learning Tasks should be suitable

for the students’ cognitive and linguistic competence and the steps to do the tasks should be staged properly

(4) Authenticity of actual social situation of the classroom lamguaye Tt means that

the contexts teachers create in conjunction with materials have to be relevant

Regarding the four types identified by Breen, authenticity can therefore be considered

the interaction between the reader and the discourse, not just the text in itself Davies (1984: 192} slaics, “Ft ts net that @ text is understood hecause wt is authentic but that it is authentic

because it iy understoad Everything the learner understands is authentic for him” Using

authentic texts in teaching English effectively requires teachers’ attempts in localizing, conlextualiving the tasks as well as providing learners with pedagogical support so thal these

inaterials can meet the objectives of the lesson as well as learners’ need and result in the

highest effectiveness of language learning

Wallace (1992; 145) defines authentic materials as“ real-life texts, not written for pedagogic purposes”; they are thersfore designed for native speakers while not for language sindants and they contain “real” language

Little et ai (1958: 17) also has the same opinion as these authors when he states that authentic materials are “created to filfill some social purposes in the language community iz which it was produced”, Sinoilarly, Jordan (1997) refers to authentic texts as texts that are not written for langnage teaching purposes

Obviously, anthentic materials arc not produced for pedagogic purposes but they can

be and should be introduced into language classrooms generally to help bridge the gap

belween classroom knowledge and “a student's capacities to participate in real world

events” (Wilkins 1976: 79)

1.1.2.2, Eypes of authentic materials

Authentic materials are print, video, and audio materials learners encounter in their daily lives, such as job applications, menns, voice mail messages, radio programs, and videos,

Authentic materials are nol created specifically to be used in the classroom, but they compliment language classes by enlivening the class, providing excellent leaming tools for leamers, creating a more positive attitude toward learning and preparing learners for real

conununication sucecssfully and effectively

Many authentic materials can be made use of in foreign language teaching These malerials can be classified into five categories depending on their characteristics

(1) Printed Materials: Newspaper articles, song lytics, restaurant menus, tourist

information brochures, leaflets, receipts, eic

(2) Audio Materials: Songs, speeches, talks, conversations, audio-taped short stones and

novels, etc

(3) Visca! Materials: Photographs, paintings, postcards, pictures, stamps, stick-figure

drawings, wordless streel, signs, wordless piclure hooks, poslors, gìc

(4) Audio- Viaual Materials, documentatizs, TW ads or broadcasts, quiz shows, cartoons,

movies, etc.

(5) Realia (Real Objects): Masks, dolls, puppets, toys, ete

(http://www jre.sophia.ac.jp/kiyowki21/gaio pdf)

Each of these types of authentic materials has certain benefits to certain kinds of

learners in certain contexts of teaching and learning It goes beyond doubt that some of the

teachers in non- English speaking countries, to some extent, have ever used authentic materials in their language teaching However, whether incorporating these types of materials into classrooms is effective or not greatly depends on the selection of materials Therefore, much attention must be paid to this aspect in order to make use of them to the full in language

teaching

1.1.2.3 Criteria for selecting authentic materials

The sources of authentic materials that can be used in the classroom are infinite, but

the most common are newspapers, magazines, TV programs, movies, songs and Intemet For

the authentic materials to be effective, they should not be chosen randomly There must be an

aim in using them and the chosen materials should meet the objectives of the lesson Nuttal

(1996) gives three main criteria when selecting authentic materials to be used in the

classroom: suitability of content, exploitability and readability

© Suitability of content can be considered the most important of the three, in that

the materials should interest the students, motivate the students as well as be relevant to their needs

¢ Exploitability means that the materials facilitate the development of language

skills in order to help the students become competent and independent learners

* Readability is used to describe the combination of structural and lexical difficulty of a text, as well as refer to the amount of new vocabulary and any new grammatical forms presented It is important to assess the right linguistic level for the right students

Besides the three main criteria given, presentation also influences the effectiveness of authentic materials Whether the text appears authentic or not, depends much on how it is presented to leamers The authentic presentation, by using pictures, diagrams, photographs,

ete helps put the text into the context This helps learners understand not only the meaning of

the text better but also how it would be exploited A more “attractive” text and interesting, ways of introducing it will appeal to learners, grab learners’ attention and motivate them to get engaged in the discovery and learning process,

Other factors worth taking into consideration when selecting authentic materials for the classroom can include whether the text challenges the students’ intelligence without making unreasonable linguistic demands, the language reflects written or spoken usage, the language in the text is natural or it has been distorted to include examples of particular

tenching poinis or to draw inferences in a particutar context

Above all, selecting authentic materials are supposed to make leamers want to read or

1 for thomsclves, (ell Ihomnsctves somothing thoy donot know as

and relevant ideas to them Thercfore, being aware of different types of mulhentic malcrials, what these materials can otfer and how to incorporate them into classrooms is very important

to every language teacher When selected and used properly in the language environment,

authentic materials may have many benefits for both teachers and learners

1.2 The use of authentic materials in the classroom

1.2.1, Reasons for using authentic materials

Authenticity is fell to be significant because il offers Izarners a sense of the real world,

a chance to “rehearse’ in a protected situation, hence the less authentic the materials we use, the less preparation leamers make for that real world (McGrath, 2002), Using authentic imalerials in forsign language Leaching has many advantages as follows

Hitst, authentic materials have a positive effect on learners’ motivation They engage

learners’ attention in the language being laugh They have a high interest value because of

thei relevance to the real world keeping learners informed about what is happening in the

world they live ‘Therefore, they have an intrinsic educational value (Martinez, 2002) Nuttall

(1996: 172) also slatcs, “Authentic texts can be motivating because thev are proof thai the language is used for real-life purposes by real people,”

Besides, a variety of text types and language styles of authentic materials also affect Icamcrs’ motivation positively It is very difficutt to find this varicty in conventional teaching materials, particularly in textbooks, which include only the proper and fluent language

(Martinez, 2002) It also means that it is easier to find something in authentic materials that will interest learners and may encourage them to read and enjoy reading since they are likely

to contain topics of interest to learners, especially if learners are given the chance to have a say about the topics used in the class As a result, learners will keep high motivation and interest in language leaming through these meaningfill interactions with the materials

Nunan (1999: 212) also supports:

“The use of authentic sources leads to greater interest and variety in the material that learners deal with in the classroom This authentic material helps bring the contact to life,

and ultimately makes learning and using language more meaningful, and, ultimately, easy for

students”

Second, muihentic materials provide authentic cultural information, According, to Spelleri (2002), authentic materials have at least three layers of learning embedded within them: language (the structs and vocabulary), cultural insights (cullural norms and valucs of the community in which this language is used) ané practical application (using the item in the way it was intended) These layers motivate learners intrinsically because they have the chance to cnjoy both leaming the language and the culture where this language is spoken and putting what they have learned into practice as nsed in real world In that way, they can understand the valuc of luamning a language

Also, Shanahan (1997; 168) states

“Cultural content [richly found in authentic materials] provides exposures to living

Tanguage thal a foreign language student lacks So, culture is nat something consisting of

Sacts to be learnt, but a helpfid taol to makes learners feel the need to speak and use the target

states that authentic matetials can help “bridge the gap from the classroam lessons to real life

by making immediate use of classroom lessons in their lives” ixposing leamers to authentic langage can help them develop their predication skills and improve their strategies for dealing with uncertainty in understanding or using target language

Finally, authentic materials are available everywhere A vast amomt of materials can

be accessed on the Infemet Teachers can take these matetials to the class, integrate the

technology into the class, ot even cooperate with leamers to access them on the Internet right

in the dassroom Morcover, newspapers and smagavines in Frigtish are available im the newsagent’s and music CDs, movies, documentaries, in the books and music stores When putting different types of authentic materials into lessons, teachers can enliven his or her class with the materials rich in content,

These are the reasons that can make teachers and learners excited and be willing to use authentic materials in the classrooms, but while using them, it is inevitable that they face

some problems,

1 2.2 Possible problems in using authentic materials

Despite the above mentioned advantages, several problems should be taken into

consideration while using authentic materiais

The first problem is she complexity of the language Authentic materials may be too linguistically difficult for learners 10 understand outside the language community, thereby makinys thar inaccessible to learners, especially lo beginmers or elementary learners (Matiner, 2002; Peacock, 1997) Authentic materials created purposefilly for native speakers may contain unnecessary or/and inappropriate structures and vocatmlary items for teaching and

‘The second problem may be eaused by the too culturally biased content of the authentic materials (Maliner, 2002) Prepared for native speakers in a specific language community, some authentic materials can only be understood with readers’ good cultural

background This may discourage both teachers and leamers from using authentic materials in language teaching and learning

The third problen is that obtaining and adapting authentic materials can be time- consuming, Teachers may need to spend hours and hours selecting and preparing these materials until they finally have what they need and figure ont haw to use them effectively in the classroom What's more, since these materials can become outdated easily, such as stories, news in newspapers or magazines, updating new materials to fit learners’ needs and interest is considered ta be so time-consuming (Matiney, 2002; Peacock, 1997)

Another weakness of using anthentic materials may come ont when students leam a langmago li the sole purpase of getting success in an examination thai foou

s largely on the Imowledge of a language such as grammatical structures or/and lexical ilems This problem obviously has a negative impact on developing leamers’ language skills In fact, if learners are presented with authentic texts that may not give the rules, patterns, or structures they need

in order to pass an exam, they may get fiustrated and consider them as an obstacle to their success It even becomes worse if the wrong type of text is chosen with linguistic demands

and inleresl (Murdoch, 1999)

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapler is inlonded to define the methodology of the rescarch including foalures

of the participants, rescarch settings, rescarch instruments, dala collection and dala analysis

of students participating in the research was 90 AU of them were from three English specializing classes ranging fom grade 10 to grade 12; therefore, their level of proficiency is comparalrvely high, Resides, it seems that in the area of Learning foreign language, the mmnber of female students is much bigger than that of male ones In the study, the former accounted for approximately 95% whereas the latter made up only 5% All of them had been learning English for at least $ years Their average score in the previous lerm ranged from good (grade over 8.0), fkitly good (grade from 6.5 to 7.9) to average & weak (grade below 6.5), which reflected the difference in English competence of the students These students were categorized according to their grades & GPA (grade point average), Detailed

information could be seen in the table below:

Table 1: Summary of selected students:

Grade Number of Gender Average Score

students Male | Female | <6.5 ] 6.5->7.9 | >8.0

2.1.2 Teachers

Since leachors aro core subjects af this rescarch, they were deliboratoly chosen for the interview session, Five teachers of English (four female and one wis), aged from 29 to 49, at Bac Giang High School for Gifted Students were invited to share their opinion and experience

on the investigated issue All the teachers were chosen fom Iinglish specializing classes where the researcher carried out the questionnaire survey with their students beforehand, Of the five teachers interviewed, one of them has an M.A and four of them have an B.A in English leaching methodology, onc of thera has beon teaching for 5 years and the rest have more than 1-year teaching experience, All of them have been teaching English in urban areas

for many years

Althongh five was nol a very hig mumber compared to the scope of the study, dis quantity hardly attected the richness and depth of information The researcher benefited from this selection in the way that he could listen to students” opinion and then further verify it with their own tcachers In othcr words, doublo-checking was one technique which could be employed to enhance the reliability of the research

2.2, Research settings

The study was carried out at Bae Giang [ligh School for Gifted Students, As the case

in majority of high schools nationwide, English is not only a compulsory subject but also a largely chosen foreign language among students here The new emphasis on English resulted from the fact that for the past few years, the new social and economic settings in Vietnam

have inercased the demand for Fs -speaking people who arc expected to be competent lo communicate verbally with the outside world and to access technology (Le, 1999), One remarkable sign of the implementation of CLT is the introduction of the newly edited textbook for grade -10 students in 2006 nationwide At Bac Giang High School for Gifted Students, no longer are students oriented to focus on traditional targets namely vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation Instead, under CLT approach, they have to gradually master four macro skills inchuding speaking, reading, listening and writing, To satisfy this need, we should provide more creative, diffzrent and effective teaching-learing strategies in and out of

class.

One of the ways to achieve better proficiency in English is to establish a natural

learning environment and to use authentic materials in the classroom Iowever, these

praiseworthy objectives can hardly be achieved whan a large number of teachers and students

still maintain the traditional learning and teaching habits and styles of passiveness

Besides, it should be noted that there are typical features in Bac Giang Lligh School for Gificd Students including geographical locations, level of specialization in English Bac Giang High School for Gifted Stadents is the top foreign language specialized school in Bac Giang, which is located in downtown However, leaching and learning facilities are far from

standard and have never tel the teachers & studsnts

faction Ta wake up for teaching and learning conditions, we have good students who, in order to be admitted to an English- specializing class in this school, must take a hard entrance examination in English and thus ensure a relatively high linguistic competence, These students sludy nol only for the regular exams nationally but also for a special exam for top students held for all the specializing high schools in Vietnam every year

Therefore, teaching methods, materials and activities are gradually altered to achieve the highest results, Among them, materials used in the classroom take an important role and have been paid much aliention to recenlly Besides the textbooks, which are mainly used,

authentic materials are put into practice as supplementary ones to improve students” language

proficiency

However, some challcnges have been revealed when authentic materials are put in usc,

which draw much attention of the teachers in charge In order to use authentic materials

2.3 Research methods

In this study, questionnaire, interview and classroom observation were fully employed The combination of these three instrumenls was axpecied to triangulate and (hus gonoraie

valid and reliable data

2.3.1, Student Questionnaire (See Appendix 1)

The first data collection method was questionnaire delivered to students This tool was widely used in primary research, Wilson and Mc Lean (1994, as cited in Cohen, Manion and Morison, 2000: 245) apprecialsd questionnaire for its oulsanding merils including

“providing structured, manerical data, being able to be administered without the presence of the researcher, and often straightforward to be analysed” The advantages of questionnaire were also recognized by Mackcy and Gass (2005: 94) as “being economical and practical

than individual interviews” a3 “questionnaires i many cases elicit longitudinal information JSrom learners in a short period of time.”

In this research conlext, the queslionnaire consisted of two main paris Parl 1 collecled

the leamers” personal information (years of leaning English, grade and English score of the previous term) Part 2 was the main content of the questionmaire that was used to deliberately find the answers to the research questions such as the teachers’ employment of authentic materials, the effectiveness of the work, difficulties, and some suggestions In order to get

si

ro opinions and abjective assossmant, the questionaire was carefully designed with a brief overview of the study, the purpose of conducting the survey and a desire for cooperation from respondents ‘Ihe researcher also emphasized the confidentiality of the shared information In the mam part, questions were mostly of three main types namely multiple choices, table grading, and open-ended questions As for the language, in order to make it easy for students to understand, the questionnaire did not consist of difficult terminology

In short, to maximize the effectiveness of the questionmaire, the rescarcher attempted

to design it as caretudly as possible in terms of both appearance and content,

2.3.2 Teacher Interview (See Appendix 2 and 3}

‘To gather more information and crosscheck data collected from the questionnaire

about using authentic matcriafs in teaching and loaning Fnetish,

Bac Giang High School for Gifted Students were interviewed Justitication for this tool of research lies in the fact that interview is a tool helping the researcher explore opinions and

five leachets of English in

feclings to find out insightful and valuable infoumation that can hardly be revealed in a questionnaire ot just by observation (Gillham, 2000)

‘The interview employed to seek opinions of the teachers consisted of two parts ‘The first part sought answers to the fizst two rescarch questions focusing on how authentic materials were used as supplementary ones, and the effectiveness of authentic materials in

2.5.3 Classraom observation (See Appendix 4)

Since the research is on a practical issue, classroom observation was regarded as an

affective tool to verify the results obtained through questionnaires and interviews Cohen,

Manion and Morrison (2000: 305) claimed, “Observational data are ultractive as they afford

the researcher the opportunity lo gather ‘live’ data front ‘live’ situations” This metit is

particularly significant in a research where both qnestionnaires and interviews are also included With the use of “over time and repeated observation, the researcher can gain a

deeper and more multilayered understanding of the participants and their conten” (Mackey and Gass 2005: 176)

In the study, the researcher attended three lessons in three English specializing classes where he carried out the questionnaire survey with the students beforehand During the observation, the researcher played the role of a non- participant observer who performed three main tasks including observing, recording and completing the checklists to support the answers to the four research questions of the study

In conctusion, the combination of the three most common tools namely questionnaire, interview and classroom observation brought to the researcher a rich amount of valid and reliable data, the analysis of which would be presented in the next chapter

2.4, Data collection procedure

To collect data for the study, the researcher did undergo lwo steps as follows

2 darificd to ensure

content under the inlaviewcos” pormission, Al fimes, uncloar points wa

the quantity and quality of the collected data, During the interview, the researcher iu ta be flexible in asking supplementary questions to obtain a deeper layer of information

checklist was drafted lo make the observation more oricn and focused Due fo

extemal obstacles, the researcher was permitted to attend only three lessons: one at the 10”

grade (Unit 12: Lesson 2: Listening), one at the 11” arade (Unit 13: Lesson 1, Reading), and

the other at the 12° Unit 4 đesson 3, Speaking skill) The lessons were observed, recorded

and the checklists were completed so that the analysis became more convenient and precise

2.5, Data analysis procedure

Based on the results of 90 retumed questionnaires, the researcher began to classif’y, synthesize and report data To make the analysis comprehensible, answers to every question

were transferred into tables first, follawed by a detailed explanation Tnicrviews were

transcribed, analyzed and integrated into the presentation of questionnaire results so that readers could have a better understanding of the situations

Rogariling classroom observation, the rescarcher made a thorough analysis on the observation details recorded fiom the three lessons, The results then were compared with those of the questionnaires and interviews

To sum up, this chapter has clarified major characteristics of participants and settings

of the research Later on, thorough descriptions of data collection instruments, procedure and data analysis procedure were also provided

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS

‘This chapter is going to present and discuss the data obtained ftom the three employed instruments namely survey questionnaire, interview and classroom obscrvation, which gives comprehensive answers to the four research questions Afterwaids, based on the findings, the researcher works out pedagogical implications that might benefit all the concerned

3.1 Duta description and analy:

3.1.1 Research question 1: How are authentic materials used ax supplementary

materials for English learning and teaching?

‘The researcher investigated three major aspects of the issue, namely the frequency of using authentic materials, types of authentic materials used and the language skills developed when teachers use authentic matatials ío teach English in the classroom, The results can be seen as follows

© — Student questionnaire results

Question 1: The 1* question asked the students how frequently their teachers use

authentic materials to teach English in the classroom

Table 2: Authentic materials and frequency

‘As shown in table 2, all of the students said that their teachers did use authentic materials to teach English in the classroom liowever, the fequency of using them was not very high (mostly sometimes) and differed considerably in cach grade Authentic materials

‘were said to be the most often used in the 11" grade.

The statistics shows that the percentage of students saying that their teachers rarely used authentic materials is very small (16.7% in grade 10, 0% in grade 11 and 30% in grade 12) while no students reported that their teachers never used authentic materials These data proved that authentic materials were used in all 3 grades

Llowever, authentic materials were not used at very high frequency in the classroom Only a small number of students said that their teachcrs often uscd authentic matcrials to teach English (13.3% in grade 10, 36.7% in grade 11, and 0% in grade 12), whereas most of them answered thal their teachers sometimes used authentic materials im the classroom (70% in grades 10 and 12, 63.3% in grads 11) Justification for this might be the lack of time, students’ insufiicient language level or lack of facilities in the classroom

Besides, the table shows that aufhenic materials were the most frequently used for the

students of the 11” grade 36.7% of the 11" grade students said their teachers offen used

authentic materials in the classroom while the percentage of the 10 grade students is only

13.3% and of the

situation One might be that the 11° grade students, who were equipped with sufficient

2! grade studenis is 0%) Two reasons mighl be given to explain the

language knowledge as well as skills, could tackle problems arising when they used authentic malerials to learn English The other reason night he because, unlike the 12° grade students,

the 10" and 11" prade students did not have to learn English to meet the immediate need of passing university entrance examinations, they could spend more time on authentic materials

for devctoping skitts needed for reat communication

Question 2: The 2 question was designed to find out which types of authentic

talgrials were often used ta teach English im the

Table 3: Types of authentic materials used

‘What can be seen fiom the table, most of the students showed that their teachers used various types of authentic materials based on certain contexts, language skills being trained and devetoped and language knowledge being taught They stated that their teachers gave their preference to incorporating Printed materials (83.3%), Visual materials (60%) and Audio materials (58.8%) into the classroom ‘he most widely used authentic materials were posters,

news, songs, Movies, 8, quiz shows, newspapcrs, postcards, literatures (storics, novels), cic > h h › h

‘Question 3: The last question in this issue detailed which language skills were

targeted using authentic materials and how frequenlly teachers used them in the classroom

Table 4: Authentic materials and skilis

‘The most distinguishable feature was that authentic materials were used to develop all the four language skills, Justification lay in the fact that only a very small number of students said that their teacher never used authentic materials to develop the four language skills (1.1% for listening, 3.3% for writing & speaking, and 4.4% for reading)

Besides, the data proved that using authentic materials to develop cach language skill was at a zelatively high frequency Of the four language skills, reading was noticed to be paid the most ailention lo by teachers when they used authentic malerials (accounted for 52.2%) while the concems descended trom writing (46.6%) to listening (33.3%), and finally speaking

(32.2%) Reasons given might be due to the current examination system in Vietnam which

mainly focuses on grammar items, lexical items rather than language skills

Resvits collected and analyzed in the survey questionnaire were supported and/ or clarified by findings fom teacher interview and class observation

* — Teacher interview and observation results

All the intervi achors (5 icachars) were asked to answer the first three questions conceming, the first research question, The resulis showed that all the teachers seemed to reach agreements on their use of authentic materials in teaching English,

In terms of the frequency of using authentic materials, 2 out of 5 teachers shared the opinion that they often used authentic materials in the classroom They reasoned that using authentic materials to teach Linglish brought their students close to the target language culture, making learning more enjoyable and therefore more motivating, The samc number of the interviewed teachers reported that they sometimes used authentic matenals since they found it very fime-constuming fo prepare and adapt to their class situation The rest of the interviewed

teachers, who was the one with the least experience of teaching (5 years), admitted that she rarely used authentic materials in her teaching and she never put the textbook aside She said:

“Textbooks let students practice all aspects of the language, especially reading and

grammar although the use of auhentic materials in the classroom is very lime consuming and

may not meet students’ sole need - passing the examinations”

In brief, the use of authentic materials seems to differ a lot among teachers depending,

on personal experiences and varying backgrounds it seems natural for inexperienced teachers

to sock comfort in toxthooks and other teaching aids, while expericnced teachers loạn Lowards

incorporating authentic matenals in their teaching to a larger extent

Regarding types of authentic materials, one similarity between the teachers’ and students’ opinions was thal almost very type of anthentic materials was axploited and posters, news, songs, movies, quiz shows, newspapers, postcards, literatures (stories, novels),

etc were the most used authentic materials in the classroom

For which language skills being developed using authentic materials, all of the teachers were aware of the importance of the four langnage skills However, they often made use of authentic materials to improve students’ reading and writing skills since they thought