The Development and Evaluation of Authentic Supplementary Materials for First-Year Students in General English Course at TháiBình University

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ******************* VŨ MAI DUYÊN THE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*******************

VŨ MAI DUYÊN

THE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF UTHENTIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS IN GENERAL ENGLISH COURSE AT THÁI BÌNH UNIVERSITY

PHÁT TRIỂN VÀ ĐÁNH GIÁ TÀI LIỆU CHÂN THỰC BỔ TRỢ CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRONG KHÓA HỌC TIẾNG ANH CƠ

BẢN TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THÁI BÌNH

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Hanoi, 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*******************

VŨ MAI DUYÊN

THE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF UTHENTIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS IN GENERAL ENGLISH COURSE AT THÁI BÌNH UNIVERSITY

PHÁT TRIỂN VÀ ĐÁNH GIÁ TÀI LIỆU CHÂN THỰC BỔ TRỢ CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRONG KHÓA HỌC TIẾNG ANH CƠ

BẢN TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THÁI BÌNH

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Dương Thu Mai, PhD

Hanoi, 2015

DECLARATION

I certify that I am the sole author of this thesis All the material in this study which is not my own work has been identified and acknowledged This thesis has not been submitted for assessment in any other university or institution wholly or partially I also accept all the requirements of ULIS relating to the retention and use of M.A graduation thesis deposited in the library

Vũ Mai Duyên

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I owe my deepest gratitude to my supportive supervisor, Duong Thu Mai, Ph.D, for her whole-hearted assistance, encouragement as well as the profound guidance she gave me while I was doing my research

I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to all my teachers and lecturers in Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable instruction and assistance throughout the realization of this thesis

I am heartily thankful to the administrators, my colleagues, and first-year students at Thái Bình University for their willingness to participate in the research Without their help, this project could not be fulfilled

Last but not least, I am indebted to my beloved family and friends who have unfailingly inspired me to complete this study

Hanoi, September 2014

ABSTRACT This study attempts to develop and evaluate a set of authentic supplementary materials for students in a General English course at Thái Bình University.Approaches, principled frameworksand selection criteria are identified to serve as basic guideline for the process of developing materials The material evaluation proceeds using survey questionnaire and interview Quantitatively and qualitatively analytical results revealed that the developed materials appeared to bring about positive enhancement in students’ learning English.Bothstudents and teachers demonstrated highly supportive judgments toward the materials’ effectiveness in nearly all aspects but not much in writing skill Man-Whitney U test result indicatedsignificant relations between students’ evaluations and their English proficiency Based on the findings, the thesis provides pedagogic implications and suggestions for further research which would be of considerable interest to English language teachers, learners as well as material developers and evaluators

LISTOF ABBREVIATIONS

ASM set of Authentic Supplementary Materials

C/F Credit / Fair (students)

CLT Communicative Language Teaching

ELT English Language Teaching

ESP English for Specific Purposes

G/vG Good, very Good (students)

HOTS High-Order Thinking Skill

LLT Language Teaching and Learning

MoET (Vietnamese) Ministry of Education and Training

SD Standard of Deviation

SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

TBU Thái Bình University

ULIS University of Language and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University, Hanoi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LISTOF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF FIGURES viii

LIST OF TABLES viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of study and research questions 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Method of the study 3

5 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Material Development in English Language Teaching 4

1.1.1 Materials in English language teaching 4

1.1.2 Process of Material Development in English language teaching 5

1.1.3 Process of Authentic Supplementary Material Development in ELT 8

1.2 Material Evaluation in English Language Teaching 12

1.2.1 Approaches to Material Evaluation 13

1.2.2 Principles for Material Evaluation 14

1.2.3 Material Evaluators 15

1.2.4 Criteria for Material Evaluation 16

1.2.5 Factors relating to Material Evaluations 19 1.2.6 Authentic Material Evaluation Framework in English language teaching 19

1.3 Review of related studies 21

1.4 Chapter summary 22

CHAPER II: METHODOLOGY 23

2.1 Context of the study 23

2.1.1 Thái Bình University context 23

2.1.2 General English Course 23

2.2 The study 24

2.2.1 The Development of the Authentic Supplementary Materials 24

2.2.2 The Evaluations of the ASM 29

2.3 Chapter summary 34

CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 36

3.1 Strengths and weaknesses of the ASM (Research question 1) 36

3.1.1 Theoretical worth of materials 36

3.2.2 Practical Utilizing of the ASM 40

3.3 The impacts of the ASM (Research question 2) 42

3.3.1 Impactson linguistic and extra-linguistic skills 42

3.3.2 Impactson communicative competence 44

3.3 Differences between the evaluationsof thetwo groups(Research question 3) 46

3.3 Future use of the ASM 47

3.4 Chapter summary 47

PART C: CONCLUSIONS 48

1 Summary of the findings and discussion 48

1.1 The development of the ASM 48

1.2 The evaluation of the ASM 48

2 Conclusions 49

3 Recommendations 50

4 Limitations 50

5 Suggestions for further research 51 REFERENCES and BIBLIOGRAPHY 52 APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS I APPENDIX 2: RELIABILITY STATISTICS VII APPENDIX 3: Mean scores of evaluations on the ASM VIII APPENDIX 4: Results of Mann Whitney test on two groups’ evaluations IX APPENDIX 5: LEARNING STYLES XI

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1-1: Typical Forward design lesson plan 5

Figure 1-2: Stages in the Backward design process 6

Figure 1-3: A teacher’s path through the production of new or adapted materials 7

Figure 2.2-1: Steps of developing materials 24

Figure 3.1-1: General appropriateness of the ASM 36

Figure 3.1-2: The appropriateness of the ASM’s content 38

Figure 3.1-3: Difficult level of the ASM’s content 38

Figure 3.1-4: The appropriateness of the ASM’s topics/themes 39

Figure 3.1-5: Practical Utilizing of the ASM 40

Figure 3.1-6: Classroom interactions 41

Figure 3.3-1: Impacts of the ASM on macro linguistic skills 42

Figure 3.3-2: Impacts of the ASM on extra-linguistic skills 43

Figure 3.3-3: Impacts of the ASM on linguistic competence 44

Figure 3.3-4: Impacts of the ASM on other components of communicative competence 45

Figure 3.4-1: Significant differences in the evaluations between two student groups 46

LIST OF TABLES Table 2.2-1: Forms of authentic materials in the ASM 26

Table 3.1-1: Students’ learning styles 39

Table 3.1-2:Means on Practical Utilizing 40

Table 3.3-1:Means on linguistic skills 42

Table 3.4-1: Future use of the ASM 47

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In this“post-method” era when an increasingly dominant awareness is there exist no such things as best teaching method, or perfectcommercial language teaching materials to fit every unique context (Prabhu, 1990; Kumaravadivelu, 1994; Woodward,2001), language teachers need to be enabled to write their own materials in order to reduce the dependency

on published materials and as a means of professional development (Jolly & Bolitho 1998, pp.111-112).Using their own language learning and teaching experience as a personal knowledge base and gaining theoretical insights on material development and evaluation, teachers can devise the most suitable materials to their particular teaching context These language teachers, in good time, could create and nurture an environment supporting the development of language knowledge and social skills that their learners need to function in larger society

With the desire tooffera motivating, beneficial and serviceable General English course for first-year students at Thái Bình University (TBU), the integrating of authentic materials into the curriculum is of utmost importance The authenticity is felt significant since it gives learners a taste of the natural language use, cultural issues and real world experiences

(Richard, 2001; Kelly et al, 2002; McGrath, 2002) This taste on one hand enhances

motivation, generates deeper interests, and facilitates comprehension; on the other hand it providesopportunitiesfor learners to rehearse the language studied in a sheltered environment for the successful language use in the future

At TBU - a typical contextofa newly-upgraded institutionin an agricultural province where hardly could people see someone from an English speaking country on the streets or at special places, the developing of pertinent sets of ELT materials for students has also been

a matter of concern.Being aware of the above mentioned importance of authenticity, the school management board has made this an important criterion for material development

A purposeful and carefulcollection ofauthentic materials will“remind” TBU studentsthat acquiringan international language like Englishis not anything “luxurious” but advantageous in their daily communicating, entertaining, studying, and their future employment Such materials should be prioritized to develop and evaluated, given the current course-book with limitations in terms of authenticity Since there has not yet

research targeting at the authentic material development in the context of TBU, this gap

has opened a path for the current study on “The Development and Evaluation of Authentic Supplementary Materials for First-Year Students in General English Course at Thái Bình University” Hopefully, advances in language teaching and learningin given context may

stem from the merits of the developed set of authentic supplementary materials (ASM)

2 Aims of study and research questions

The ultimateaim of this study is to develop a set of authentic supplementary materials for first-year students at TBU in order to compensate for certain unsuitability of the set course-book.Secondly, the studyinvolves itself in the process ofinvestigating the evaluations of TBUstudentsandteachers towardsthe strengths and weaknesses of the ASM and identifying their perceptions tothe ASM’s effectiveness.Another aim is to explorewhether there is a relation betweenthe students’ evaluationsand their English proficiency The research is conducted to answer the following questions:

Question 1 What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Authentic Supplementary

Materials from the perspectives of first-year students and teachers of English at Thái Bình University?

Question 2.To what extent arethe Authentic Supplementary Materials effectivefrom the

perspectives of first-year studentsand teachers of English at Thái Bình University? Question 3 To what extent do the two English proficient student groups differ in their

evaluation on the Authentic Supplementary Materials?

3 Scope of the study

The minor thesis limits its scope to onlyauthentic materials as a source of supplementation since investigating all kinds of supplementary materials are such broad topics that they cannot be wholly discussed within the framework of this paper

The process of applying such materials in real teaching and examining their effectiveness

is within the scope of this small study.Investigating the attitudes of TBU teachers and targetedstudents towards the materials, the paper also attempts to figure out whether or not there is difference in the evaluations of student groups based on their English proficiencylevels

Subjects of the material evaluation include104 first-year students at two faculties at TBU who are not English majored, the results of this study hence may be generalized to only non-English major students at Vietnamese colleges and universities

4 Method of the study

The study is carried out on the basis of relevant theoretical document analysis andauthentic English material collection for the material development process Asurvey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews are used for material evaluation First of all, intensive and extensive reading of related-theory documents on material development and evaluation would provide principledframeworks andcriteriafor the authentic material selection for the supplementation process Secondly, after being implemented, the ASMevaluation is carried out in order to obtain detailed and comprehensive informationfor the decision on the future use of the ASM.In the second stage, both quantitative and qualitative research methods are employed in the procedureof analyzing data collected from the survey questionnaire and interviews.Qualitative method plays itsdominating role in the constructing, paneling and validating of the surveyquestionnairebefore it is revised for surveying purposes

5 Design of the study

The study is composed of three parts:

Part A –Introduction–presents the background, aims, research questions, the scope, and the design of the study

Part B– Development– is organized in three chapters

Chapter 1- Literature review– conceptualizes the framework of the study through the discussion of issues on developing and evaluating authentic materials for English language teaching

Chapter 2 – Methodology– presents the study context, then the process of the ASM development and finally material evaluation subjects, data collection instruments, data collection procedure, and data analysis

Chapter 3 – Findings and Discussions–consists of a comprehensive analysis of the data collected and a discussion on the findings of this study

Part C – Conclusion– offers a summary of the findings, conclusion, recommendations, limitations, and future directions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPER I: LITERATURE REVIEW This initial paperis a principled enquiryinto the theoretical backgrounds onELTmaterial development and evaluation, which engages the research into ideas and practices of developing and evaluating a set of authentic supplementary materials for a General English course

1.1 Material Development in English Language Teaching

1.1.1 Materials in English language teaching

Tomlinson (1998, p xi) defines that materials are “anything which presents or informs about the language being learned” or “anything that can be used to facilitate the learning of

a language” McGrath’s (2002, p.7) agrees that materials are “all kinds” that “can be

exploited effectively for language learning”

Regarding the role of language learning and teaching (LLT)materials,a large volume of research has demonstrated its critical importance in language acquisition Nunan (1988, p.98) states that language teachingmaterials are “an essential element within the

curriculum… they provide concrete models for desirable classroom practice and … fulfill a teacher development role.” Richards (2001, p 251) alsotitles materials as “a key

component in most language programs”.He perceives the functions of materials as the

basis for language input (lesson contents, skills taught) as well as language practice occurring in language classroom; and as a form of teacher training which provides

teachers with ideas on how to plan and teach lessons

In terms of classification,(Tomlinson 2003, p.2) notes that materials can be linguistic,

visual, auditory or kinaesthetic Taking the formsof print or non-print,hand-written or

media-distributed (internet websites, computer software, etc.) (Richards, 2001, p.251;

McGrath, 2002, pp 125-136), linguisticmaterials may be informative – informing learners about the target language; instructional – guiding learners in practising the language,experiential– providing learners with experiences of the language in use,eliciting – encouraging learners to use the language; and exploratory – helping learners to make

discoveries about the language (Tomlinson, 2012, p.143)

Pedagogical materials – materials designed for language learning and pedagogicalmaterials –authentic materials (e.g off-air recordings, newspaper articles),

teaching,non-teacher-written materials, and learner-generated materials (McGrath 2002, p.7) can

beutilized ascore / main materials or supporting /supplementary materials

(Cunningsworth, 1995, p 1)

In summary, scholars have reached a consensus on the pedagogical benefits of materials in

theLLT process Accordingly, materials in ELT are anything that serve as a guideline for not only learners but also teachersabout contentandclassroom practice in English lessons

It is materials that provide learners with English linguistic knowledge and background knowledge in English, especially when they do the self-directed learning; and it is materials that help teachers become more efficient and diverse in ELT classrooms

1.1.2 Process of Material Development in English language teaching

Material development in the words of Tomlinson (1998, p.2) refers to “anything which is done by writers, teachers or learners to provide sources of language input and to exploit those sources in ways which maximize the likelihood of intake” Tomlinson (2012) makes

the definition clearer when emphasizing material development as all the processesincluding material evaluation, adaptation, design, production, and exploitation research, which aremade use of by practitioners who produce and/or use materials for

language learning(pp 143-144)

Essentially,material development is an educational operation which helps teachers to identify ways to make up,modify; select, edit,adapt and use the LLT materials in order for them at their best to be a “key component” within the language program

1.1.2.1 Approaches to material development in ELT

The development and implementation of ELT materials can be approached in several different ways, each of which surely has different implications This paper describes three

approaches, namely Forward design, Central design and Backward design, which differ from one another when issues related to content, process, and outcomes are addressed (Richard, 2013)

Resolving issues of contentis the initial stage ofForward design, which has been the major tradition of material development(Richard, 2013, p 5) Wiggins and McTighe (2006, p

15) illustrates this forward-design process with a typical lesson plan

Teacher chooses a topic for a lesson

selects a resource

chooses instructional methods

chooses questions to assess learners’ understanding of the topic

Figure 1-1: Typical Forward design lesson plan

Differently, Central design begins with classroom procedures and methodology

‘Innovative methods’ of the 1980s and 90s reflect Central design approach (Richard 2013,

p 5) Research on teachers’ practices (Clark, 1987; Pennington & Richards, 1997; Richard, 2001; Woodward, 2001) reveals that when planning their lessons,many teachers first consider theprocedures,teaching techniques, and learning activities (presentation, group work, pair work, role plays, etc.) Later their attention turns to inputs and learning outcomes which are addressed as the chosen methods

are implemented These teachers feel the most important is to get their learners motivated, keep theminterested and dothings worthwhile in class If this is achieved, learning will inevitable happen (Woodward, 2001, p 187)

The use of classroom activities and processes as the starting point in instructional planning

is strongly criticized by Wiggins and McTighe (2006), who argue for starting with a clear,

careful description of desired results or learning outcomes - Backward design Backward

Design proceeds in three phases, necessarily in the following order:

I Identify desired results

II Determine acceptable evidence

III Plan learning experiences & instruction

Figure 1-2: Stages in the Backward design process

As a well-established tradition in curriculum design in general education, Backward design has re-emerged as a prominent curriculum development approach in ELT The Common European Framework of Reference is a recent example of backward design (Richard, 2013,

pp 5-20)

It is recognized that, there is no one best approach, and that forward design, central design and backward design might each work well in different circumstances (Richard, 2013) Each approach has advocates and practitioners who can cite magnificentexamples of successful implementation These approaches actually might also work concurrently in some circumstances

This paper would rather follow David Crabbe’s suggestion that “in fact, design goes backwards and forwards whatever the starting point” (cited in Richard 2013, p 28).Considering the specific context, starting with the consideration about what students are able to do after a period of instruction, the ASMin this study corporates task-based instructions to transform contents into “a blueprint which enables the desired learning

outcomes to be achieved”, to use Richard’s (2013, p 6) words.Before the ASM’s development isdescribedin detail in the subsequent chapter(see 2.2.1), it now comes to the need of a principled framework for ELT material development.

1.1.2.2 Principled Frameworks for Material Development in ELT

Investigations into the processes and frameworks of material development carried out by Nunan (1988), Prowse(1998), Tomlinson (1998, 2003), Richards (2001) reveal that numerous material developers rely on intuitive feel for activities which are likely to work, not much on principles of learning and teaching Richards (1995, p 105) though referring his need of inspiration for writing materials, concludes that this process is “90 percent perspiration” This raises the need fordeveloping material principled frameworks, one of which can be found in Jolly & Bolitho (1998).The authors provide sufficient theoretical

justification for aflexible, self-regulatingand coherent

diagram (Figure 1-3)

Figure 1-3 : A teacher’s path through the production of new or adapted materials

byJolly, D & Bolitho, R (1998) in Tomlinson (1998:98) The framework initiates withthe identification of needs for materials Distinctly, a material

is “at its most effective” when it is turned to particular learners’ needs, their learning

objectives, learning styles and language proficiency, etc The need exploration of not only

learners but alsoother parties involved (teachers, administrators, etc.) will engage material

developers in the linguistic andsemantic exploration as the next vital stageof contextual realization for materials.It is understandable that LLT practice does not work in isolation

but is influenced by institutional contexts If linguistic knowledge is integrated into texts of completely unfamiliar topics or notion, the materialwriters themselves reduce the materials’ efficacy Once materials have been selectedfrom appropriate resources, they need to be organized into teachable and learnable units, accompanied with explicit and

comprehensive instructions for exercises and activities These are parts of pedagogical realizationstage beforethematerial physical productionone.It is noteworthy that though the

material appearance and presentation is pivotal for both motivation and classroom effectiveness, the production is not an end in itself Material development, as an ongoing and cyclical process, is pointless without constant reference to classroom practice Put

another way, developedmaterials need to be used and evaluated The evaluation will show

whether the materials have to be abandoned,rewritten, or may be reused without delay

In Jolly & Bolitho’s diagram, they emphasize a variety of “optional pathways”and

“feedbacks loops” which allow material developers to deal in a concrete and flexible way

with reasons for the failure of the materials (if there is) and find out clues to material improvement

With reference to the current study on the development of authentic supplementary

materials, the envisaged steps of need identification exploration have already been done by the institution The following sectionsdescribethe other stages, though, not in the exact order

1.1.3 Process of Authentic Supplementary Material Development in ELT

The currentpaper is an addition whichconcentrates on using authentic materials as a source

of supplementation Benefits of authentic materials are taken into consideration and made best use of

1.1.3.1 Authentic materials

There exists a complex web of definitions as to what exactly authentic materials consist

of.In general, there are two main trends of definitions One focuses on the non-teaching purposesand the native originof the materials which expose learners to real language style

and usages, cultures, social situations that learners are likely to encounter when engaging

in actual communicative use outside the classroom The other trend focuses on the real originand communicative purposesof the materials

Nunan (1988), Harmer (1991), Richards (2001), Mc Grath (2002),though may define the term using different words, all agree in that authentic materials are any which are

- real-life texts,

- designed by and for the native speakers who would hear, read or use them,

- not specifically designed for the LLT purposes

In a broader view, Morrow (1977, p.13) defines authentic text as “a stretch of real language, produced by a real speaker or writer for a real audience and designed to convey

a real message of some sort”.In terms of purposes, Littleet all(1988, p.27) considers authentic materials are created to “fulfill some social purpose in the language community

in which it is produced” In the same line, Filice and Sturino (2002) consider authentic

materials to be materials which fulfilled a social or communicative purpose in the

community.The ideas can be summarized as follows

Authentic materials are

- a real stretch of language,

- produced by real speakers, real writers for real audience,

- designed to fulfill social or communicative purposes (e.g convey a real message)

In a nutshell, there exist differences in the viewpoints on authentic materials;the

meaningful similarity to be extracted is the exposure to real languagewhich may catch learners’ eyes or earsduring their particular dayand the language use in real situationsforpurposes other than language teaching and learning.Adopting this similarity

as the base, the following sectionshifts the focus to the term supplementary materials in the process of developing authentic supplementary materials

1.1.3.2 Supplementary Materials

According to Tomlinson (1998), supplementary materials are such “materials designed to

be used in addition to the core materials of a course” (p.13) Although textbooks represent

“the visible heart of any ELT program” (Sheldon, 1988, p.237), “no textbook is perfect”; therefore, in order for those textbooks to be used more effectively and properly, “teachers should have the option of assigning supplementary materials based on their own specific needs in their own specific teaching situation” (Ansary & Babaii, 2002, p.6)

The sound reasons for teachers to use other materials beside core textbooks have been identify by Brown (1994), McGrath (2002) and Richards (2005) The scholars argue that there exits gaps or mismatches between the official textbook and different needs of specific individuals whose language competence levels may be varied as well More specifically, learners may need to expose to a wide range of textual materialsto promote motivation, or they need more practice of particular skills or grammar components which is not adequate

in quantity in the textbook

Drawingupontheliteratureonsupplementation,McGrath (2002) classifies between syllabus driven process and concept driven process That is, teachers can choose or design worthy materials after they have identified what they need to supplement for a particular class; or

teachers can choose interesting materials accidentally with the hope that they can use such materials in their future teaching Teachers may utilize items from different published sources or from others’, even learners’ writings or teacher may devise their own materials Teacher-prepared materials are likely to be more up-to-date and more relevant

to students’ needs and interests since teachers know their own students well Differently

viewed, supplementary materials may be either content-oriented which focus on different topics and information, or form-oriented which emphasize appropriate ways of using the

language components presented in the main course-book

In sum, a variety of ideas on authentic materials and supplementary materials has been viewed in order to provide foundation knowledge to supplement the currently-used textbook “Enterprise 2” to maximize students’ learning potentials The following section will devote the literature on criteria for selecting authentic supplementary materials in ELT

1.1.3.3 Criteria for SelectingAuthentic Supplementary Materialsin ELT

Using authentic materials in an ELT class does not simply mean putting any pieces

of English produced by certain native speakers Authentic materials, if appropriately selected and implemented, can “help bridge the gap” between classroom knowledge andlearner’s needs as well as their capacities to participate in real-world events (Wilkins,

1976, p 79).In order to decide on the suitable ELT authentic materials, material developers should bear in mind at least fourmentioned below criteria(based on Ian Mc Grath 2002, p 106)

Linguistic and cognitive usefulness

Only pedagogically useful materials - effectively centralizing on language, intellectual and/oremotional development - should be taken into consideration Although authentic materials are not originally designed for classroom use, the chosen ones should lend themselves to conventional levels of linguistic description and/or to differentmodes of action and behavior which realize this knowledge so that follow-up activities/ tasks may be well constructed by a creative teacher to give learners opportunities for practice and boost confidence in their English ability

Relevance (to learners, to context and to syllabus)

In reference to learners, authentic materials chosen must be engaging topics which are familiar to the learners’ lives.As Hammer (1991) advances, learners can comprehend the meaning and usage of grammatical items more deeply and implicitly if they are presented

in a relevant context With topics necessary for learners but they do not realize that necessity, teacher's personal anecdotes, notes and other background information should be shared for learners to follow the materials more easily

With regard to the situational context, it is needed a balance in the choosing of authentic materials produced by native speakers and of non-natives Tomlinson (2005, p 5)

recommends that most Asian learners of English are unlikely to need to communicate with native speakers of

English but are likely to need to communicate in English with other non-native speakers”

With regard to the supplementation, the relevance to syllabus and course-book strongly affects the materials’ selection; otherwise the supplementary materials may waste learners’ time

Intrinsic interest

Being in consideration, if a material is patently not going to interest learners, however relevant it is, it should be replaced by one will.Granting that learners are so interested in the topic or activity in the material, they will NEED the language to talk about it (Roberts, 2014), then materials succeeds in the act of learning motivation.The involvement cultural components using the target language, including culturally based practices, beliefs, linguistic and non-linguistics behaviors (Richard, 2001, p 253) may arouse learners’ interest It should be aware that something completely acceptable in one culture may be

taboo in another so it is advisable to consider theculturalappropriateness

Exploitability (availability, length, legibility, audibility)

Potential problems relating to the legibility of a written text (e.g small font size texts or hard-to-read handwriting), or to the audibility of tapes or video clips may lead to the decision to select alternative ones Over and above, materials chosen must be available over a long term and easily obtainable in learners’real life Learners can encounter them someday somewhere somehow Certainly, authentic information and itemsmust be legally free of copyright restrictions

In a few words,interesting, culturally engaging and relevant authentic materials should reduce the likelihood of learners to get bored but at the same time are not allowed to make learners lose track of the lessons

Up to now, the paper has presented three approaches of forward, central and backward design; a principled circular frameworkof six steps for developing ELT materials and four major selection criteria for authentic materials The subsequent discussion is about theories and studies into the material evaluation in ELT, an important stage inthe ongoing process

of material development

1.2 Material Evaluation in English Language Teaching

Evaluation is the “systematic gathering of information” to “judge the fitness” of something sothatpractitioners can harvest a better understanding of “what is effective, what is less effective, and what appears to be of no use at all” (Weiss,1972, p 22; Hutchinson and Waters, 1987, p 96; Rea-Dickins & Germaine 1992, p 3).As Weir and Roberts (1994,

p.11) put it, evaluation provides “a tool to indicate the suitability of particular approaches

or techniques under given conditions and whether they meet the claims made for them”in

order forawarenessof the need for changesand even where and when changes can take

place to befostered

With reference to the LLT practice, Rea-Dickins and Germaine (1992, pp 5-28) present

two main motivations for evaluation One is its use as a means of confirming the validity of existing procedures, the other is explaining and exploring reasons why something is

working well in a classroom and why it is appropriate for a given target audience

Evaluation, intrinsically, provides a wealth of information for the future direction of

classroom practice, for the course planning, determining learning achievement, the management of learning tasks and for students’ satisfaction as well asinteractions

Accordingly, material evaluation yield insights into how teachers use materials, subsequently, suggests directions both for material development and teaching profession development activities Brown (1995, p.227) perceives material evaluation as the systematic collection and analysis of all relevant information necessary to promote the

material improvement, or to assess its effectiveness and efficiency, or participants’ attitudeswithin the particular institution involved” Tomlinson (1998, p 3) affirms material

evaluation as the dynamic process with attempts to measure the value or potential value of materialsormeasure the effects of the materials on their users That is, ELT material evaluation is the assessment of whether a collection of spoken and written English is

effective and appropriateor not when compared with the prescribed objectives in the target

ELT context

To recap, when evaluators judge oneELT material, whether they are learners, teachers, material developers or experts, they primarily accumulates information to answer preliminary questions on the effectiveness of the materials in facilitating ELT practice Questions may be whether the materials are achieving the setup goals, or they are responding to learners' needs, or whether learners and teachers are satisfied with the materials, or whether learners are learning sufficiently from them The answers afterward are to make optimum use of the materials’ strong points and compensate for shortcomings

1.2.1 Approaches to Material Evaluation

Johnson (1989) and Robinson (1991) support that material evaluation can be classified into

 preliminary (establish materials’ potential suitability),

 formative (examine how materials really work in the classroom), and

 summative evaluation (identify strengths and weaknesses of the materials’ performance over a period of continuous use)

McDonough & Shaw (1993) distinguishes between

 internal evaluation(focuses on theoretical assumptions behind the materials; the intended objectives and the extent to which the objectives have been realized; the justification of

language selection and grading; the design of activities and tasks), and

 external evaluation(examine the extent to which a set of materials meets the needs of

a particular group of learners, the syllabus, and the examination)

Cunningsworth (1995) differentiates between

 impressionistic overview (look through to get an overview of strengths andweaknesses), and

 in-depth evaluation (undertaken subsequently to provide a detailed evaluation)

 in-use evaluation (see whether the materials in use should be replaced or not), and

 post-use evaluation (provide retrospective assessment of the materials’ performance and is helpful to decide whether to use the materials in the future)

In general, there is a good deal of overlap in the frameworks proposed Accordingly, whether evaluators have a quick or a detailed look into the materials, whether examiningbefore, after or whilematerials are in use, they actually judgeif the material issuitable in its own parameter values or if itworks well for particular learners or specific

purposes

This minor study desires to identify strengths and weaknesses of a set of authentic

supplementary materials from the perspectives of students and teachers after is has been

put into service so that a decision on the future widespread use of the materials can emerge for all stakeholders involved

1.2.2 Principles for Material Evaluation

One of the points emphasized by Rea-Dickins & Germaine (1992, p.4) is“ill-prepared and ad-hoc evaluations are likely to be unreliable, unfair and uninformative" and they are not adequate and accurate source documentation on which to base educational decisions Otherwise stated, evaluation in educational context must be systematic and undertaken according to guiding principles Below are the major principles thata systematic material evaluation needs to pin on

Multiple measure and evaluators

An evaluation has to be planned and executed by a number of different people Dickins& Germaine,1992, p 13) Multiple evaluators and measurewould ensure higher

(Rea-quality, validity, reliability If different people, using different measure still reach the same decision, the consistent

evaluation is unhesitatingly ensured

Specific objectives and systematic criteria

Brown and Rogers (2002, p 229) claim that “the first step in any evaluation is to figure out the purpose of the evaluation and the issues involved in achieving that purpose” When making evaluative concerns the educational aspects, making explicitthe objectives and criteria in judgments is of significance This principle requires evaluators to be extremely clear about whether determinations are made about the materials’ effect on people using them; or about materials’ aspect, validity, appeal, flexibility, credibility,or reliability of the materialsthemselves are evaluated(Tomlinson, 1998, p 15)

Considering the relationship between the language, LLT process and learners

Concerning learners, each individual is distinguished from all others in terms of personality, motivation, aptitude, prior experience, interests, needs, and preferred learning styles, level of proficiency and attitudes (Tomlinson, 1998, p 18).If this learner has positive attitude to the language studied and language learning, his evaluation to the LLT

materials may be quite different from ones who do not like the language Personal factors indeed much affect one’s evaluation.Systematic LLT material evaluation, therefore, needs

LLT theory and research findings on language learning acquisition as guiding principles(Tomlinson, 2003)

Considering the contextual circumstances and generalizability

Since materials are developed to suit particular learners and specific context, it is critical

for evaluators to consider the contextual circumstances of the evaluation in order to

determine reliable and effective procedures Moreover, evaluators must be cautious in making generalizations of their evaluation A material can be judged to be suited to this situation but not necessarily to all others

1.2.3 Material Evaluators

Material evaluationcan be carried out by insiders (e.g teachers, learners, course designers,or materials designers) or / and outsiders (those who are not involved in the language program, for instance, experts, consultants, inspectors, or administrators)

Material evaluation by outsiders is often said to be objective since outsiders are hoped to bring “fresh” perspectives into the evaluation (Pascual, 2013) Outsiders may have

objectiveviews;however, they may not have a deep understanding about the learners and LLT situations As a corollary, they may not have exact judgments and realistic recommendations

Material evaluation by insiders, on the other hand, is said to be more subjective Yet, insiders are believed to understand the situation better Theyhave already involved in the language program, as a matter of course, they can determine if and to what extent the materials ‘work’ for their purposes, hence, exact judgments and realistic recommendations may be made More importantly, the involvement of insiders is of fundamental role in the success of the evaluation in that they are consequently ones who will benefit from the evaluation results, whether they are expected or unexpected.Richards (2001) assumes thatthose insiders, especially teachers, can ‘monitor’ the materials being used, thus they can make modifications to improve the materials’effectiveness

Rested on this assumption, the current study involves insiders (students who use the chosen materials) as chief evaluators Teachers of English who have not used the materials are also invited to participate in the evaluation with the hope of gathering as detailed information as possible for the finest evaluation result

It is a worthwhile thing that, LLT materials must meet the demands of learners as well as teacher and sponsors, so the subjective factors should not be allowed to obscure objectivity.Evaluators have to be clear as to what is being examined, in other words, evaluation in educational context demands a set of carefully defined criteria

1.2.4 Criteria for Material Evaluation

Criteria are what evaluators use to “reach decision regarding what needs to be evaluated” (Tomlinson, 1998: 220) Defining criteria for evaluation is one of the crucial issues evaluators involve before any evaluation can be taken place Criteria, as the basis for evaluators’ judgments, are extremely important and evaluators must be extremely specific about these.Evaluation criteria depend on what is being evaluated and why they need evaluating (Dudley- Evans & St John, 1998)

Cunningsworth (1984) suggests evaluating LLT materials in terms of (1) language content, (2) selection and grading, (3) presentation and practice of new items, (4) developing language skills and communication abilities, and (5) motivation in materials

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) propose a set of criteria for material evaluation, which

include audience, aims, content and methodology Audience, mainly learners,are affected

by age, gender, status, needs,interest, study or professional field, learning style, learning purpose, experience, educational background, etc Any language course has its own set-

advancedaims and objectivesandevaluators are obliged to check if the materials can conform to those Content is one crucial element to be measured By content, Hutchinson

& Waters (1987) refer tolinguistic knowledge presented; micro, macro-skills; their

proportions and topics related Methodology encompasses the types of learning activities,

procedures and techniques employed by teachers and the principles underlying the design

of the activities and tasks Furthermore, material evaluation needs to discover if teaching aids available for use are those required by the materials

Different set of criteriahave been suggested to help evaluators become more systematic and objective Theorist Sheldon (1988), however, rightly points out that no general list of criteria can ever really be applied to all teaching and learning contexts without considerablemodification Still, most standardized evaluation lists of criteria contain similar components that can be used as helpful starting points for ELT practitioners in a wide variety of situations

Criteria suggested by Cunningsworth (1984) and Hutchinson Waters’s (1987)combined with a detailed list of characteristics that effective LLT materials should have (Tomlinson,

1998, pp 7-22) emergefour listed below criteria to be considered in the process of material evaluation

Relevant and useful to learners

Cunningsworth (1979, p 31) rightly claims that materials are “not intrinsically good or bad

- rather they are more or less effective in helping learners to reach particular goals in specific situations” Effective learning may be easily achieved when learners become aware of the relevance of the materials’ content to their needs, interests, learning and career goals (McGrath, 2002) Relevance and utility relative, and they can be both achieved if the materials could connectrequisite teaching points and motivating classroom tasks withrelevant outcomes In fact, without relevance and usefulness, the materials should be abandoned

Achieving impact

Materials may generate impacts on learners’ curiosity, interest and attention through

(1) novelty - offers the possibility of acquiring something new but not completely unusual

or alien so that learners might want to share with others about things they have learned afterwards

(2) variety - different textual types, different voices, a wide range of tasks and activities

can caterfor learners’ differences in learning styles, level of proficiency and affective attitudes, etc.;

(3) attractive presentation - the adequate use of colors, space, visual content - schematics,

diagrams, animations, photos, video clips, etc

(4) appealing content - interest and necessity; engaging universal themes and local

references

Tomlinson (1998, p 7) further makes clear that impact is variable; therefore, in order to maximize the likelihood of achieving impacts, it should be made sure that learners actually understand and use the materials, it is not enough if learners merelyfeel the materials enjoyable

Requiring and facilitating learners’ self-investment

Goodlanguage materials should create opportunities for learners to relate language points

to their general studying, their future job and their life Thisoutcome urges learners to invest time, effort, even money and many others in further studying It is noted that requirement and pressure can stimulate some types of language learners, generally feeling

at ease and confident much more facilitates learners’ self-investment As Tomlinson (1998,

p 8) suggests, materials may advantageously take over teacher’s responsibility to help students motivated and feel at ease.The materials’ capacity of maximizing learners’ feeling relaxed and being encouraged to show personal participation; intellectual, aesthetic and emotional involvement;and cooperation in learning activities without doubt should be appraised

Involving authenticity

In order to acquire the three mentioned above criteria, materials should include the feature

of authenticity Authenticity is the quality helping classroom materials connect learners to the real world (Joy, 2011) The ultimate concern of language teaching nowadays is to get learners to use the language not separately but in real context Needless to argue, learners deserve chances to be exposed to real discourse or ‘authentic’ materials

In brief, the four criteria mentioned above are also major features of effective teaching materials which evaluators should show consideration for in their process of evaluating ELT materials The following part shifts attention to factors relating to material evaluation

1.2.5 Factors relating to Material Evaluations

Evaluation may be seen as a “means” of analysis to serve the learning process, yet, results

of evaluation normally do not reveal only one interpretation Evaluation results may provide evidence that the materials evaluated are “good”, but not just one factor accounts for that “good” Identifying with precision different conditionscontributing to the findings

is also of importance It is the truth that whatever approach is applied, at whichever stage the materials are evaluated by outsiders or insiders for any purposes, the process of material evaluation ultimately is a subjective practice, since it is conducted by human Each human being is unique; each has their own qualities, instincts, forms of pleasure, and desire, etc

In this study, among a number of factors like age, gender, social and cultural background knowledge, learners’ exposure to English outside classroom environment, their learning objectives, affective factors etc., the research limits the examination into students’ English proficiency to discover whether or not there is a difference in the two student groups’ evaluations In a hopeful manner, the factors of learners’ language proficiency, emerged from an analysis of the specific context, may provide evidence to support why particular results are obtained and if the result would be repeated

1.2.6 Authentic Material Evaluation Framework in English language teaching

As implications of an evaluation in educational settings are potentially so powerful that it iscrucial to give careful thought to make explicit what is being evaluated Examining a set

of authentic English materials, this research does not evaluate the characteristics of what is called “authenticity”,a contentious notion even in a narrowest aspect Instead, the basicaim

is to investigateif there are the benefitsderiving from authentic materials, in specific ELT context

The issue of using authentic materials in language classrooms and acknowledgment about their benefits has gradually been influential, especially since Henry Sweet (1899, p.178)probed into the “great advantage of natural, idiomatic texts”.The appreciation of benefits that authentic materials offerfall into the following major claims

(1) Authentic materials“do justice to every feature of the language” Sweet (1899, p.178)as they include

 various kinds of language occurring chiefly in casual and playful speech, such as slangs, jargon, lingo, patois, vernacular, which normal textbooks do not often include;

 varied accentsfrom Standard English to regional or non-native ones;

 an extensive use of everyday vocabulary in miscellaneous subject matters; etc

 awide range of genres and text types (narrative stories, informative articles, persuasive advertisements, etc.);

(2) Authentic materialskeep learners informed about what is happening in and around their daily lives (Martinez 2002) Proponents view authentic materials as a valuable source, not only of everyday lifeinformation but also of cultural awareness (Richard 2001) Authentic materials can aware learners that English is not simply a learning subject or a means of communication.Intrinsically, English isculture; itreflectscommunication styles, customs, beliefs, and attitudes of people and communityin which the language is used

(3) Authentic materials promote a more creative approachto teaching, departing from traditional formulaic language teaching.Using authentic materials is both rewarding and stimulating for both teachers and learners given that authentic materials can enliven language classes with images of reality.These mayfunction to facilitateexplicit teaching (defining the meaning of words by having pictures of their referents), make comprehension and memorization of language knowledge easier, and stimulate mental

andlinguistic responses (Kaprova, 1999; Kellyet al, 2002)

(4) Being complex is the nature of the outside world and learners should be aware that exclusively studying what bears little resemblance to actual language use is not a good option

Authentic materials complement language classes and link particular grammatical rules

or discourse types in the classroom to the real, natural language use; hence, they may have positive effects on learners’ motivation and help create in learners a more positive attitude toward English learning

Without doubt, nothing consists of sole advantages; still, even seemingly disadvantages of authentic materials - containing difficult language, unneeded vocabulary items, complex or

even ungrammatical structures - may be turned into the strength if the study tasks and instructions are designed appropriately.For example, studying a financial report may help develop skill to extract pertinent information quickly Practitioners may see Maley (1998,

pp 288-291) for detailed suggestions

Combining the defined criteria for materials evaluation as the base to judge teaching materials with the characteristics of supplementary materials and the benefits of authentic materials, the study reveals the framework for evaluating authentic supplementary materials, which is presented in the form of the survey questionnaire items The framework

is expected to be practical and manageable in the time constraint of the thesis and in the situational context of TBU

1.3 Review of related studies

Numerous recent studies which readers can easily accesshaveshown that learners working

with authentic materials obtain valuable benefits In these studies, the motivation that

authentic materials generate may be applied to diverse settings, learning objectives or

tasks; especially in teaching language skills (Little et all, 1988; Kaprova, 1999;Filice &

Sturino, 2002; Kelly, Kelly, Offner& Vorland, 2002), namelylistening(Ji Lingzhu& Zhang Yuanyuan, 2010), speaking (Đỗ Thị Thanh Trà, 2011); reading and writing skills (Lê Thị Thùy, 2009) andin ESP Courses (Zahra Zohoorian Vahid Baghban, 2011)

Research on supplementary materialsprincipally usesdiverse materials to supplement some inappropriate course-book, among which authentic materials are paid much

attention The studieslisted here mainly focus on developing supplementary material for

specific linguistic skills (Phạm Thị Thùy, 2007;Chwo, Jonas, Tsai & Chuang, 2009;Lê

Thị Hương Giang 2010;Phạm Thị Thu Thủy, 2010; Nguyễn Thị Hằng Vinh, 2011; Khổng Thị Hồng Lê, 2012) Apart from listing unconventional supplementary materials or giving suggestions on how to choose suitable authentic materials, these studies raise the important role of supplementary materials in increase learners’ motivation It is suggested that supplementary materials can be effectively adopted to enhance EFL learners’ reading, listening and speaking strategiesas well as learning outcome

With respect to the supplementation for English course-books, available studies focus onsupplementing ESP course-books (Đỗ Lan Hương, 2009;Đào Thị Hoa, 2010) whereas this project aims at developing a set of authentic supplementary to supplement an inappropriate course-book used in a General English (GE) course.It is hoped that the

findings of this studies may act as the basis for suggestions for further research on the issue of authentic material development in English teaching and learning

1.4 Chapter summary

This chapter has systematically examined issues of developing and evaluating ELT materials, especially authentic materials Firstly, parameters and key stages of ELT material developmenthave been identified to provide foundation knowledge to develop a set of authentic supplementary materials for a General English course.As such, language

material development deals with (1) the identification and exploration of needs for materials from the view of all parties involved, especially theview oflearners; (2) the

consideration of linguistic, social and cultural contentsfor the materials as well as the ELT

contextual factors; (3) the physical production of the materials; (4) practical classroom use and (5)material evaluation as the last stage feeding back to the first in a circular process of

material planning and improvement.Secondly, definitions of material evaluation, its significant role in ELT andhow scholars approach it are likewise analysed.Major principles

of material evaluation reveal the importance of varied evaluators,systematic criteriaand factorsrelating to language process and language learners Finally, the chapter overview the

assumptions and related studies on the benefits of authentic materials, which this research

is hoped to yield evidence to support or protest.The following chapter devotesto the detailed description of research methodology of the study

CHAPER II: METHODOLOGY

In the preceding chapter, theoretical matters related to the topic have been covered The main contents of this chapter include the description of the study context and steps to develop the ASM.Subjects of the ASM evaluation, data collection instruments, data collection procedure, and data analysis procedure would also be thoroughly discussed 2.1.Context of the study

2.1.1 Thái Bình University context

Thái Bình University was founded in 2012, switching from Thái Bình College of Economics and Technology In the context of a new-born university, the potential negative impacts of the Credit Program which is in the implementation for the first time are definitely enormous The limited time allocation within Credit Program - only 60 periodsfor a whole General English Course is an obstacle for both teachers and students The university, meanwhile,have tried their best to make best use of what is required for successful courses.English subject is customarily considered of great importance by all TBU administrators and teachers of English Teaching facilities are relatively good with classrooms equipped with overhead projectors; projectors for PowerPoint® presentation; cassette players and microphone

2.1.2 General English Course

The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MoET),on 24th January 2014, issued

a 6-level framework of Reference for foreign language learning and teaching in Vietnam.Abbreviated as KNLNNVN, the framework is designed to provide a common basis for explicit description of language syllabuses, curriculum guidelines,objectives, content, examinations, textbooks’ etc across Vietnam(MoET, 2014, Document No 01/201/TT-BGDĐT) By the same token,General English Course II at TBU is designed with clear objectives toprovide students with language knowledge and skills so as to move them to a basic user of level 2 (A2) so thatthey can communicate in English without great misunderstanding for all parties involved

Whilst focusing on the development of speaking, listening, reading and writing ability; a balance in the amount of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation One strategic aim of the course is to provide students with lifelonglearning skills to move on to their future education and careers with confidence, extra linguistic skills are therefore also developed

Through activities of individual, pair and group work, students may identify their individual weaknesses and get strategies for making improvements TBU offers General English II for first-year students who are expected to have A1level The 15-week course

offers topic-based and interactive English lessons with a maincourse-book,Enterprise Two(Moore & West, 1985) Covering10 chosen popular topics, weekly 180-minute lessons

are subdivided into 4 periods, corresponding to (1) Speaking/ Listening (2) Reading/Writing, (3)Grammar/ Vocabularyand (4) Group presentation and Consolidation 2.2 The study

As indicated from the name of the thesis, this study includes two main phases of developing and evaluatinga set of authentic supplementary materials This section respectively describes in detail the two

2.2.1 The Development of the Authentic Supplementary Materials

This minor project favors equipping students with realistic experiences so that students can practice their linguistic, social and culturalknowledge for study, future work, and leisure

At the same time, needed skills to enhance their personal, intellectual and cultural enrichment is promoted It would be appropriate at this point to simplify the principled framework on material developmentintroduced in section 1.1.2.2 (pp 6-7) into sequences

of activities for the purpose ofdeveloping the ASM (Figure 2.2-1s)

Step 1: IDENTIFY needs or problems

Step 2: EXPLORE what language/ functions/ skills etc are taught as to needs/problems

Step 3: SELECT sources (written, spoken, visual, audial) to effectively work in the context

Step 4: DESIGN appropriate learning tasks/activities & WRITE appropriate instructions

Step 5: PRODUCE the materials (organization: layout (space, visuals), tape length etc.)

Step 6: USE the materials (students uses + teacher OBSERVE classroom practice)

Step 7: EVALUATE the materials

Figure 2.2-1: Steps of developing materials

Step 1: Identify needs and problems

Apparently inferred from its name,course-book Enterprise Two - English for the Commercial World is primarily designed for business English courses, not for General

English courses After 14 years of being implemented as a core material (from school year 2000-2001), the first-published-in-1985course-book revealedfailure to meet the 2014 students’ needs and thedeclared aims of a General English course A number of weak points can be pointed out, such as out-of-date statistics, low quality of black-and-white drawings; overloadedbusiness and commercial content,nearly-excluded pronunciation component, the list can be extended The problem found seems to be down to for the university administrators, TBU teachers may have the options of adapting the book and/or assigning supplementary materials as an instant solution so as to maximize the learning potentials

Once in a while, something from ‘the real world’ brought into language class can be an

invaluable motivating experience and a welcome break from the pages of the course-book for students In order for students to be able to effectively communicate in English, they deserve to experience the language as it is used for real communication.Inclusion of authentic English materials in the instructional process addresses this need

Step 2: Explore language contents and skills

Since the institution’s syllabus has already stated out the specific objectives, in terms of both language contents and skills, this step can be skipped in the process of the ASM development

Step 3: Select and contextualize authentic materials for supplementation

Learning style research proves that numbers of learners are good at remembering things through visions, many through auditory, others through experiences, etc.For these reasons, the ASM is collected from ample sources and designs, which include spoken and written

English by and forboth native and non-native speakers who know, understand and can

successfully use English to communicate

Being aware of the situational context where chances for TBU students to speak in English with a

foreigner are nearly omitted, the ASM developer shifted students’ initial attention from the ability to speak English well to the capacity of interpreting and comprehending authentic English texts correctly and easily At the outset, the ASM endeavors to make first-year

students aware of the popularity and relevance of English in their daily lives Granting that one of the below is involved, TBU students with confidence, will find English serviceable

- pieces of Englishon fast-food packets,clothes, studying stuffs, a cellphone, to name a few;

- familiar Englishphrases on shampoo, deodorant, medical products;

- meaningful messages, wishes or famous quotations on Valentines or Christmas postcards;

- common English commercial ads on radio or television

Below are the forms of authentic materials collected to supplement the main textbook

Table 2.2-1: Forms of authentic materials in the ASM

Commercially Printed

Materials

Hand-written Materials

Digital Materials

Auditory Visual Integrated

 Books, manuals, travel

 Phone conversation

 Lectures’

recordings

Pictures Posters Photographs Drawing

 Video clips

 Film extracts,

 Computer software,

 Internet links,

 Television (ads, news…)

Step 4: Design tasks and learning activities

Learning a subject, any students may desire to get good marks as an indicator of their proficiency In spite of that, if practice in English class solely means translating reading texts and doing grammar exercises for the written tests, students and even teachers may forget that “English is a language” It is not difficult to catch out some teachers trying hard

to get their learners to do a plethora of exercises to give the correct tenses of the verbs, but the noticeable effect this practice probably brings is de-motiving students Utilizing authentic tasksand realistic experiences which are adequate in number, appropriate to the given context, relevant to students’ need and interests, the ASM is hoped to be able to compensate for students’ burnout

Language communicativeactivities are designed to simulate as much as possible the communication as observed in the real world outside Classroom tasks andactivities attempt tobe a preparation for students’ real-life interactions in the outside world Through stimulating, problematic, challenging but still achievable tasks, materials unquestionably

will build up learners’ confidence and their positive attitudes to self-learning.Being offered

incentives and opportunities to interact with real materials, create their own ones and communicate with one another about those materials, studentspractically can acquire and effectively apply linguistic knowledge and linguistic skills to their studying and their lives

Step 5: Produce the ASM

Helping students to feel at ease is one of the main requirements in the production of the ASMfor it is known that relaxed and comfortable students apparently can learn more than anxious ones in shorter periods of time.One of the ways ismaking available adequate white space rather than stuffingbanks of activities crammed together on the same page Most learners will be more at ease with materials trying to help them to learn rather than to test them, then, besides the relevant contents, friendly “voice”, the ASM does help by utilizing plenty of illustrations Accompanying visuals may either function as attractive space-fillers, which help to make thelanguage comprehension easier; or as companions of attached activities, whose object is to stimulate mental and linguistic responses

Attempting to be termed as “effective materials”,the ASM casts for and plays all the roles

of informant, motivator and the ELT facilitator.Adopting CLT approach, the ASM does not limit itself in one specific skill but ambitiously embodies knowledge, skills and attitudes that students are to develop This preference lies on the assumption that one material may be utilized for any linguistic skills as long as teachers can provide appealing, challenging but achievable classroom tasks and learning activities Engaging learners in meaningful interactions and ongoing communication whereby they have opportunities to ask, and be asked, spoken language may help improve listening comprehension Likewise, combining reading and writing best enhance students’ development (Roseanne Rocha Tavares, 2014, p 64)

1.1.3.4 ASM as an Informant

The ASM drawsstudents’ attention to basic features of conventional linguistic levels in a lively way Grammar is communicatively presented with their forms and uses in meaningful contexts in order toteach language functionsas well Pronunciation and Vocabulary are integrated within given lexical areas, considering the representation of cultural-social components.The ASM does not emphasize one particular model of English language but desires to heighten students’ awareness ofdifferent types of interactions

with both non-native and native speakers; and with various genres and text-types (everyday, mass-media, literary and academic texts)

Intentionally, the ASM is developed locally rather than globally culture-specific so thatstudents could relate the contents to their life more easily, yet, this does not mean the exclusion of other cultural components, especially British and American ones By enriching students’ linguistic and socio-cultural knowledge, the ASM proposes an access for further study and vocational training as well as fosters connection between English language and other studying subjects Access information in more than one language, especially in English, makes available a richer base of knowledge Students gradually realize that English is a “must-have tool” they are to be equipped

1.1.3.5 ASM as an Motivator

Making a provision of a language-fertileenvironment surrounding students,treating them as language explorers, the ASM may further develop students’ interest and confidence in using English as their understanding andmastery of the language grows

Now and then, the ASM embraces “Commercial Breaks” as warm-up activities to keep students away from boredomand to help them memorize English vocabulary and Grammar more easily.Authentic materials such as eye-catching posters, advertising panels and slogans on streets are of best use for this purpose.These appealing image

manipulationswith clever and catchywords/phrases arepowerful means of capturingthe

masses’ attention and they will without fail motivate and embedthemselves in students’ memory

1.1.3.6 ASM as an Facilitator

The facilitating role of the ASM is performed both in the teaching of language features and linguistic skills Taking teaching proper English as an example, the ASM considers it more valuable for students to observe their classmates’ hand-writings with real errors than

to correct artificial mistakes “invented” by teachers Touching writing skill, authentic texts

to familiarize students with a given genre are necessarily vital Students will probably be more convinced of one accepted way to write a complaint letter after reading several genuine samples rather than being told “this is the way you must do it” by a textbook or even by their teacher

Much of the recent literature on material development for language learning has recommended that learners should be provided with more opportunities to acquire

language features from frequent encounters with them during motivated exposure to language in use (Tomlinson 2008) By listing such familiar phrases as “Made in Vietnam, Recommended by Dentists, WANTED, or the name of a famous Margaret Mitchell novel

“Gone with the Wind”, the ASM can better connect the Passive Voice to the natural English and discourse featuresthan those created materials requiring students to change particular Active sentences into Passive ones

To sum up, the ASM is designed to serve multi-purposes, ranging from (1) providing access to natural samples of language use, (2) exposing learners to meaningful real life experiences, (3)introducing cultural issues to enhancing motivation, (4) generating a deeper interest and facilitating comprehension; to (5) considering what students will be able to do with English on completing their course so as to provide them with the receptive, interactive and productive skills (MoET, 2014) to participate in casual conversation

Step 6: Use the ASM

The way in which students actually use and respond to materials will provide indicators as

to the success or failure of the ASM.So as to cater for students’ needs as single individuals and as members in society, learning activities and tasks devised in the ASM include whole-class work, group work, pair work and individual work Utilizing group work is an effective remedial to the problem of large class size Matters of mixed proficiency level and limited class time is solved by allowing students to be free to choose between at least two challenging tasks which follow up each authentic material, the other task(s) may flexibly be assigned as homework

Last but not least, the importance of data derived from an analysis of materials in use would not be undervalued.Including systematic and principled observations of classroom behaviors in the material development process not only provides indication of what students can do at any given time but also of how students acquire the language proficiency demonstrated Under the circumstances, the process of material development is more relevant

2.2.2 The Evaluations of the ASM

1.1.3.7 Participants

The inside evaluators in the study are 104 first-year university students from twoclasses of two Faculties of Accountancy and Business Administration at TBU These 104 participants