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

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONALSTUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN DANH HÀO A STUDY ON USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS IN TEACHING ENGLIS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL

STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN DANH HÀO

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 Code:

Hanoi, 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL

STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN DANH HÀO

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

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

Hanoi, 2010

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Summary of selected students

Table 2: Authentic materials and frequency

Table 3: Types of authentic materials used

Table 4: Authentic materials and skills

Table 5: Usefulness of authentic materials from students‟ perspective

Table 6: Problems in using authentic materials

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ……… i

Abstract ……… ii

List of tables ……… iii

Table of contents ……… iv

PART A: INTRODUCTION ……… 1

1 Rationale for the study ……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… 2

3 Scope of the study ……… 3

4 Significance of the study ……… 3

5 Design of the study……… 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT ……… 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ……… 5

1 1 Authenticity and authentic materials ……… 5

1.1.1 Authenticity in CLT ……… 5

1.1.2 Authentic materials ……… 6

1.1.2.1 Definitions ……… 6

1.1.2.2 Types of authentic materials ……… 7

1.1.2.3 Criteria for selecting authentic materials ……… 8

1 2 The use of authentic materials in the classroom ……… 9

1 2.1 Reasons for using authentic materials ……… 9

1 2.2 Possible problems in using authentic materials ……… 11

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ……… 13

2 1 Participants ……… 13

2 1.1 Students ……… 13

2.1.2 Teachers ……… 14

2 2 Research settings ……… 14

2 3 Research methods ……… 16

2 3.1 Student Questionnaire ……… 16

2 3.2 Teacher Interview ……… 17

2 3.3 Classroom Observation ……… 17

2 4 Data collection procedure ……… 18

2 5 Data analysis procedure ……… 18

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS ……… 20

3 1 Data description and analysis ……… 20

3 1.1 Research question 1 ……… 20

3 1.2 Research question 2 ……… 24

3 1.3 Research question 3 ……… 27

3 1.4 Research question 4 ……… 31

3 2 Implications ……… 35

PART C: CONCLUSION ……… 38

1 Summary of findings ……… 38

2 Contribution of the research ……… 39

3 Limitation of the research ……… ……… 39

4 Suggestion for further research ……… ……… 40

REFERENCES ……… 41

APPENDIX 1: Student Questionnaire ……… I APPENDIX 2: Teacher Interview ……… IV APPENDIX 3: Interview Transcript ………

V APPENDIX 4: Observation Checklist ……… IX

PART A: INTRODUCTION

This part provides the rationale for carrying out the research, the aims that need to beacquired, the scope, the significance as well as the design of the study

1 Rationale for the study

In recent years, English has become one of the major and compulsory subjects atschools all over Vietnam Together with the expansion of teaching and learning this subject,students today have been aware of its importance English is believed to be the basicrequirement for anyone who would like to have a good job Thus, great efforts have beenmade to help students learn English better, among which the effort to search for new sources

of materials supporting the process of English teaching and learning has always beenencouraged

In my observation, using authentic materials as supplementary materials in teachingand learning English is a good way to increase learners‟ language proficiency

There are a number of reasons supporting this idea

In the first place, it is 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 Gifted Students is among a few schools in Vietnam having the best quality offoreign language teaching The students of the school are carefully chosen from all over BacGiang province and most of them are assured to have high level of proficiency in Englishcompared with those in other schools For this reason, the school curriculum designed for thetextbooks often finishes at the end of the first term In the second term, it mainly focuses ondeveloping the students‟ language skills with the help of other supplementary materials Thus,the demand for seeking new sources of materials has been taken into consideration by theteachers 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 authenticmaterials rich in content, diverse in forms, and of different levels of linguistic complexity.This assists teachers and learners in using authentic materials with much convenience Anenormous wealth of authentic materials enables teachers to have a wide variety of choice

based on the objectives of the lesson, as well as learners‟ age, language level, interests, needs,expectations and goals Consequently, teachers will be able to make their lessons moreflexible, suitable and especially, interesting enough to motivate learners to learn and practicethe 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 thegap between the classroom and the outside world and enable them to put their theoreticalknowledge into practice, they open a way for positive transfer of learning Therefore,authentic materials can increase the quality of foreign language teaching

Last but not least, it is the students‟ need of communication in English in and out of the classroom Besides English grammar and the fixed teaching points given in textbooks,

there should be other materials to develop students‟ communicative competence, helpstudents to express their ideas fluently and accurately Thus, authentic materials if usedproperly will encourage learners to communicate in the target language though they are notdesigned to teach a foreign language

For the above reasons, the researcher decided to investigate the use of authenticmaterials as supplementary materials in teaching English at the context of Bac Giang HighSchool for Gifted Students It is hoped that this study would be of practical benefits to theteachers at high schools for gifted students in particular and other high schools in general indeveloping students‟ language skills

2 Aims of the study

In doing the research, the author attempted to address four main issues Firstly, thestudy investigated how authentic materials are used as supplementary materials for Englishlearning and teaching Secondly, it examined teachers and students‟ evaluation on theeffectiveness of authentic materials Thirdly, the study aimed to identify possible problemswhen using authentic materials, followed by suggestions to deal with these problems

These objectives were accomplished by answering the following research questions:

(1) 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 supplementarymaterials for English learning and teaching in the context of Bac Giang High School forGifted Students The subjects in the study were restricted to three English specializing classesranging from grade 10 to grade 12 and five teachers who directly taught English to theseclasses

4 Significance of the study

It is noteworthy that the study was a great attempt to examine an important issue inlanguage teaching methodology Therefore, once finished, it can bring a number of benefits toinvolved parties namely students, teachers, educational administrators and researchers of therelated fields

Teachers and students at Bac Giang High School for Gifted Students are those whodirectly benefit from the information the research provides Teachers will have an overview

of the situation of their own using authentic materials to increase students‟ languageproficiency, identify difficulties that they themselves and their colleagues have encounteredand 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 effectiveresulting in exploitation of authentic materials

Educational administrators may be provided close and comprehensive view into thecurrent situation of using authentic materials in teaching English This urges them toimplement necessary amendments in terms of curriculum, facilities and so on.

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

review

In general, students, teachers, educational administrators and researchers are

those who are likely to benefit 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 significanceand the design of the study

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

Chapter 1, Literature Review, discusses the literature relating authenticity andauthentic materials as well as the use of authentic materials in the classroom

Chapter 2, Methodology, defines the methodology of the research including features

of the participants, settings, research methods, data collection and data analysis procedure

Chapter 3, Results, presents and discusses the findings, which gives comprehensiveanswers to the four research questions It also offers suggestions to solve all the identifiedproblems for a higher effectiveness of authentic materials

PART C, Conclusion, summarizes significant findings, highlights contributions of theresearch, addresses notable limitations, and puts forward practical suggestions for futureresearch

References

Appendix

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 1 Authenticity and authentic materials

1.1.1 Authenticity in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

For many years, there have been many authors discussing the authenticity in languageteaching such as Taylor (1994), Widdowson (1996), Michael Breen (1985) Among theseauthors, McDonough and Shaw (1993) have provided the most generalized idea thatauthenticity is much defined with the selection of the materials, the activities and methodsteachers use in the classroom They describe authenticity as the following:

“… a term which loosely implies as close an approximation 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).

Authenticity appears to be naturally associated with CLT According to Richards andRodgers (1986: 69), CLT is promoted as an approach to language teaching which supports thedevelopment of learners‟ abilities to use language fluently and meaningfully Thus, realcommunication is considered not only the goal of language teaching but also the tool helpingteachers to achieve the aim

These authors also stress one of the features of CLT as "learner-centeredness view of second language teaching" This means that teachers need to create a learner-centered

classroom and engage learners in authentic and meaningful communications that requiremeaning negotiations, with the goal to increase comprehensible language input for learnersand expect them to generate more output In order to do so, teachers should develop methods,exploit materials, organize activities, and design tasks based on learners' demonstrated needs

of a particular class

Especially, CLT emphasizes the use of authentic materials in teaching language(Widdowson, 1996) Authentic materials give learners the opportunity to respond to genuinecommunicative needs in real-life situations This is to help learners develop strategies forunderstanding language as actually used by native speakers (Canale and Swain, 1980)

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

(1) 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

(2) 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 isauthentic to the learner regardless of its origin

(3) 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 stagedproperly

(4) Authenticity of actual social situation of the classroom language It 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 consideredthe interaction between the reader and the discourse, not just the text in itself Davies (1984:192) states, “It is not that a text is understood because it is authentic but that it is authentic because it is understood …Everything the learner understands is authentic for him” Using

authentic texts in teaching English effectively requires teachers‟ attempts in localizing,contextualizing the tasks as well as providing learners with pedagogical support so that thesematerials can meet the objectives of the lesson as well as learners‟ need and result in thehighest effectiveness of language learning

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

Little et al (1988: 17) also has the same opinion as these authors when he states that authentic materials are “created to fulfill some social purposes in the language community in which it was produced” Similarly, Jordan (1997) refers to authentic texts as texts that are not

written for language teaching purposes

Obviously, authentic materials are not produced for pedagogic purposes but they can

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

between classroom knowledge and “a student‟s capacities to participate in real world events” (Wilkins 1976: 79)

1.1.2.2 Types of authentic materials

Authentic materials are print, video, and audio materials learners encounter in theirdaily lives, such as job applications, menus, voice mail messages, radio programs, and videos,etc Authentic materials are not created specifically to be used in the classroom, but theycompliment language classes by enlivening the class, providing excellent learning tools forlearners, creating a more positive attitude toward learning and preparing learners for realcommunication successfully and effectively

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

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

information brochures, leaflets, receipts, etc

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

novels, etc

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

drawings, wordless street signs, wordless picture books, posters, etc

(4) Audio- Visual Materials: documentaries, TV ads or broadcasts, quiz shows, cartoons,

movies, etc

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

(http://www.jrc.sophia.ac.jp/kiyou/ki21/gaio.pdf.)

Each of these types of authentic materials has certain benefits to certain kinds oflearners in certain contexts of teaching and learning It goes beyond doubt that some of theteachers in non- English speaking countries, to some extent, have ever used authenticmaterials in their language teaching However, whether incorporating these types of materialsinto 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 languageteaching

1.1.2.3 Criteria for selecting authentic materials

The sources of authentic materials that can be used in the classroom are infinite, butthe most common are newspapers, magazines, TV programs, movies, songs and Internet Forthe authentic materials to be effective, they should not be chosen randomly There must be anaim 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 grammaticalforms 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 ispresented to learners The authentic presentation, by using pictures, diagrams, photographs,etc 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 toget engaged in the discovery and learning process

Other factors worth taking into consideration when selecting authentic materials forthe classroom can include whether the text challenges the students‟ intelligence withoutmaking unreasonable linguistic demands, the language reflects written or spoken usage, thelanguage in the text is natural or it has been distorted to include examples of particularteaching points or to draw inferences in a particular context

Above all, selecting authentic materials are supposed to make learners want to read orlisten for themselves, tell themselves something they do not know as well as to introduce newand relevant ideas to them Therefore, being aware of different types of authentic materials,what these materials can offer 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 felt to be significant because it offers learners 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 learners make for that real world (McGrath, 2002) Using authenticmaterials in foreign language teaching has many advantages as follows:

First, authentic materials have a positive effect on learners‟ motivation They engage

learners‟ attention in the language being taught They have a high interest value because oftheir relevance to the real world keeping learners informed about what is happening in theworld they live Therefore, they have an intrinsic educational value (Martinez, 2002) Nuttall

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

Besides, a variety of text types and language styles of authentic materials also affectlearners‟ motivation positively It is very difficult to find this variety in conventional teachingmaterials, 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 thatwill 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 asay about the topics used in the class As a result, learners will keep high motivation andinterest in language learning through these meaningful 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, authentic materials provide authentic cultural information According to

Spelleri (2002), authentic materials have at least three layers of learning embedded within

them: language (the structure and vocabulary), cultural insights (cultural norms and values of the community in which this language is used) and practical application (using the item in the

way it was intended) These layers motivate learners intrinsically because they have thechance to enjoy both learning the language and the culture where this language is spoken andputting what they have learned into practice as used in real world In that way, they canunderstand the value of learning a language

Also, Shanahan (1997: 168) states:

“Cultural content [richly found in authentic materials] provides exposures to living language that a foreign language student lacks So, culture is not something consisting of facts to be learnt, but a helpful tool to makes learners feel the need to speak and use the target language.”

Third, authentic materials provide exposure to real life Martinez (2000) points out

that using authentic materials is an ideal way to contextualize language learning When used

in class, authentic materials provide learners with the chance to read, rehearse, practice anduse the language via the materials that they can see, examine, touch and listen to Learners canenjoy watching their favorite programs in English, following the lyrics of their favorite songs,viewing the photographs of famous places in the world, participating in a quiz show, etc.without going to the country where the language they learn is spoken Spelleri (2002: 3)

states that authentic materials can help “bridge the gap from the classroom lessons to real life

by making immediate use of classroom lessons in their lives” Exposing learners to authentic

language can help them develop their predication skills and improve their strategies fordealing with uncertainty in understanding or using target language

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

be accessed on the Internet Teachers can take these materials to the class, integrate thetechnology into the class, or even cooperate with learners to access them on the Internet right

in the classroom Moreover, newspapers and magazines in English are available in thenewsagent‟s and music CDs, movies, documentaries, in the books and music stores Whenputting different types of authentic materials into lessons, teachers can enliven his or her classwith the materials rich in content

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

1 2.2 Possible problems in using authentic materials

Despite the above mentioned advantages, several problems should be taken intoconsideration while using authentic materials

The first problem is the complexity of the language Authentic materials may be too

linguistically difficult for learners to understand outside the language community, therebymaking them inaccessible to learners, especially to beginners or elementary learners (Matinez2002; Peacock, 1997) Authentic materials created purposefully for native speakers maycontain unnecessary or/and inappropriate structures and vocabulary items for teaching andlearning a language, which may impose a burden on learners, especially those in lower-levelclasses when decoding the texts As a result, learners might become less motivated, or evendevelop negative attitudes towards these kinds of materials (Richards 2001: 253; Matinez2002; Peacock, 1997)

The second problem may be caused by the too culturally biased content of the authentic materials (Matinez, 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 learners from using authentic materials inlanguage teaching and learning.

The third problem is that obtaining and adapting authentic materials can be consuming Teachers may need to spend hours and hours selecting and preparing these

time-materials until they finally have what they need and figure out how to use them effectively inthe classroom What‟s more, since these materials can become outdated easily, such asstories, news in newspapers or magazines, updating new materials to fit learners‟ needs andinterest is considered to be so time-consuming (Matinez 2002; Peacock, 1997)

Another weakness of using authentic materials may come out when students learn a

language for the sole purpose of getting success in an examination that focuses largely on the

knowledge of a language such as grammatical structures or/and lexical items This problemobviously has a negative impact on developing learners‟ language skills In fact, if learnersare presented with authentic texts that may not give the rules, patterns, or structures they need

in order to pass an exam, they may get frustrated and consider them as an obstacle to theirsuccess It even becomes worse if the wrong type of text is chosen with linguistic demandsirrelevant to learners‟ needs and interest (Murdoch, 1999)

For these reasons, some teachers may be discouraged from gathering and adaptingauthentic materials for their learners However, regardless of the possible problems, usingauthentic materials may result in the effectiveness in teaching and learning a foreign language

on condition that teachers are enthusiastic and know how to take advantage of the benefitsand use them properly and effectively

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is intended to define the methodology of the research including features

of the participants, research settings, research instruments, data collection and data analysisprocedures

2.1 Participants

2.1.1 Students

Although the research focused on teachers‟ job in using authentic materials inteaching English, students play a no-less-important role as direct beneficiaries, observers andevaluators of the process They were primarily selected to do the questionnaire The number

of students participating in the research was 90 All of them were from three Englishspecializing classes ranging from grade 10 to grade 12; therefore, their level of proficiency iscomparatively high Besides, it seems that in the area of learning foreign language, thenumber of female students is much bigger than that of male ones In the study, the formeraccounted for approximately 95% whereas the latter made up only 5% All of them had beenlearning English for at least 5 years Their average score in the previous term ranged fromgood (grade over 8.0), fairly good (grade from 6.5 to 7.9) to average & weak (grade below6.5), which reflected the difference in English competence of the students These studentswere categorized according to their grades & GPA (grade point average) Detailedinformation could be seen in the table below:

Table 1: Summary of selected students

2.1.2 Teachers

Since teachers are core subjects of this research, they were deliberately chosen for theinterview session Five teachers of English (four female and one male), aged from 29 to 49, atBac Giang High School for Gifted Students were invited to share their opinion and experience

on the investigated issue All the teachers were chosen from English specializing classeswhere the researcher carried out the questionnaire survey with their students beforehand Ofthe five teachers interviewed, one of them has an M.A and four of them have an B.A inEnglish teaching methodology; one of them has been teaching for 5 years and the rest havemore than 10-year teaching experience All of them have been teaching English in urban areasfor many years

Although five was not a very big number compared to the scope of the study, thisquantity hardly affected the richness and depth of information The researcher benefited fromthis selection in the way that he could listen to students‟ opinion and then further verify itwith their own teachers In other words, double-checking was one technique which could beemployed to enhance the reliability of the research

2.2 Research settings

The study was carried out at Bac Giang High School for Gifted Students As the case

in majority of high schools nationwide, English is not only a compulsory subject but also alargely chosen foreign language among students here The new emphasis on English resultedfrom the fact that for the past few years, the new social and economic settings in Vietnamhave increased the demand for English-speaking people who are expected to be competent tocommunicate verbally with the outside world and to access technology (Le, 1999) Oneremarkable sign of the implementation of CLT is the introduction of the newly editedtextbook for grade -10 students in 2006 nationwide At Bac Giang High School for GiftedStudents, no longer are students oriented to focus on traditional targets namely vocabulary,grammar and pronunciation Instead, under CLT approach, they have to gradually master fourmacro skills including speaking, reading, listening and writing To satisfy this need, weshould provide more creative, different and effective teaching-learning strategies in and out ofclass

One of the ways to achieve better proficiency in English is to establish a naturallearning environment and to use authentic materials in the classroom However, thesepraiseworthy objectives can hardly be achieved when a large number of teachers and studentsstill maintain the traditional learning and teaching habits and styles of passiveness.

Besides, it should be noted that there are typical features in Bac Giang High School forGifted Students including geographical locations, level of specialization in English BacGiang High School for Gifted Students is the top foreign language specialized school in BacGiang, which is located in downtown However, teaching and learning facilities are far fromstandard and have never met the teachers & students‟ satisfaction To make up for teachingand 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 thusensure a relatively high linguistic competence These students study not only for the regularexams nationally but also for a special exam for top students held for all the specializing highschools in Vietnam every year

Therefore, teaching methods, materials and activities are gradually altered to achievethe highest results Among them, materials used in the classroom take an important role andhave been paid much attention to recently Besides the textbooks, which are mainly used,authentic materials are put into practice as supplementary ones to improve students‟ languageproficiency

However, some challenges have been revealed when authentic materials are put inuse, which draw much attention of the teachers in charge In order to use authentic materialseffectively, many things should be taken into consideration including both technicaladaptation and supportive attitudes of teachers, learners and education managers

Thus, in this context, the research was conducted with the hope that the research couldsuggest possible solutions to the problems so that authentic materials can be used the mostsuccessfully in the classroom

2.3 Research methods

In this study, questionnaire, interview and classroom observation were fullyemployed The combination of these three instruments was expected to triangulate and thusgenerate valid and reliable data

2.3.1 Student Questionnaire (See Appendix 1)

The first data collection method was questionnaire delivered to students This tool waswidely used in primary research Wilson and Mc Lean (1994, as cited in Cohen, Manion andMorrison, 2000: 245) appreciated questionnaire for its outstanding merits including

“providing structured, numerical data, being able to be administered without the presence of the researcher, and often straightforward to be analyzed” The advantages of questionnaire were also recognized by Mackey and Gass (2005: 94) as “being economical and practical than individual interviews” as “questionnaires in many cases elicit longitudinal information from learners in a short period of time.”

In this research context, the questionnaire consisted of two main parts Part 1 collectedthe learners‟ personal information (years of learning English, grade and English score of theprevious term) Part 2 was the main content of the questionnaire that was used to deliberatelyfind the answers to the research questions such as the teachers‟ employment of authenticmaterials, the effectiveness of the work, difficulties, and some suggestions In order to getsincere opinions and objective assessment, the questionnaire was carefully designed with abrief overview of the study, the purpose of conducting the survey and a desire for cooperationfrom respondents The researcher also emphasized the confidentiality of the sharedinformation In the main part, questions were mostly of three main types namely multiplechoices, table grading, and open-ended questions As for the language, in order to make iteasy for students to understand, the questionnaire did not consist of difficult terminology

In short, to maximize the effectiveness of the questionnaire, the researcher attempted

to design it as carefully 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 questionnaireabout using authentic materials in teaching and learning English, five teachers of English inBac Giang High School for Gifted Students were interviewed Justification for this tool ofresearch lies in the fact that interview is a tool helping the researcher explore opinions andfeelings to find out insightful and valuable information that can hardly be revealed in aquestionnaire or just by observation (Gillham, 2000)

The interview employed to seek opinions of the teachers consisted of two parts Thefirst part sought answers to the first two research questions focusing on how authenticmaterials were used as supplementary ones, and the effectiveness of authentic materials inEnglish learning and teaching The second part helped the researcher find out problems andsuggestions in using authentic materials that were raised in the last two research questions

As can be seen, the choice of interviews conducted among teachers along withquestionnaires and class observation gave the researcher a comprehensive look at the issue,which helped work out the satisfactory answers to the four research questions

2.3.3 Classroom observation (See Appendix 4)

Since the research is on a practical issue, classroom observation was regarded as aneffective tool to verify the results obtained through questionnaires and interviews Cohen,

Manion and Morrison (2000: 305) claimed, “Observational data are attractive as they afford the researcher the opportunity to gather „live‟ data from „live‟ situations” This merit is

particularly significant in a research where both questionnaires 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 content” (Mackey

and Gass 2005: 176)

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

In conclusion, the combination of the three most common tools namely questionnaire,interview and classroom observation brought to the researcher a rich amount of valid andreliable 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 two steps as follows

Step 1:

Student questionnaires were issued first Creating good rapports with the participantsand directly monitoring the process of students‟ doing questionnaires helped the researchercollect 90 from 90 issued copies Afterwards, five interviews were conducted face to facewith selected teachers of English Similar to the structures of the questionnaires, everyinterview was initiated by a session of sharing personal information, followed by the corecontent While interviewing, the researcher tried the best to take notes and tape-record thecontent under the interviewees‟ permission At times, unclear points were clarified to ensurethe quantity and quality of the collected data During the interview, the researcher tried to beflexible in asking supplementary questions to obtain a deeper layer of information

Step 2:

Classroom observation was conducted in three lessons, the choice of which was notdetermined by the researcher himself but on permission Before the date of observation, achecklist was drafted to make the observation more oriented and focused Due to severalexternal obstacles, the researcher was permitted to attend only three lessons: one at the 10thgrade (Unit 12: Lesson 2: Listening), one at the 11th grade (Unit 13: Lesson 1, Reading), andthe other at the 12th Unit 4 (lesson 3, Speaking skill) The lessons were observed, recordedand the checklists were completed so that the analysis became more convenient and precise

2.5 Data analysis procedure

Based on the results of 90 returned questionnaires, the researcher began to classify,synthesize and report data To make the analysis comprehensible, answers to every questionwere transferred into tables first, followed by a detailed explanation Interviews were

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

Regarding classroom observation, the researcher made a thorough analysis on theobservation details recorded from the three lessons The results then were compared withthose 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 anddata analysis procedure were also provided

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS

This chapter is going to present and discuss the data obtained from the three employedinstruments namely survey questionnaire, interview and classroom observation, which givescomprehensive answers to the four research questions Afterwards, based on the findings, theresearcher works out pedagogical implications that might benefit all the concerned

3.1 Data description and analysis

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

materials for English learning and teaching?

The researcher investigated three major aspects of the issue, namely the frequency ofusing authentic materials, types of authentic materials used and the language skills developedwhen teachers use authentic materials to teach English in the classroom The results can beseen as follows

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

use authentic materials to teach English in the classroom.

Table 2: Authentic materials and frequency

very high (mostly sometimes) and differed considerably in each grade Authentic materials

were said to be the most often used in the 11th 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

However, authentic materials were not used at very high frequency in the classroom

Only a small number of students said that their teachers often used authentic materials to

teach English (13.3% in grade 10, 36.7% in grade 11, and 0% in grade 12), whereas most of

them answered that their teachers sometimes used authentic materials in the classroom (70%

in grades 10 and 12, 63.3% in grade 11) Justification for this might be the lack of time,

students‟ insufficient language level or lack of facilities in the classroom

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

students of the 11th grade 36.7% of the 11th grade students said their teachers often used

authentic materials in the classroom while the percentage of the 10th grade students is only13.3% and of the 12th grade students is 0%) Two reasons might be given to explain thesituation One might be that the 11th grade students, who were equipped with sufficientlanguage knowledge as well as skills, could tackle problems arising when they used authenticmaterials to learn English The other reason might be because, unlike the 12th grade students,the 10th and 11th grade students did not have to learn English to meet the immediate need ofpassing university entrance examinations, they could spend more time on authentic materialsfor developing skills needed for real communication

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

authentic materials were often used to teach English in the classroom.

Table 3: Types of authentic materials used

What can be seen from the table, most of the students showed that their teachers used

various types of authentic materials based on certain contexts, language skills being trainedand developed and language knowledge being taught They stated that their teachers gavetheir preference to incorporating Printed materials (83.3%), Visual materials (60%) and Audiomaterials (58.8%) into the classroom The most widely used authentic materials were posters,news, songs, movies, quiz shows, newspapers, postcards, literatures (stories, novels), etc

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

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

Table 4: Authentic materials and skills

As shown in table 4, all the students reported that their teachers did use authentic

materials to develop all of the four language skills The data also pointed out that the

frequency of using authentic materials to develop each language skill was relatively high

The most distinguishable feature was that authentic materials were used to develop allthe 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 each language skillwas at a relatively high frequency Of the four language skills, reading was noticed to be paid

the most attention to by teachers when they used authentic materials (accounted for 52.2%)while the concerns descended from writing (46.6%) to listening (33.3%), and finally speaking(32.2%) Reasons given might be due to the current examination system in Vietnam whichmainly focuses on grammar items, lexical items rather than language skills

Results collected and analyzed in the survey questionnaire were supported and/ or clarified by findings from teacher interview and class observation.

 Teacher interview and observation results

All the interviewed teachers (5 teachers) were asked to answer the first three questionsconcerning the first research question The results showed that all the teachers seemed toreach 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 theopinion that they often used authentic materials in the classroom They reasoned that usingauthentic materials to teach English brought their students close to the target language culture,making learning more enjoyable and therefore more motivating The same number of the

interviewed teachers reported that they sometimes used authentic materials since they found it

very time-consuming to prepare and adapt to their class situation The rest of the interviewedteachers, 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 authentic materials in the classroom is very time 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 seek comfort in textbooks and other teaching aids, while experienced teachers lean towardsincorporating authentic materials in their teaching to a larger extent

Regarding types of authentic materials, one similarity between the teachers‟ andstudents‟ opinions was that almost every type of authentic materials was exploited andposters, 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 theteachers were aware of the importance of the four language skills However, they often madeuse of authentic materials to improve students‟ reading and writing skills since they thought

that these skills met the immediate purpose of students‟ learning English - that is passinggrammar-focused examinations Also, due to this reason, they said that they only sometimes

or rarely used authentic materials to develop listening and speaking skills

One classroom observation conducted in the 11th grade could strengthen theinformation gathered from teachers‟ interview and students‟ questionnaires Within 45minutes of a reading lesson, a variety of authentic materials were utilized A quiz show wasquickly introduced as the warm-up Pictures were shown at the pre-reading stage to lead inthe topic of the lesson and an authentic text was used as soon as the teacher completed thereading text in the textbook so that they could help students enrich their vocabulary items,grasp grammatical structures as well as deepen their understanding about the topic discussed.Dealing with this authentic text, the teacher asked her students to read and answer questionsconcerning the information in the text The students were also required to write an essay onthe topic of the reading lesson based on the knowledge they acquired Obviously, all the fourlanguage skills were dealt with in this lesson However, reading and writing skills took thedominance

To sum up, the research question was well- supported by the results gathered from 3instruments namely questionnaire, interview and class observation The results showed thatall of the teachers did use authentic materials to teach English and most of them usedauthentic materials with relatively high frequency Various types of authentic materials werealso exploited to develop students‟ language skills, especially reading and writing skills

3.1.2 Research question 2: Effectiveness of authentic materials

The effectiveness of authentic materials was examined from two perspectives: Thestudents‟ and the teachers‟ The judgments implied several points that needed to be taken intoaccount