A study on the use of authentic materials in reaing instruction for first year mainstream students at felte ulis vnu

When using authentic materials, asking students‘ experiences was the most popular technique in pre-reading stage; skimming and extensive reading were more focused in while-reading; and d

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

A STUDY ON THE USE OF AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

IN REAING INSTRUCTION FOR FIRST YEAR MAINSTREAM STUDENTS AT FELTE-ULIS-VNU

Supervisor: Lục Đình Quang, MA Student: Lưu Trà Giang

Course: QH2012.F1.E5

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TÀI LIỆU THỰC TẾ TRONG VIỆC DẠY ĐỌC CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT HỆ ĐẠI TRÀ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Lục Đình Quang

Sinh viên: Lưu Trà Giang

Khoá: QH2012.F1.E5

HÀ NỘI -2016

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I : Luu Tra Giang, 12E5, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor‘s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In term of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of paper

Signature

Date

I also place on record, my sense of gratitude to one and all, who directly or indirectly, have lent their hand in this venture

Under the communicative approach, authentic materials have gradually been integrated into reading courses for first-year students studying in Faculty of Language Teacher Education (FELTE) in University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS) The effectiveness of using authentic materials depends crucially on how teachers select and exploit them for reading activities Although in the scope of ULIS, VNU, some research related to the use of authentic materials has been conducted, there has not been any research investigating into reading instruction for FELTE students To fill in this gap, ―A study on the use of authentic materials in reading instruction for first-year mainstream students at FELTE-ULIS-VNU‖ was conducted

The participants were 104 freshmen and 12 teachers of reading courses from FELTE, ULIS Three instruments namely questionnaire for students, semi-structured interview and observation were employed to collect data which were analyzed by qualitative and quantitative methods The results showed that all of the teachers had positive attitudes toward the use of authentic materials in their reading classes; however, they held neutral views when comparison between authentic materials and textbooks was made Therefore, all of them approved of the use of both kinds in reading instruction When using authentic materials, asking students‘ experiences was the most popular technique in pre-reading stage; skimming and extensive reading were more focused in while-reading; and discussion was frequently hold at the end of classes, which underlines the interactive model of reading process The students were generally motivated by the reading activities based on authentic materials Furthermore, they were considerably motivated to learn reading and to do more reading outside the classroom

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT 3

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONS 6

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 7

1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study 7

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 8

1.3 Scope of the study 8

1.4 Significance of the study 10

1.5 Organization 10

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 11

2.1 The Concept Of Authenticity 11

2.1.1 Definition of authenticity 11

2.1.2 Text authenticity 12

2.1.4 Task authenticity 13

2.1.5 Definitions of authentic materials 14

2.1.6 Types of authentic materials 15

2.2 An overview of teaching reading 15

2.2.1 Reading processes 15

2.2.2 Reading strategies 16

2.2.2 Stages of a reading lesson 17

2.3 The use of authentic materials in teaching reading 18

2.3.1 Selection of authentic materials 18

2.3.3 Arguments in favor of authentic materials in teaching reading 20

2.2.4 Arguments against authentic materials in teaching reading 21

2.4 Motivation in learning reading 22

2.4.1 What is motivation? 22

2.4.2 The importance of motivation 23

Chapter summary 23

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 25

3.1 Settings 25

3.2 Sampling 26

3.3 Data collection instruments 27

3.3.1 Questionnaires 27

3.3.2 Interview for teachers 29

3.3.3 Field observation 29

3.4 Data collection procedure 30

3.5 Data analysis procedures 30

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 32

4.1 Findings 32

4.1.1 Research question 1: What is the role of authentic materials in teaching reading for the target students from the teachers’ perspectives? 32

4.1.2.Research question 2: In what ways are authentic materials exploited in the present reading classes ? 35

4.2.3.Research question 3: To what extent do the reading activities based on authentic materials motivate the target students to learn reading? 39

4.2 Discussion 43

4.2.1.What is the role of authentic materials in teaching reading for the target students from the teachers’ perspectives? 43

4.2.2.In what ways are authentic materials exploited in the present reading classes ? 44 4.2.3 To what extent do the reading activities based on authentic materials motivate the target students to learn reading? 46

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 49

5.1 Summary of the findings 49

5.2 Implications 49

5.3 Limitations of the study 50

5.4 Suggestion for further research 51

REFERENCES 52

APPENDICES 55

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONS

List of tables

Table 1: Teachers‘ attitude toward authentic reading materials 33 Table 2: Summary of reading activities organized in the four observed classes 39 Table 3: Students‘ reaction to authentic materials 46 Table 4: Students‘ attitudes toward in-class reading activities using authentic materials

37

Charts 3: Activities used by teachers in post-reading stage 37 Chart 4: Students‘ attitudes about the best reading class 41 Chart 5: The frequency of reading English for pleasure 43 Chart 6: Students‘ favorite types of authentic reading materials 43

List of abbreviations

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ELT English Language Teaching

FELTE Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

ULIS University of Languages and International Studies

VNU Vietnam National University, Hanoi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study

Reading is considered one of the most important skills that university students

of English as a Foreign language need to acquire for accomplishing certain tasks given

to them It is inevitable that they have to deal with writing academic papers and making presentation which require them to read various books and references On the other hand, Harmer (2007, p.99) claims that getting students to read English texts is an important part of the teacher‘s job because of four reasons First, many students want

to be able to read English texts for present study, for future career or simply for pleasure Second, reading is very useful for language acquisition Third, reading texts provide good models for English writing concerning the construction of phrases, sentences, paragraphs and whole texts Finally, good reading texts can introduce interesting topics, stimulate discussion, excite creative responses, and provide the springboard for well-rounded, fascinating lessons In short, it can be concluded that reading materials are very crucial in teaching reading

Recently, the use of authentic materials in reading instruction has become widespread across educational contexts Berardo (2006) mentions that authentic texts provide students with up-to-date knowledge, expose them to the world of authentic target language, bring the real world into the classroom and significantly enliven the class, etc By this way, authentic texts are highly motivating, giving a sense of achievement when understood and encourage further reading Moreover, the source of authentic reading materials that can be used in classroom are infinite thanks to the Internet Many educational websites provide articles and journals that are accompanied with well-designed activities for reading

Taking authenticity into consideration, teachers in FELTE, ULIS has put into use a totally new course design for English language practice subjects for freshmen since the first semester of 2012 This new curriculum integrates four language skills into two subjects which are English for Social purposes (1A and 2A) and English for Academic purposes (1B and 2B) This change is expected to provide more chances for students to not only improve their language proficiency at school but also use the

Success: Reading and Writing and Headway: Academic Skills, authentic reading materials and tasks have been added in first-year curriculum of FELTE

However, if the authentic reading materials are not well-exploited, learners will face some problems of comprehending the texts The effectiveness of using authentic materials depends crucially on how teachers select and exploit them for reading activities Addressing the need to investigate this area of authentic materials exploitation, a relatively large body of research to date has been done on teaching of reading These include the studies by Bacon and Finneman (1990), Peacook (1997) and Berardo (2006) to name but a few In the scope of ULIS, VNU, some research has been conducted related to the use of authentic materials but there has not been any research examining into teaching reading for FELTE students and first-year FELTE students in particular

All these conditions offer the researcher a chance to conduct ―A study on the use of authentic materials in reading instruction for first-year students at FELTE-ULIS-VNU‖

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

This paper aims at:

- Investigating the teachers‘ attitude toward the role of authentic materials in teaching reading for the target students;

- Investigating these students‘ attitude toward the use of authentic texts and related tasks;

- Exploring the present situation of teachers‘ exploitation of authentic materials

to teach reading to the target students;

Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following questions:

1 What is the role of authentic materials in teaching reading for the target students from the teachers‘ perspectives?

2 In what ways are authentic materials exploited in the present reading classes ?

3 To what extent do the reading activities based on authentic materials motivate the target students to learn reading?

1.3 Scope of the study

- First, although there are many criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of using authentic materials, the limited capacity of the paper only concerned one aspects which are the target students‘ opinions about the reading activities that are based on authentic materials

- Second, ―authentic materials‖ here refers to authentic printed materials that are already included in the Reading Packages and collected by the students in the reading classes

- Lastly, the QH.2015 students of the FELTE, ULIS consists of 21 classes, ranging from 15E1 to 15E21 There are ten classes majoring in Language Teaching (from E1 to E10); nine classes majoring in Interpretation & Translation and two classes majoring in International Economics They use different syllabuses as below:

E21 SYLLABUS 1= Academic English(*)

to E18) Moreover, the research does not require the target students and teachers to discriminate between the use of authentic materials in Social English classes and in Academic English classes so as not to cause any confusion

1.4 Significance of the study

As this paper was expected to provide a valid description and evaluation on teachers' use of authentic reading materials, its findings would be a beneficial reference for the FELTE teachers, especially the participants They will have a closer look at the students‘ attitudes toward current reading classes and then they can adjust their ways of choosing and exploiting authentic resources more appropriately to motivate students in learning as well as improve their reading skills Regarding FELTE students or ELT learners, this paper would provide them with precious teaching experiences shared by their teachers which might be useful for their own ELT learning as well as future teaching Perhaps, they also can realize some problems of their teachers' work and avoid repeating them in the future Finally, researchers having the same concern in the topic might take some useful information from this study for their own research in the future

1.5 Organization

The study is outlined with 5 chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 – Introduction — states the research problems, the significance of the study and proposing research questions

Chapter 2 – Literature review – includes the explanation of key definitions as well as the review on different previous studies

Chapter 3 – Methodology – comprises of research setting, participants and sampling method; together with methods and procedure in data collection and data analysis Chapter 4 – Findings & Discussion – presents research findings with further thorough and thoughtful discussion

Chapter 5 – Conclusion summarizes the findings, limitation of the research, pedagogical implications and suggestion for further studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will provide a brief overview of the literature on the research topic, thus, lay the theoretical basis for the whole study Firstly, a critical explanation of key concepts like authenticity, authentic materials will be given Secondly, the chapter reviews fundamental knowledge of reading and teaching reading Thirdly, the general use of authentic materials in EFL reading instruction will be mentioned

2.1 The Concept Of Authenticity

Gilmore (2007, p.98) commented that there is a considerable range of meanings associated with authenticity After pointing out eight "inter-related" possible meanings

of authenticity, this author concluded that "the concept of authenticity can be situated

in either the text itself, in the participants, in the social or cultural and purpose of the communicative act, or some combination of these" This ambiguous conclusion was further clarified by an older viewpoint of Breen (1985, cited in Tatsuki, 2006, p.1) who suggests that authenticity relates not only to the language selected to be taught (authentic texts) but also to the tasks on which the learners are engaged and the social setting created in the classroom Thus, Breen distinguishes four types of authenticity which must be in continual interrelation with one another during any language lesson:

- Authenticity of the texts which we may use as input data for our learners

- Authenticity of the learners‘ own interpretations of such texts

- Authenticity of tasks conductive to language learning

- Authenticity of the actual social situation of the language classroom

This research paper adopts the view of Gilmore (2007) and Breen (1985) mention above Therefore, authenticity itself is a social construct that is created through the interaction of users, situations and the texts (Tatsuki, 2006, p.2) However,

in order to answer the research question number 2 and number 3 The writer of this study would like to focus on the reviews of text authenticity , learner authenticity and task authenticity

2.1.2 Text authenticity

It refers to input data that are used in teaching for learners Lee (1995, p.323) defines

‗text authenticity‘ in terms of the origin of the materials A teaching material is usually regarded as textually authentic if it is not written for teaching purposes, but for

a real-life communicative purpose where the writer has a certain message to pass on to the reader Furthermore, in order to make the term coherent and applicable to different phases of language teaching, Brown and Menasche (2005, cited in Andarab and Rahimi, 2013, p.25) proposed five types of input authenticity rather than considering authenticity as a ―binary concept‖ (authentic or inauthentic) According to them, input

is the text (written or spoken) that is read or heard by the learner and no one type of input authenticity is better than any other They are as follow:

- Genuine input authenticity: The input is created only for real-life activities, not for the classroom, but is used in language teaching No changes at all are made in the text, for example a real magazine which is read in the classroom

- Altered input authenticity: The input is created only for the real life and there is

no meaning change in the original input, but it is no longer exactly as it was because of visual changes, for example a newspaper article that has been photocopied and some explanations or comments have been added to it

- Adapted input authenticity: The input is created for real life but adapted by the classroom teacher This category covers extraction (only a short passage from a book

or an article is used), simplification (difficult words and grammatical structures are changed to synonyms or explained) and elaboration (a text is expanded to make it more comprehensible to learners)

- Simulated input authenticity: The input is originally created for the classroom, but has authentic look in terms of style and format It is written by authors or teachers

as if the material were real and as if for a real audience It may have many authentic text characteristics and is often indistinguishable from the genuine

- Inauthenticity: The input is created for the classroom and there is no attempt to make the materials resemble real-life materials though there may be a few, possibly accidental authentic features, for example grammar books with formal explanations of grammatical points

2.1.3 Learner authenticity

It refers to the ability of learners to interpret the meaning present in the text like the native speakers do in the real world Lee (199, p.323) states that authenticity can only be achieved when there is an agreement between the writer‘s intention and the learner‘s interpretation Furthermore, she adds that learner authenticity should refer not only to appropriate responses to the materials but also to positive perceptions of them Learners should not automatically like materials just because they are ‗real‘ or

‗authentic‘ Teaching materials need to have communicative potential, be relevant to learner‘s experiences and serve affectively to promote learners‘ interest in language learning

2.1.4 Task authenticity

According to Guariento and Morley (2001, p.349), ―authenticity lies not only in the genuineness of texts but has much to do with the notion of task whilst input is necessary for the development of proficiency in the target language, by itself it is not sufficient‖ Brown and Menasche (2005, cited in Nguyen, 2007, p.19) defines three types of task authenticity: "genuine" (task engages learners in real-world communication), "simulated" (there is some attempt to copy real-life situations, but the focus is on language learning) and "pedagogical" (task requires learners to do what they will never do in real life) They also notes that "there is probably no such thing as real task authenticity; that classrooms are by their nature artificial The only genuine task authenticity for language learning may well be total immersion in the target

language environment without an instructor‖ I believe that Brown and Menasche

(2005)‘s proposal opens up the suggestion of different senses of task authenticity; in other words, the notions of authentic and pedagogic can be seen as a continuum rather than a binary position

Additionally, Guariento and Morley (2001, pp 349-350) claims that there are four aspects of task authenticity involved One of the crucial aspects is whether real

communication takes place while learners have the chance to interact naturally in for genuine purpose Another aspect of task authenticity is whether it has a clear relationship with real world needs Third, i9nteraction and negotiation also play a crucial role in task authenticity Breen (1985, cited in Guariento & Morley, 2001) suggests that authentic tasks should exploit the potential authenticity of the learning situation Another component of task authenticity is related to learner response to text Guariento and Morley (2001, p.350) stress that ―task authenticity depends very much

on whether or not a student is engaged by a task and this engagement is the most crucial type of authenticity‖ and is, therefore, the focal point of the present study

Like the definition, classification of authenticity also involves learners and tasks

as vital factors affecting authenticity integration into EFL classrooms Being aware of this fact, the researcher regards learner authenticity and task authenticity as the thread

of the whole paper, while text authenticity is taken as granted throughout the research

2.1.5 Definitions of authentic materials

There are many references to authentic materials in ELT literature Bacon and Finnemann (1990, p.469) define authentic materials as texts ―produced by and for native speakers of the target language‖ However, this definition raises another problem with the term ―native speakers‖ which is also controversial because there are many distinctive regional codes of English Moreover, those who speak English along with other languages will outnumber first language speakers and, increasingly, will decide the global future of the language Therefore, the limitation within English native speaking community can lead to ―a poverty of language‖( MacDonald, Badger,

& Dasliet, 2006, p 204) Filling this gap, Nunan (1989, as cited in MacDonald, Badger & White, 2000) regarded authentic materials as ―any material which has not been specifically produced for the purpose of language teaching‖ Similarly, Lee (1995, p.324), who emphasizes the importance of communicativeness, regards authentic materials as texts that are ―not written for teaching purposes, but for a real-life communicative purpose where the writer has a certain message to pass on to the reader‖ This view has been supported by Peacock (1997, p.145), who states that

―authentic materials are materials that have been produced to fulfill some social purposes in the language community‖ This paper adopts the definition proposed by

Nunan (1989) and Peacook (1997) To conclude, authentic material refers to those taken from real life sources and they are not designed for language teaching and learning purposes

As mentioned before, there are five types of input authenticity according to Brown and Menasche (2008) The reading course for the QH.2015 mainstream students included four types: altered input authenticity, adapted input authenticity, simulated input authenticity and inauthenticity However, only materials that belong to

"altered input authenticity‖ and "adapted input authenticity‖ without simplification and elaboration are taken in consideration of this research because simplification, in some cases, hinders the learners‘ comprehension, both culturally and lexically Difficult words can be replaced by easier words; hence the students will not get the chance to learn certain English idioms or phrases The replacement of synonyms and other linguistic items may also affect the learner‘s ability to adopt new words (Aren, Byrnes

& Swaffar ,1991, cited in Daskalos & Ling, 2013)

2.1.6 Types of authentic materials

These days, the resources for teaching materials are available for everybody There are two main categories of authentic materials: print (written) and auditory (spoken) :

- Examples of authentic print materials include bills, websites, magazines recipes, articles, train timetables, advertisements, brochures, poems, application forms, and instruction for use of equipment, etc

- Examples of authentic auditory materials include TV commercials, films, news items, weather forecasts, airport and station announcement, radio talks, interviews, and debates

In this research, authentic materials are limited in teaching reading; therefore, only printed or written authentic material is the focus of the study

2.2 An overview of teaching reading

2.2.1 Reading processes

According to Nunan (2003, p.70), reading is a process of combining information from a text and the readers‘ background knowledge in building the meaning It means that in reading there is a process of reading Understanding the

process of reading means understanding the models of how words are recognized and how long they are kept in working memory The models of reading process can be divided into three categories (Berardo, 2006, p 61) Those categories are:

- Bottom-up models: Bottom-up process happens when the reader builds up meaning by reading word for word, letter for letter, carefully examining both vocabulary and syntax This is often associated with poor or slow readers, but can sometimes occur when the readers do not have adequate background knowledge

- Top-down models: The reader uses background knowledge, makes predictions, and searches the text to confirm or reject the predictions that are made A passage can thus be understood even if all of the individual words are not understood Within a top-down approach to reading, the teacher should focus on meaning generating activities rather than on mastery of word recognition

- Interactive models: Interactive models of reading combine elements of both bottom- up and top-down models Readers use both knowledge of word structure and background knowledge to interpret the texts they read In classrooms using the interactive model, students receive direct instruction on the sound/symbol relationship

in phonics alongside instruction in comprehension and reading strategies

2.2.2 Reading strategies

There are four strategies in reading: skimming, scanning, extensive, and intensive (Spratt, Pulverness, & Williams, 2005, cited in Milal, 2014) Skimming is a reading strategy to find out the main idea; scanning is to find out a single fact; extensive reading is to gain knowledge or for pleasure; and intensive reading is to scrutinize every word carefully

Most of real life reading is extensive Spratt et al (2005) define extensive reading as reading a large amount of materials of which purpose is to gain knowledge

or pleasure, such as reading reference books, novels, journals, research reports, etc The main focus is on grasping ideas regardless of understanding all linguistic signs of the text

In reading intensively, all written symbols within the text must be understood, including that of words, referential expressions, punctuations, capitalizations, font features, and soon Texts for students practice are often in form of distinguishing the

main idea from the detail, finding pronoun references or even guessing the meaning of unknown words These forms of practices are usually recognized in IELTS tests and likely to be required in a reading comprehension classes in order to improve students‘ reading comprehension ability

Different text types may require different reading strategies While we just need

to scan specific information in reading an advertisement, in reading a manual we should read intensively all procedural sentences in details so as not to mis-operate the equipment While we just need to skim the headlines of morning newspaper, we need

to read a novel extensively By using a variety of text-type materials, it is possible for learners to practice different strategies The duty of teachers is to enlighten students on features of these genres and to help them develop strategies for extracting necessary meaning from each A good technique to making students aware of their strategies suggested by Nunan (2003, p.76) is that students should be asked to talk about their thought processes as they read Readers can listen to the verbal report of another reader who has just read the same material

2.2.2 Stages of a reading lesson

In light of the communicative approach, it is a common practice that a reading lesson includes three stages: pre-, while-, and post- reading (Harmer, 2001, cited in Milal, 2014) Each stage is characterized by its own aims and procedures as follows:

Pre-reading stage: In this early stage, teachers are expected to motivate students

to read, specifically by activating or building students‘ background knowledge of the subject and familiarizing them with some of the languages that appear in the text Normally, pre-reading phase often lasts from two to ten minutes depending on each lesson Several techniques as suggested by Milal (2014), are using pictures, predicting from the titles, guessing and brainstorming to see what students have already known

While-reading stage: Later on, students are lead into the main reading activity

of the lesson, which principally aims at understanding the specific content and becoming aware of the rhetorical structure of the text Time allocation for this is nearly two-thirds of the whole lesson This phase can be in the forms of answering comprehension questions, referential questions, evaluative questions, finding implied and explicit ideas, factual information, identifying the meanings of words in contexts,

etc Teachers need to help their students comprehend the text thoroughly while students have to apply different reading strategies like skimming, scanning, guessing, etc to understand the text as well as the author‘s purposes More importantly, Milal (2014, p.8) notes that ―teaching reading is a matter of improving learners‘ communicative skills rather than just transferring knowledge about the contents of the texts‖ Therefore, the activities in this focal phase should focus on meaning-making processes and be organized in such a way that learners authentically use the target language as if they deal with real life activities To make the reading task authentic and communicative, learners should have purposes to read, which have been set by teachers

Post-reading stage: Teachers may conduct several activities in this final stage in order to review the content, work on bottom-up concerns such as grammar, vocabulary and discourse features, and consolidate what has been read by relating the text to students‘ knowledge, interests and opinions This stage is basically intended not only

to reinforce and develop the linguistic knowledge, but also improve and practice other skills and components, such as speaking, writing, listening, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary This can be in the forms of discussing the topic of the text, summarizing, retelling, discussing the grammatical points, enriching vocabulary relevant to the topic, relating the topic to the students‘ life experiences, and their expressing opinions and comments about the topic Normally, it takes about ten minutes to complete all activities at this stage

All in all, the appropriate use of techniques and tasks in each stage of a reading lesson make authentic texts more approachable Besides, students should be required

to read the text in a way that matches the reading purpose, the type of text, and the way people normally read

2.3 The use of authentic materials in teaching reading

2.3.1 Selection of authentic materials

There are three main criteria for choosing texts to be used in the classroom, namely "suitability of the content, exploitability and readability" ( Nuttall, 1996, as cited in Berardo, 2006, p.62) Suitability is regarded as the most important one, because it means that reading materials must arouse the learners' interest, meet their

needs and motivate them Exploitability refers to how the text can be used to develop the reading competence of learners Readability refers to the difficulty and complexity

of a text The reading text must not contain too difficult or demanding words and structures It must also suit the learners' level of English; otherwise, it might demotivate the learners and have a negative effect

In 2006, Berardo adds two more important criteria which should also be taken into account; they are ―variety and presentation‖ The wide variety of different types of text means that it is easier to find something that will interest the learner and may even encourage further reading or reading for pleasure Also, presenting the materials in an authentic context is a key element to attract learners‘ attention and interest He insisted that using colored pictures, diagrams, photos, etc helps the reader not only understand the meaning of the text better but also how it would be used An attractive-looking article is more likely to grab the reader‘s attention rather than a page that is full of words

Regarding text selection, Verhoren and Snow (2001, p.168, cited in Daskolas & Ling, 2013, p.16) affirm that if teachers allow students to take part in the choosing of

the text, they will automatically be more interested in reading and working with it

2.3.2 Task-based approach for teaching reading

As for Willis (1996, cited in Nguyen, 2007, p.25), a task is an activity "where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose (goal) in order

to achieve an outcome" Jane Willis (1996) briefly mentions six types of tasks:

- Listing (brainstorming; fact-finding)

- Ordering and sorting (ranking in order; classifying)

- Comparing tasks (finding similarities or differences)

- Problem-solving tasks (analysis of real situation; decision-making)

- Sharing experience (opinions and comments; attitudes)

- Creative tasks (project) in which end-product can be appreciated by audience

On the other hand, Nunan (1989, cited in Al-Azri & Al-Rashdi, 2014) divided communicative classroom tasks into two categories:

- Target task: This type of task provides the learners with a chance to be involved

in approximate practice of the language and behaviors they might need beyond the classroom

- Pedagogic task: This type is represented in the course books used by teachers in the class Nunan (1989) refers to them as ―classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning.‖

Successful completion of pedagogical tasks would enable learners to acquire the skills needed to master target tasks Therefore, it is teachers' role to choose suitable authentic tasks to support learners' learning

2.3.3 Arguments in favor of authentic materials in teaching reading

The first and foremost benefits of using authentic materials in reading classes is

to ―expose‖ learners to as much real language and real information as possible (Martinez, 2002; Berardo, 2006; Guariento & Morley, 2004 ) When reading a newspaper, fiction or other non-graded sources, learners feel their knowledge is often insufficient This is because they face slang, jargon, specialized vocabulary, lengthy texts, etc which are normally avoided in textbooks That is why authentic materials should be used in order to bridge the gap between theory and practice Berardo (2006, p.64) believes that with authentic materials, the learner is exposed to real discourse and not the artificial language of textbooks, which tend not to contain any incidental or improper examples Therefore, authentic texts are supposed to help the student react in the same way L1 speakers react in their first language (L1)

Besides the linguistic advantages, authentic materials have some non-linguistic advantages Gilmore (2007) believes that authentic materials have a strong positive effect on motivation that is regarded as the key element in the success of learning in general, and in learning languages in particular According to Martinez (2002), authentic materials arouse a sense of achievement in learners‘ minds as they think what they learn from the materials is close to and even benefits their real lives Learners can also read or listen for pleasure if the topics are various and likely to be of their interests This idea is shared by Omari (2009, p.43) who suggests authentic

materials can draw students' greater participation, help them building confidence, and

"pave the way to learner‘s autonomy" Much research has been done to demonstrate the effectiveness of the use of authentic materials in enhancing students‘ motivation (Kienbaum et al.,1986; Bacon and Finnemann, 1990; Peacock, 1997)

Furthermore, authentic materials are claimed to help learners enrich their background knowledge As stated by Martinez (2002), students are aware of the current affairs as well as update their understanding about various fields through reading authentic materials Also, the materials' benefit in increasing background knowledge is specified as increase in cultural understanding since Kilickaya (2004) concludes that using authentic reading materials helps to improve the learners' cultural awareness Knowing a language goes beyond the knowledge of grammatical rules and vocabulary items Successful language learning requires language users to know that culture underlying language in order to get the meaning across

In conclusion, as proved by some previous empirical studies, authentic materials bring about significant benefits in terms of both linguistic and non-linguistic aspects for language learners Those advantages are truly worth considering to be exploited in language teaching, especially in ELT

2.2.4 Arguments against authentic materials in teaching reading

Some concerns fall on the difficulty level of authentic materials in accordance with learners‘ level Authentic materials are said to contain so many structures and vocabulary not directly relevant to students' needs and too culturally biased that lower levels may find the texts difficult to understand (Martinez, 2002; Kilickaya, 2004; Omari, 2009)

Interestingly, the aforementioned idea about the level of difficulty is linked to potential demotivation as well Kilickaya (2004) considers that using authentic materials with weak learners frustrate and demotivate them, because they lack the required skills and vocabulary to deal with presented text, successfully Guariento and Morley (2001, p 347) assert that at lower levels, the use of authentic texts may not only prevent learners from responding in meaningful ways but can also lead them to feel frustrated, confused and demotivated

Moreover, authentic materials are sometimes thought to be no more effective for teaching than textbooks as some scholars do not see the value of using authentic materials in particular contexts To illustrate, an empirical study by Apsari (2014) reveals that the use of authentic reading text in comparison to created materials (non-authentic reading text) did not produce significantly better learning outcomes The same case is witnessed in Ngai's 2003 research when some of the respondents thought that authentic materials provided no help for language proficiency because learners just cared about the contents of the materials but ignored practicing their skills Some other participants said using authentic materials was a waste of time which was supposed to be spent on exam practice What can be inferred here is that the efficiency

or usefulness of such materials should be stuck to exam relevance

Finally, using authentic materials might create burdens for teachers in preparation as they may contain difficult vocabulary and structures which need more effort to be simplified and explained, in order to make them appropriate for their learners Furthermore, it is a challenging issue for teachers to search for suitable authentic materials to design tasks for their learners Miller (2005, as cited in Al Azri, 2014) also states that authentic materials are "too difficult and time-consuming to select, edit and prepare."

To sum up, authentic materials have some potential drawbacks including level

of difficulty, demotivation, and inefficiency in reading improvement and teachers‘ burdens These matters truly need addressing properly in order to limit their counter-effects on teaching and learning

2.4 Motivation in learning reading

2.4.1 What is motivation?

Cambria and Guthrie (2010, p.16) refer motivation to (1) interest, (2) dedication, and (3) confidence, which are independent from each other An interested student reads because he enjoys it; a dedicated student reads because he believes it is important, and a confident student reads because he can do it

- Interest: When we think of motivation our mind first turns to interest Motivation is enjoying a book, being excited about an author, or being delighted by

new information Cambria and Guthrie (2010) refer interest to intrinsic motivation, or the enjoyment and fulfillment in reading that need to be fostered at schools

- Dedication: There are assignments that are not desirable to a student, yet are part of the curriculum There are books that do not appeal to some individuals, yet it is necessary to read them What motivation enables students to read in this situation? The reason to read in this case is the students' belief that reading is important

- Confidence: It refers to belief in your capacity and is closely linked to success

A student who reads one page fluently often thinks he/ she can read the next page in the same book proficiently The theory can be applied for reading in general A student who reads fluently and understands well tends to be is also sure of himself as a good reader In and out of school, people like the things they do well

2.4.2 The importance of motivation

Cambria and Guthrie (2010, p.16) claim that there is a difference between reading a text and being engaged in the reading of a text If a student is motivated in the reading of a text, the student is a better learner Furthermore, a motivated reader will activate prior knowledge to construct new understandings (Verhoeven and Snow,

2001, p5 cited in Daskalos and Ling, p.16) They also claimed that the development of literacy (obtained from reading texts) and motivation is ―a reciprocal relationship‖; the better you get at understanding the texts you read, the more motivated you will become This will encourage you to engage in the reading of more texts with an increasing difficulty level Reading leads to a better textual understanding which in turn inspires you to read further Cambria and Guthrie (2010) add that motivation may

be stimulated by home and may be influenced by peers, but the teacher is the main factor influencing a student's development of reading motivation

Chapter summary

Authentic materials, as discussed above, hold a great significance but contain particular problems that may counter their effects Those problems partly have their roots in EFL learners, necessitating more considerate investigation into learner authenticity and task authenticity Conversely, previous studies in ULIS have not tackled this problem deeply to keep up with rising authenticity integration into the new syllabus for first-year students developed by FELTE To contribute to this study area,

the researcher addresses learner authenticity and task authenticity to dedicate for the new curriculum for first-year students in FELTE, ULIS and for ELT in general

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, detailed discussion about the setting, selection of participants, methods and procedures used in data collection and data analysis would be provided with thoughtful justification

3.1 Settings

The study was conducted in Faculty of English Teacher Education (FELTE) in ULIS from January to May, 2016 The new syllabus for first-year students in FELTE was first applied in school year QH.2012 It highlighted the communicative approach,

in which English language teaching involved two subjects namely English for Social purposes and English for Academic purposes Each subject consisted of two smaller sub-subjects entitled Speaking-Listening and Reading-Writing Under that change, course materials as well as classroom activities adopted authenticity both in terms of text and task

QH.2015 first-year mainstream students in FELTE were the fourth generation applying the new syllabus developed by the faculty These students were given chance

to study English through many authentic materials and authentic tasks Besides, the teachers were also encouraged to introduce authentic sources as supplementary materials which they find useful and appropriate for their students All those facts showed that teaching and learning English in FELTE - ULIS are heading towards authenticity in EFL classrooms

In reading instruction, authentic materials are being used in two main ways The first way is to incorporate authentic texts into in-class materials (Reading and Writing Packages) Here are some authentic reading texts with their original sources

- Example 1: Colors in our lives Week 3: Colors The Reading and Writing Package 1B Extracted from the article: Use of color in creating logo designs by Bonigala, M

- Example 2: The world's expanding waistline Week 13: Health The Reading and Writing Package 1B Extracted from the article: The shape of things to come (2003, December 11) The Economist

- Example 3: A bad model for girls Week 3: Contact The Reading and Writing Package 2A Extracted from the article: No model for girls by Bawdon, F (2007, September 27) Newstatement

- Example 4: The Science of Positive Thinking: How Positive Thinking Builds Your Skills, Boosts Your Health, and Improves Your Work Week 14: Life The Reading and Writing Package 2A Extracted from the article: How Positive Thinking Builds Your Skills, Boosts Your Health, and Improves Your Work by Clear, J

The other ways was that in Reading Synthesis of 2B course, students worked in groups of three (7-8 groups in each class) to deal with four themes (education, cities, agriculture and trend) For each theme, groups had to (1) collect 2-3 authentic and reliable passages about the issues, (2) synthesize the information from the passages and present their synthesis using a mind map, an outline, a table or any kind of graphic illustration, (3) make vocabulary notes of each page and finally (4) submit their reading passage synthesis and deliver oral sharing of their synthesis The

requirements for collected reading passages and a sample were shown in APPENDIX

1 Therefore, according to Brown and Menasche (2008)‘s classification of input

authenticity, those passages should belong to altered authenticity and adapted authenticity

of authentic materials in the Reading courses after being explained by the researcher

Group 2: Teachers

Initially, all of the teachers who were teaching reading for QH.2015 students were asked to participate Only 12 teachers agreed to participate (50% of the population) Among of them, there were seven teachers only teaching 2B, two teachers only teaching 2A and three teachers teaching both 2A and 2B

3.3 Data collection instruments

The instruments employed were (1) three questionnaires (quantitative treatment): two questionnaires for the students and a questionnaire for teacher; (2) interviews with some teachers (qualitative treatment) and finally (3) field observation for some reading classes (qualitative treatment)

3.3.1 Questionnaires

According to Gillham (2000), questionnaires allow collecting a large amount of data from the participants within a short time and save much effort for the researcher Processing data could also be fast and straightforward if the questionnaires are well-constructed This instrument, therefore, was employed to collect quantitative data and draw out some main students‘ reactions and teachers‘ preference towards authentic materials

3.3.1.1 Questionnaire for teachers

There was a title, a general brief introduction about the researcher, a brief explanation about authentic materials and seven questions both in closed-ended and

open-ended forms (see APPENDIX 2) Question 1 and 2 were designed to collect

personal information of the respondents (name and the English subject they were teaching reading) Question 3 consisted of 10 statements in which the teachers responded according to a Likert scale The teachers were asked to indicate their opinions about the roles of authentic materials in their reading classes by selecting one

of the following alternatives: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree Question 4 was a multiple-choice item in which the teachers were asked to circle only one of the three given alternatives to indicate their opinions regarding the best types of reading class Both question 3 and 4 was adapted from the questionnaire

by Al-Musallam, E I (2009) Questions 5, 6 and 7 were in form of checklists for the teachers to describe their normal procedures of teaching reading with authentic

materials These three questions were created on the basis of the literature review Question 8 was open-ended to elicit more opinions from the participants outside what were suggested by the researcher Finally, there was an invitation to interview (question 9) and a final "thank you" for the respondents‘ cooperation

3.3.1.2 The first questionnaire for students

There was a title, a general brief introduction about the researcher, a brief explanation about authentic materials and seven questions both in closed-ended and

open-ended forms (see APPENDIX 3) The first question is where the participants

confirmed their understanding of authentic materials Question 2 was used to determine which class the respondents belonged to Question 3 consisted of 12 statements in a Likert scale This question was to find out the students‘ opinions about the authentic materials that were included in the Reading-Writing packages and collected themselves Question 4 adapted from the questionnaire by Al-Musallam, E I (2009) was designed to indicate the students‘ opinions regarding the best types of reading class Question 5 used Likert scale to investigate the students‘ opinions about reading activities that were based on those authentic materials It consisted of 14 items

In items 1-3, the students responded to statements about before-reading activities Items 4-6 asked the students to respond to statements concerning while-reading activities In items 7-9, the students were asked to respond to statements about after-reading activities Items 10-14 asked for their opinions toward the Reading Synthesis Question 6 comprised multiple-choice items to find out the respondents‘ frequency of reading English Question 7 was in form of checklists to investigate the participants‘ favorite types of authentic reading materials The last open-ended questions was expected to elicit more opinions from the participants outside what were suggested by the researcher All of the questions along with their items (except question 3 as stated above) were constructed on the literature review The questionnaire ended with a

―thank you‖ for the respondents‘ cooperation

To avoid any misunderstanding on the part of the students, the questionnaire

was translated into Vietnamese, the learners‘ mother tongue (see APPENDIX 4) I

translated the questionnaire by myself Prior to the actual commencement of the study,

a random selection of two freshmen, who did not participate in the actual study, had

been invited to go over each item of the questionnaire in order to test its clarity and comprehensibility After this process, the questionnaire was ready for collecting data from the participants

3.3.1.3 The second questionnaire for students

This questionnaire was delivered to the students right after the observed reading class ended It aims to measure levels of motivation generated by the learning

activities and the materials in use (see APPENDIX 5) The questionnaire specifically

adopted the definition of motivation proposed by Cambria and Guthrie (2010) who define ―motivation‖ as interest, dedication, and confidence However, confidence would not be considered in this questionnaire The questionnaire consisted of five closed-ended items on a semantic differential scale of adjectives expressing motivation (e.g interesting/ boring, enjoyable/unenjoyable, etc.) Each item scored from one to five, making From this total, the mean score of each item was computed

3.3.2 Interview for teachers

As stated in Mackey and Gass (2005), interview allows the researchers to investigate participants‘ attitudes which are not directly observable It also creates the interaction and the researcher can elicit more justification or avoid vague or off- topic answers from the participants Santiago (2009) also adds that semi- structured interview‘s benefits include "the ability to gain rapport and participants' trust, as well

as a deeper understanding of responses Data sets obtained using this style will be larger than those with structured interviews." Those advantages led the researcher to employ semi-structured interview The tentative interview questions and their

Vietnamese version were shown in APPENDIX 6 and APPENDIX 7 respectively

On the other hand, all of the interviews were carried out face-to-face in Vietnamese so that the interviewees could freely express their views Each of the interviews was recorded then transcribed in order to be analyzed

3.3.3 Field observation

Field observation allows researchers to ―observe events that informants may be unable

or unwilling to share when doing so would be impolitic, impolite, or insensitive, and observe situations informants have described in interviews, thereby making researchers aware of distortions or inaccuracies in description provided by those

informants (Marshall and Rossman, 1995) In order to increase the validity of the study and have a better understanding of the use of authentic materials, field observation was employed The researcher watched and took note of in-class reading

activities on observation sheets (see APPENDIX 8)

3.4 Data collection procedure

The process of collecting data was conducted in the following phases:

Phase 1

First of all, the researcher sent questionnaire to all of the teachers and students

of the 15 classes in person The students and teachers were explained thoroughly about the key term "authentic materials" and participants' duties The researcher received

104 responses from the students and 12 responses from the teachers

Phase 2

After collecting all survey responses from the teachers, the researcher used purposive sampling method to choose some participants for interview, basing on their answers for questionnaire and agreement to be interviewed For the research ethics, the name of all interviewees would not be revealed Instead, they were given coded names

as T1, T2, T3 and T4

- T1, T2 and T4 were teachers of both 2A and 2B

- T3 was a teacher of 2B (academic) only

After the interviews, the researcher asked them for permission to observe one of their reading classes All of the interviewees gave permission

Phase 3

In this last phase, non-participant observation was conducted with four classes During the session, the researcher sat at the back of the class, observed the whole class and filled in the sheet When the class came to a close, the second questionnaire were sent to the students and quickly completed by them

3.5 Data analysis procedures

After being collected, data were analyzed through three phases:

Phase 1 – analyzing the questionnaires

All data gathered from the questionnaires were processed by Google Form For, Likert scale questions, the five levels of strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree,

strongly disagree were respectively given a score of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 Accordingly, the higher the scores were, the higher level of agreement could be interpreted from the figures All those figures were computed by Microsoft Excel with the mean and standard deviation then were shown in tables The data from the other types of closed-ended questions (multiple choice, checklist) were presented in pie charts and bar charts Finally, all of the results were classified according to the three research questions

Phase 2 – analyzing the interviews

Interview analysis was conducted on the transcripts of the interviews Throughout the phase, the contents of the transcripts were classified according to the three research questions Besides, there were some unexpected answers from the participants which did not directly respond to the research questions; hence, the researcher decided to include these responses in order to see whether they could support the findings or help draw out some pedagogical implications for the paper

Phase 3- analyzing observation sheet

All of the activities of the four classes would be classified in three categories (pre-,while-, and post stage) and were summarized in a table located in the finding of research question 2

Chapter summary

This chapter has presented the methodology applied in the paper, in which both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed Detailed discussion about the participants, the methods and the procedures of data collection and analysis was also included to make the study reliable and transparent Results of all the above process would be presented in the next chapter of the paper

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the findings would be presented according to the three questions as stated in the introduction chapter Simultaneously, some further interpretations and discussion would also be included after reporting the results

4.1.1.1 Results from questionnaire for teachers

This data for Question 3 in teacher questionnaire were exhibited in Table 1:

Table 1: Teachers’ attitude toward authentic reading materials

1 Authentic materials introduce the

students to how language is used in

the real world

8 4 0 0 0 4.66 0.49

6 Authentic materials increase the

student's‘ knowledge of vocabulary

items which they need in real

situations

6 5 1 0 0 4.41 0.78

7 Authentic materials improve the

students‘ background knowledge

6 4 2 0 0 4.33 0.77

5 Authentic materials increase the

students‘ familiarity with the use of

grammar rules in their original

context

6 4 1 1 0 4.25 0.96

8 It is important to use authentic

materials in my reading classes

5 6 1 0 0 4.33 0.65

2 Authentic materials fulfill the

students‘ needs

4 Authentic materials enable the

students to see the values of reading

classes

1 4 5 2 0 3.33 0.88

9 I prefer to use authentic materials

rather than textbooks in my reading

classes

3 Authentic materials improve the

students‘ reading comprehension

ability more than textbooks do

1 1 6 4 0 2.91 0.9

10 It is time-consuming to use authentic

materials in my reading classes

2 6 3 1 0 3.75 0.86

It is apparent that all teachers perceived the exposure to real language as an

advantage of authentic reading materials by choosing high-point items of Strongly Agree or Agree, resulting in the highest average score as 4.66 The trend of positive

attitude was continued when the majority of the participants agreed that authentic materials increase the student's‘ knowledge of vocabulary items which they need in real situations (4.41), improve the students‘ background knowledge (4.33) and increase the students‘ familiarity with the use of grammar rules in their original context (4.25)

The importance of authentic materials in reading classes (item 8) also received

a considerable approval from the participants as its average score was 4.33, without any selection of disagreement The view ―authentic materials fulfill the students‘ needs‖ was also in the same case with the item 8 The statement ―authentic materials enable the students to see the values of reading classes‖, although was disagreed by some teachers, generally received a somewhat positive result, which could be drawn from the average score of 3.33

An obvious neutrality could be seen in the teachers‘ preference between using authentic material and textbooks for the first-year students When the respondents were asked if authentic materials improve the students‘ reading comprehension ability more than textbooks do, the figures showed a slight disagreement with the lowest mean of 2.91 On the other hand, the sample also reported that was time-consuming to use authentic materials in their reading classes with a high mean of 3.75

Regarding Question 4 in teacher questionnaire, 100% of the participants believed that the best reading class is the one which uses both authentic materials and

4.1.1.2 Results from teacher interviews

In term of linguistic advantages brought by authentic materials, all of the interviewees believed that using authentic materials in reading instruction improved the students‘ reading comprehension, especially vocabulary T1 claimed that when the students accessed to different sources of authentic texts, their vocabulary would be

―various, natural and close to reality‖ T2 and T3 added that in Reading Synthesis when the students selected some new words or keywords from collected passages for glossary, their vocabulary is certainly improved; in addition, they would learn not only content words but also connecting words Another positive learning outcome of authentic materials that mentioned by all interviewees is that their extensive reading and skimming skills were also improved

Moreover, some non-linguistic advantages were proposed by the respondents First, their background knowledge is not limited by one or two texts in the course books Second, T1 and T2 shared the same view that Reading Synthesis made students

―more active, interested and responsible‖ in learning when they could select the texts they liked Another affective effect pointed out by T2 is that he could see a certain degree of confidence in his students when they shared the information acquired from the materials they collected

However, when making a comparison between authentic materials and textbooks in terms of improvement in reading comprehension and preference in using, most of the interviewees showed neutrality for some reasons First, three of four interviewees (T2, T3, T4) thought both authentic materials and textbooks could improve students comprehension, each had their own advantages and equal importance Second, T2 and T3 reported that the comparison was not objective because there had not been any research or test to measure the difference between the use of two kinds on the freshmen's learning outcome Also, according to T2, at the present, authentic materials still accounted for a small fraction of the whole course materials; therefore, the comparison would be unfair Another view in favor of textbooks given by T3 (who taught 2B only) is that authentic materials alone could not fulfill students‘ need because when students attended a reading course, they wanted to not only raise their reading level but also pass the exams She added that the present textbooks also included authentic texts and proper activities supporting them; thus,

textbooks were graded to suit students levels, while some in-class authentic materials used in the first semester seemed above the level of students

Regarding difficulties in using authentic materials, T2 pointed out that ―it is difficult choose appropriate authentic materials, the sources are too varied to select and

it is also not easy to design suitable activities while textbooks are designed by a group

of experts‖ T4 shared the same idea by stating that she found it difficult to find appropriate texts to motivate students and not many teachers could use them successfully Another problem associated with Reading Synthesis lied on the quality of collected passages T4 realized some passages were not authentic as its language was modified and sometimes the ideas form the passages were too explicit, which did not foster critical thinking

To sum up, the majority of the participants showed high level of agreement with almost all of statements, in which authentic materials‘ benefit for real-language exposal received the highest among all items However, all participants thought the only use of authentic materials was not sufficient to fulfill the students‘ need and it is doubted that authentic materials improved students‘ reading more than textbooks did,

so a combination of two kinds will create the best reading classes

4.1.2 Research question 2: In what ways are authentic materials exploited in the present reading classes ?

The information for this question is mainly acquired from teacher questionnaires (Question 5,6 and 7) and further added through interviews and observations

4.1.2.1 Results from questionnaires

Chart 1: Activities often used by teachers in pre-reading stage when using authentic materials

In terms of pre-reading activities, asking students‘ experiences related to the topic was the most popular technique that was often used by the 91% of the respondents Following is making prediction which accounted for 75% and vocabulary introducing with 58,3% A half of the respondents often talked about the title of the authentic texts Five out of twelve teachers often asked students to brainstorm the topic and set a purpose for reading Only 2 participants often showed a video related to the text

Chart 2: Reading strategies often practiced by students when using authentic materials

Skimming extensive reading scanning intensive reading

In while-reading stage, with authentic materials, the strategy that teachers tended to focus most is skimming with ten responses, extensive reading ranked second with eight responses A half of the teachers chose scanning and intensive reading, which makes them become the least focused strategies

Charts 3: Activities used by teachers in post reading stage when using authentic materials

Regarding post-reading stage, almost all of the teachers often let students discuss some questions related to the text The majority of the respondents (75%) chose to summarize or retell the text as well as consolidate vocabulary Nearly a half

of the respondents often asked their students to do the writing in response to the text Grammar practice was the least popular activities

4.1.2.2 Results from interviews

What has been reported in the questionnaire was confirmed and further explained by the interviewees Although, in-course authentic texts were always accompanied with exercises, most interviews reported a flexible use

T1 stated that she often activated the prior knowledge of students about the topic in order to find the gap between what they have already known and what they have not known from the text, which ―makes the texts more meaningful to students‖

In addition, she sometimes asked students to predict main content of the text from the title In while-teaching, the main idea of each paragraph would be figured out to see how it matched with the title Besides, the analysis of collocations, idiomatic expressions and discourse markers appearing in the text was also often paid attention

to Jigsaw reading was frequently used to increase the interaction among students With pre-reading stage, she liked to ask students to reproduce the texts orally Another technique is to summarize the texts by drawing mind maps, diagrams, while paraphrasing was encouraged

T3 claimed that with textbooks, he usually followed all steps of teaching designed by textbooks, but for authentic material, he often used allow the students to read the texts in pairs or in groups Instead of only answering compression questions, they took notes in pieces of paper and shared information with other groups or pairs That kind of interaction was supposed to be effective in motivating students to read In his opinion, students should ―gain something through reading not only complete something‖

For S4, she often let students read authentic materials and do exercises at home

At class, first she usually asked students to summarize the text so as to check their understanding then she checked their answers to compression questions and finally raised some questions for discussion or debate Some important or useful information for students‘ background knowledge was emphasized or reminded by her

In Reading Synthesis, all of the interviews claimed the role of teachers as facilitators, they guided students how to choose reliable and authentic materials In oral sharing, they just moderated the turns of sharing, supervised the discussion and gave comments on students‘ performance

Finally, there was some worth-noticing information from teacher interviews The use of authentic materials required more careful preparation from the teachers T4 revealed that as authentic texts were normally difficult, she had to read them carefully made certain effort to explain new language items On the other hand, T1 she had to read a lot to make sure that she had sufficient knowledge to comment on students‘ works in Reading Synthesis If she felt interested in something, she would design extra exercises to check students‘ understanding of the texts

4.1.2.3 Results from class observation

The procedure of three observed class will be summarized in the table 2 below

Table 2: Summary of reading activities organized in the four observed classes

Pre - Teacher asked

students‘ experiences

related to the topic

- Teacher set a purpose

for reading

- Teacher asked students‘ experiences related to the topic

- Teacher set a purpose for reading

Students were required to read the text and do the exercise before

While - Students read the texts

- Students did exercises

(gap-fill and T/F)

- Students read the texts, took notes and shared information

- Students did T/F exercise

- Students reviewed their work in 10 minutes

Post Students worked in

groups summarizing the

text with mind map

Students brainstormed answer for a question

-Students summarized the text orally

-Students checking exercise (T/F and vocab)

in pairs -Students brainstormed answer for a question