using authentic materials on the Internet as readingsupplements to improve 12th graders'' extensive reading at Nong Cong 1 highschool

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study Reading is a skill that can be considered as a crucial aspect of one's language ability because this skill helps to develop other language skills and provides knowledge on the target language However, many students experience difficulties in comprehending the reading texts These difficulties appear because the students have low motivation and possess limited vocabulary Students today have become more passive and reluctant in regard to reading, doing no more than what is required Educators are concerned about students' disinterest and therefore, are endeavoring to find ways and sources to encourage students to read Textbooks are widely adopted in classroom teaching but perhaps because textbook materials often break down language to discrete linguistic points, it may be too formulaic for students Additionally, textbooks are never enough, especially for those who are going to take the in GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) exams in which English is a compulsory subject Moreover, time for reading lesson at high school is limited There are three English lessons every week and in five or six lessons, there is only one for reading which means there is not enough time for reading - the most important language skill That is the reason why teachers have to find ways to enhance students to read more That means students have to read extensively Additionally, most of the course books used in language classrooms are perceived as traditional materials because they serve a pre-planned goal, so texts are simplified and exercises are adapted, which sometimes seems impractical to learners Therefore, a new concept, "authentic materials" has been established Most linguists agree that in language teaching, the use of authentic materials is quite useful to the learning process because as stated, learners find genuine materials more motivating and interesting since one day they will use their surviving English in the foreign culture Nunan [9; p.25] argued that the outside world should be reflected through the materials and this authenticity ought to be related to the source of the materials, student activities and tasks In other words, these materials should include the language and its sociocultural context in which the language is used together From this suggestion and above initial problems, the author decided to an action research project on using authentic materials on the Internet as reading supplements to improve 12th graders' extensive reading at Nong Cong high school 1.2 Purpose of the study and research question In conducting this study, the author expected to discover the effects of using authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading to 12 th graders at Nong Cong High School with a view to improving students' extensive reading as well as their language proficiency In addition, this study was carried out to find out students' attitudes towards the use of authentic materials in extensive reading activity Specifically, the question will be addressed: - To what extent authentic materials help to improve EFL high school students' extensive reading ability? 1.3 Scope of the study The study was conducted on 84 volunteer students from classes 12A7 and 12A10 at Nong Cong High School during the first semester and restricted to the first semester of 2021-2022 in the situation of mixed teaching and learning of online and offline session during the COVID-19 pandemic The study concentrated on whether authentic materials suited the needs of bettering 12th graders’ extensive reading skill As a result, the teachers at Nong Cong High School were persuaded to adopt this kind of materials in their teaching not only reading but other language skills 1.4 Method of the study This study is conducted as an action research because action research is the best choice for the purpose of improving the current situation within educational context in which the research is carried out In order to get data, a combination of different instruments, namely pretest and posttest is used The data collected through the two tests will be analyzed by quantitative and qualitative method PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 2.1 Literature Review 2.1.1 Reading skill According to Alderson et al [1; p.1], "The majority of scholars in the field now agree on the nature of reading: Reading is the process of constructing meaning from written texts It is a complex skill requiring coordination of a number of interrelated sources of information" Alderson [1; p.3] defines reading as " an enjoyable, intense, private activity, from which much pleasure can be derived, and in which one can become totally absorbed" Reading means different things to different people, for some it is recognizing written words, while for others it is an opportunity to teach pronunciation and practice speaking However, reading always has a purpose It is something that we every day, it is an integral part of our daily lives, taken very much for granted and generally assumed to be something that everyone can The reason for reading depends very much on the purpose for reading Reading can have three main purposes: for survival, for learning or for pleasure Reading for survival is considered to be in response to our environment, to find out information and can include street signs, advertising and timetables It depends much on the day-to-day needs of the readers and often involves an immediate response to a situation In contrast, reading for learning is considered to be the type of reading done in the classroom and is goal oriented While reading for pleasure is something that does not have to be done Therefore, different scholars of different approaches provide different definitions of reading However, in spite of the constant shift in focus throughout the history of reading research, it has been generally recognized that reading is a very complicated process involving a variety of factors that interact with one another Due to this complex nature of reading and the fact that it is one of the most important language skills, most scholars in language methodology agree that there is a need for incorporating multimedia into reading instruction Learners should be provided with sufficient scaffolding to be able to achieve more effective reading comprehension 2.1.2 Extensive reading The term "extensive reading" was originally used to distinguish it from "intensive reading" The characteristics of extensive reading include the relatively fast reading of a large amount of longer, easy-to-understand material, with the reading done mostly outside the classroom and at each student's own pace and level There are few, if any, follow-up exercises, because the aim is for overall understanding rather than word-by-word decoding or grammar analysis And instead of an inflexible curriculum, with extensive reading, the material is generally chosen by the students themselves, who can thereby enjoy some small measure of responsibility for decisions affecting their learning Therefore, what does extensive reading require? Maley [8; p.52] listed the factors that successful extensive reading entails as followed: + Reading often and in a large quantity + Reading in a wide variety of topics and genres + Reading content that is interesting and compelling + Reading books students themselves select + Reading for pleasure and information + Reading is its own reward + Reading at levels appropriate for the readers + Reading speed is fast From all the above characteristics of extensive reading, a conclusion can be drawn that extensive reading is reading of a large quantity of material or long texts, for global or general understanding; with the intention of obtaining pleasure from the text Further, because reading is individualized, with students choosing the books they want to read, the books are not discussed in class 2.1.3 The roles of extensive reading in language teaching and learning Various studies already exist in support of extensive reading Bell [2; p.2] stated that extensive reading provides substantial linguistic input which is needed for language acquisition and thus helps develop learners' linguistic competence Many researchers point out the importance of extensive reading, the positive effects of extensive reading in students' reading comprehension They suggest that one of the best ways to help students increase their language proficiency is to encourage them to read extensively Through experiencing language in context, extensive reading is a very effective way of reinforcing, confirming and deepening knowledge of vocabulary, structures, and of developing an implicit understanding of when and how words are used And motivation is stimulated by combining the pleasure of "a good read" with the satisfaction of accomplishing a meaningful task in the target language It is also a widely held belief among supporters of extensive reading that, by eliminating follow-up testing and exhorting students to aim for general understanding rather than detailed comprehension, they gradually learn to read without word-by-word decoding at the sentence level Instead, the learners aim at "learning to read into reading to learn" Bell [2; p.4] also stated that "extensive reading of literature can encourage students to develop positive attitudes toward reading" He has clearly identified the role of extensive reading in language education as follows: It can provide "comprehensible input" It can enhance learners' general language competence It increases the students' exposure to the language It can increase knowledge of vocabulary It can lead to improvement in writing It can motivate learners to read It can consolidate previously learned language It helps to build confidence with extended text It encourages the exploitation of textual redundancy It facilitates the promotion of prediction skills The benefits of extensive reading, therefore, extend beyond the acquisition of reading fluency Krashen [7; p.51] claimed that "Reading is good for you Reading is the only way, the only way we become good readers, develop a good writing style, an adequate vocabulary, advanced grammar, and the only way we become good spellers." Krashen also voiced his opinion that what made it extensive reading far more compelling was that extensive reading not only developed reading skill but also benefited a whole range of other language skills, boosted confidence and motivation and improved overall attitude Reading in this sense has to be seen holistically as a crucial part of students' total development, not as some separate skill." Davis [4; p.3] also suggested that any classroom would be the poorer for the lack of an extensive reading program and would be "unable to promote its students' language development in all aspects as effectively as if such a program were present" To sum up, many studies have shown that extensive reading has positive effects not only on students' reading comprehension skill but also on a variety of language skills and language development It has been claimed that free voluntary reading or sustained independent reading results in better reading comprehension, writing style, vocabulary, spelling, and grammatical development 2.2 Authentic materials 2.2.1 Definition Authentic materials have been defined as " real-life texts, not written for pedagogic purposes" Gilmore [5; p.65] claimed that authentic materials contain "real language, produced by a real speaker for a real audience and designed to convey a real message of some sort" They are " materials that have been produced to fulfill some social purpose in the language community." Therefore, authentic materials are any texts written by native speakers for native speakers of certain language and will be used by the speakers of the language in communication circumstances outside language classroom Thus, most everyday objects in target language whether spoken or written such as magazines, newspapers, tourism brochures, advertisements, menus, recipes can be included as authentic materials, but for developing reading, one of the most useful sources is the Internet with large amounts of varied materials being easily accessible 2.2.2 The use of online authentic materials in improving extensive reading comprehension After a careful review of literature, the author found that the use of authentic material has been strongly debated because of its complexity in vocabulary and structures especially for lower-level learners However, Gilmore [5; p.125] pointed out that authentic materials have been used for language learning for several decades and have regained their popularity due to the rise of the communicative approach The goal of the communicative approach is to develop language competence for communication in real life Textbooks are often written with classroom dialogue practices that are artificial, thus presenting a gap from real life language In contrast, authentic materials are believed to generate greater interest among teachers, students and even publishers than traditionally structured materials Moreover, it is claimed the necessity for incorporating authentic materials in the course design because they are more motivating and engaging, and relevant to students' lives Other researchers stated that authentic materials provide opportunities for language use in a more relevant and communicative way Huang [6; p.2] pointed out the importance of authentic materials because when at an adequate level, they elevate learners' sensitivity to and competence in the language Another reason for authentic material exploitation is that it has brought attention to several considerations in the adoption of authentic materials: learners' needs, their interest in topics, language situations and functions students would find useful Nunan [9; p.176] also suggested giving students their own choice of materials and the incorporation of student-produced materials as another component of authentic texts In addition to these, authentic materials on the Internet have been supposed to cover the latest news, current events around the world, which helps inform the learners as well as broaden their horizon The wide variety of authentic materials ranges from literature, CDs, DVDs, news, movies, songs, TV programs, even to brochures and menus but the utilization of authentic materials from online resources is particularly valuable and easily accessible Internet technology is a "medium of global communication and a source of limitless authentic materials" Whereas newspapers and any other printed materials date very quickly, the Internet is continuously updated, more visually stimulating as well as being interactive, therefore promoting a more active approach to reading rather than a passive one From a more practical point of view, the Internet is a modern day reality, most students use it and for teachers there is easier access to endless amount of many different types of materials From an even more economical viewpoint, looking for materials costs almost nothing, only time, by having unlimited access in the work place Additionally, online authentic materials enable students to interact with the real language and content rather than the form Learners feel that they are learning a target language as it is used outside the classroom 2.2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of using authentic materials While since the late 1970's authentic materials have been regarded as being superior to simplified textbook materials, there have still been some arguments about their use and effectiveness On one hand, there are some advantages of utilizing authentic materials Peacock [10; p.135] has cited that authentic materials are original, interesting, motivating and useful Linguistically, the term “original” relates to authenticity Authenticity means that nothing of the original text is changed and also that its presentation and layout are retained Authentic materials are often regarded as more interesting than the textbook materials because they can be up to date and related to everyday issues and activities The use of authentic materials can motivate the students because there are three layers of learning which are: language learning (the structure and vocabulary), cultural insight, and practical application Furthermore, learners are exposed to the native accents when listening to the reading passage on wed which fosters integrated skill competence From all of these above, it is undeniable that authentic materials are useful because they help students to break the gap between the language classroom and the real life situation They introduce students to the culture that surrounds them and provide them the opportunities to see where different grammatical structures and types of discourse are used Clearly, while both authentic and constructed materials have been exploited for intensive reading, learners are advised to use authentic materials for extensive reading Along with the advantages, the use of authentic materials also brings some disadvantages Firstly, the grammar and vocabulary in authentic materials may be too difficult for foreign language learners because authentic materials are used for communicating and informing in the society, thus they might use some abbreviations, slangs or informal words Besides, the content of the text is sometimes not appropriate for the students Therefore, it is the teacher’s responsibility to adopt appropriate material that the learner can adapt Berardo [3; p.4] gave a table of advantages and disadvantages of authentic materials as follows: Table 1: Advantages & Disadvantages of Authentic Materials Authentic Materials Advantages Disadvantages - "Real" language exposure with language - Often too cultural biased, change/variation being reflected difficult to understand outside the - Students are informed about what is language community happening in the world - Vocabulary might not be - Textbooks tend not to include relevant to the student's incidental/improper English and become immediate needs outdated very quickly - Too many structures are mixed - The same piece of material can be used so lower levels have problems for different tasks decoding the texts - Ideal for teaching/practicing mini-skills- - Special preparation is necessary, skimming/scanning can be time consuming - Contain a wide variety of text types, - Can become outdated easily, e.g language styles not easily found in news stories, articles conventional teaching materials - Encourage reading for pleasure, likely to contain topics of interest (Berardo, 2006) In order to avoid these disadvantages, the teacher should be selective in choosing the materials before delivering them to the students Teacher should consider the suitability and the readability of the text In addition, in teaching and learning process, the teacher should guide the students in understanding the text and also in finding the difficult words Also in the same article, Berardo [3; p.6] recommended teachers to consider important factors in choosing authentic reading materials: Suitability of content: Does the text interest the student? Is it relevant to the student's needs? Does it represent the type of material that the student will use outside the classroom? Exploitability: Can the text be exploited for teaching purpose? For what purpose should the text be exploited? What skills/strategies can be developed by exploiting the text? Readability: Is the text too easy/difficult for the student? Is it structurally too demanding/complex? How much vocabulary does it contain? Presentation: Does it "look" authentic? Is it "attractive"? Does it grab the student's attention? Does it make him want to read more? In short, all these studies and research on the use of authentic materials indicate that the use of authentic materials in language teaching has generally been effective Nevertheless, there are some limitations and drawbacks in employing them with EFL learners 2.3 Research context 2.3.1 Setting and participants The study was conducted at Nong Cong high school in Thanh Hoa, where all the students have learned English for about years and have three English classes per week and half of them have one optional lesson every week The textbook series English 10 to English 12 is taught and the students have to take the entrance exam including English as a compulsory subject The physical condition of the school can provide a supportive environment for language teaching and learning with favorable facilities such as rooms equipped with overhead projector, screen, loud speakers, CD and CD player The participants of this study were 84 students coming from two different grade 12th classes at Nong Cong high school, Nong Cong district, Thanh Hoa province Both classes have an equal number of 42 students All of them were born in 2004 and have already learnt English for at least four years at secondary school I myself was also the teacher of English in both classes, which brought about some advantages I have been teaching them since they started their high school studies so I understand deeply the English proficiency as well as the character of each learner, which helps the experimental process happen smoothly I can make sure that both classes are really the same in terms of cognition as well as learning motivation They are more active and confident in participating in class activities This fact has already been taken into consideration when I arranged group work Each group was purposely formed with both good and weak learners to make sure their equal contributions for each learning activity 2.3.2 The textbook The author followed some topics which is closely related to the textbook English 12 (2006: Educational Press) in this study, which is a theme-based complication including 16 units and review lessons Each unit focuses on a specific topic and consists of five main sections namely: reading, speaking, listening, writing, and language focus Due to time constraint, the author could not cover all the topics in the textbook, but only familiar ones could be mentioned in this study 2.4 The reality of teaching and learning reading comprehension skill at Nong Cong high school It is an irrefutable fact that English language education in Vietnamese high schools has recently changed and seen much better results thanks to the adjustment of textbooks and teaching method renovation Particularly, the textbook series - Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh 11, Tiếng Anh 12 (English 10, English 11, and English 12) - introduced into schools since 2005 has attracted both teachers and students by following a theme-based and task-based approaches However, while teaching, the author found that many students at Nong Cong high school got rather low scores in reading questions When interviewed, the students claimed that reading seemed to be a difficult skill for them The main reason, as investigated, is that students depended totally on reading texts in textbooks which were their major source of reading In order to fulfill their tasks required in the textbook, the teacher is often obliged to provide students with vocabulary, which is impossible in the exams In fact, the students in my school have been facing numerous challenges in comprehending the reading text as well as the strategies to deal with reading comprehension questions They are unaware of utilizing what they have learnt in the lesson effectively to produce the lesson outcomes Some get tired of doing reading comprehension excercises In addition, most of them have difficulty using the obtained structure and background knowledge to produce their utterances In addition to this, they are not experienced enough to work in group and make their lesson outcome confidently To make matte worse, they did not often extensive reading to improve their reading skills In addition, teachers, in almost cases, never used any reading materials rather than those in the textbooks due to time limitation as they stated These reasons constitute the motivation for this study 2.5 Stages of the study The study was conducted during weeks of the first semester in the two classes in school year 2021-2022 from October 3rd to November 27th, 2021 Each class had periods of English per week Class 12A7 - the control class, and class 12A10 - the experimental class Adapting steps in Nunan (1992)’s action research cycle, the study was carried out in four main steps as follows: Step1: Problem identification During the teaching process in the school-years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 for the 12th form students, I discovered that my students seemed to be weak at reading comprehension skills They were not keen on doing reading activities in class and the students' scores in GCSE exams were quite low, especially for reading questions I discussed the concern with my colleagues and they admitted that their students have the same problems Moreover, the time for reading lessons is not enough, which means students have to read extensively to improve their reading skills as well as their language competences This urged me, as a teacher, to find a better way to work with my classes in the school-year 20212022 Step 2: Preliminary investigation After observing and analyzing the results from many tests, especially the fact that only a small number of students got mark 5+ in the GCSE exam at the end of the 2020-2021 school-year, I found that, in general, the students’ English competence is rather low Meanwhile, interviews with students showed that almost all of them found reading questions most difficult and challenging Therefore, I myself raised the question for exploration: “Can authentic materials help to improve EFL high school students' extensive reading ability?” To answer the question, a pre-questionnaire was conducted The collected data were analyzed to point out some possible reasons for the students’ poor reading skills, their interest and expectation of the reading lessons; from which I had belief that authentic material approach would be used to raise students’ interest so that the problem would be solved Step 3: Intervention Firstly, the students of both classes had a pretest on reading including 30 multiple-choice questions in comprehension reading exercises and cloze tests The pretests were marked according to the answer key and saved Then a detailed course for the experimental group (See Appendix 2) was prepared based on online authentic materials A variety of activities and exercises were prepared based on the selected authentic texts While the 10 experimental group was learning to read extensively with authentic materials, the control group was following traditional materials which were included in the reading exercises in the Workbook “English 12” The teacher and the students in experimental group had one meeting every week at the period for optional lessons, which was on Saturdays During these meetings, the teacher gave the students hand-outs of printed online reading texts (level 2) from www.newsinlevels.com/#, and asked them to read these texts extensively and answer the questions below these texts after their retention of the vocabulary Students in the experimental group were also encouraged to watch the videos on www.newsinlevels.com/# by themselves and more activities given following each video as well as self-practice shadow listening with a view to improving their pronunciation By doing so, they can improve all the four language skills, not only reading Finally, after a period of weeks, the students of both classes took the posttest so that the teacher could see if there were any differences in the two classes’ results Table 2: An overview of an extensive reading program Week Title of the text Topic Activities Healthcare Social issues Make 10 sentences with the workers and words/ phrases related COVID19 toCOVID-19 topic vaccine Ronaldo wins Sports Talk about your favourite another Golden footballer Shoe Smog in Beijing Environmenta List some causes of air l Pollution pollution in big cities End of one-child Population Write a paragraph about 150 policy words about the disadvantages of one-child policy The same charger Science & Talk about the benefits of for all technology rechargeable devices smartphones Women must Gender Discuss the equality between cover face again equality men and women in modern society The rich are Charity Discuss the question: Why helping people people charity? Attacks in Paris World Peace Write a paragraph of about 150 words about your ideal world (Source: www.newsinlevels.com/#) 11 The outcome of one student’s from Experimental class (1) Reading text 4: end of one- child policy After the intervention by exploring each authentic reading passage that the teacher presented, the students were asked to finish the activity below This required students to develop such integrated skills speaking, writing a topicrelated paragraph or essay The outcome of one student’s from Experimental class (2) Reading text 3: smoke in Beijing 12 The outcome of one student’s from Experimental class (3) Reading text 3: smoke in Beijing In this session (reading text 3), the students are required to draw a diagram covering the causes of air pollution and then using this diagram to present their ideas This was the time for them to show their creativity and their horizon on the current issues Step 4: Evaluation In order to see the effects of authentic materials on the students’ reading skills, a pretest and a posttest were addressed to students of the two groups Then, data collected from these sources were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively The data analysis results were then used to discuss the research questions 2.6 Data collection The results of the study were developed on the basis of empirical data collected through two instruments: multiple-choice tests and questionnaires * Pre-test The pre-test was conducted to make sure that both classes were at the same level 13 * Post-test The test was implemented to assess how effective different techniques of using authentic materials are To serve the above purpose, a class progress test was designed because the teacher desired to evaluate how well the students improved their reading skill after the intervention * Multiple-choice reading tests: The pretest was delivered in week of the first semester and the post-test was conducted in week 13 of the same semester These multiple-choice tests were similar to the reading section in a GCSE exam test, that is, students were required to read the passages and circle the correct answers to the questions or choose the words to fill in the blanks of the passages The tests in this study were taken from test samples for the National exams The time allowance for each test was 40 minutes, and the test consisted of 20 items and was designed to test such specific reading skills as: skimming for general information; scanning for specific information; understanding the main ideas 14 PART 3: CONCLUSION 3.1 The main findings The initial results helped to confirm the problem, to find out the causes of the problem so that the study could be prepared 3.1.1 The results of the pre-test The statistical analysis of the pretest and posttest scores (see Appendix 3) was aimed to answer the first research question: - To what extent authentic materials help to improve EFL high school students' extensive reading ability? As having been said in the “procedure” section, the purpose of the pretest was to make sure that the two classes were at the same level of English proficiency before the experiment was carried out According to the test result, students in each group were graded into levels: insufficient, sufficient, proficient and excellent To examine this assumption, the author would make a brief comparison of the means of both groups The eighty four students were given the pre-test (Appendix 1) to examine their English ability before the experiment The results of the pre-test from the table below showed that the scores of two chosen students’ groups were a bit different However, the fact revealed from these figures was that most of the students’ performance in both two groups was below average even poor The students were all tested on the same day, one day before the interventions began The results of the initial assessment are shown in Appendix Table 3: Comparison of mean scores in pre-test of the two groups Class Number of students Mean Control 42 5.0 Experimental 42 5.1 Data in the table revealed that learners almost had the same starting point because the difference of 0.1 point between the two means was quite slight The findings showed that the two classes were nearly the same in reading skill competence namely 5.0 for Control class and 5.1 for Experimental class It means that there is no significant difference between the pre-test of the students taught in traditional method and that of those using authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading This justifies the fact that students’ abilities are fair level 3.1.2 The result of post- test The posttest was delivered in week 13 of the study after applying techniques of using authentic materials to improve students’ reading skill The results of the test were presented in Appendix Table 4: Comparison of mean scores in posttest of the two classes Class Number of students Mean Control 42 5.6 Experimental 42 6.6 15 Table shows significant difference between the post-test mean scores of the students taught with traditional method and that of those using authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading It is undoubtedly that the data illustrated above have shown that the level of the students’ reading skill has improved As can be seen, the findings revealed that significant difference in the post-test of two methods with 6.6 for the Experimental class and only 5.6 for Control class The increase in Mean scores of Control class is only 0.6 (from 5.0 to 5.6 points) while the Experimental class performed much better with 1.5 points increase in Mean scores (from 5.1 to 6.6) In other words, there is a significant difference between the mean scores of the students in the post-test scores using traditional method and that of those using authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading As shown in the results and comparison of the mean scores of students in the pre-test and post-test of the group taught using authentic materials, the mean scores of students in the post-test mean of 6.6 was higher than mean scores of students in the pre-test with mean scores of 5.6 In short, these findings illustrated that the significant difference in the pretest and post-test of experimental method, which means that there was a significant effect of the authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading in the pre-test and post-test This proved that using authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading is “effective” This result confirms the hypothesis of the study that authentic materials help EFL high school students improve their extensive reading ability 3.2 Discussion of the main findings The results of the tests showed that the students who had authentic materials were significantly better at achieving reading skills compared to the other group of students who were taught with the guidance of textbook only.This is suggested that both have good influence on the subjects The means of both classes were summarized in the following table: Means Table 5: Means of pre-test & post-test Control class Experimental class Pre-test Post-test Pre-test Post-test 5.0 5.6 5.1 6.6 Students’ low scores in reading is a big problem in Nong Cong high school Thus, this study was conducted with the aim of using authentic materials as a way to improve students’ extensive reading skills An eight-week course with authentic extensive reading texts was not much time, but it was a successful term because the author’s aim has been achieved: improving students’ reading skills The students’ positive scores have encouraged the author-teacher a lot 16 Admittedly, the results of the study revealed that the authentic reading materials were found effective in improving students’ achievement and stimulating students’ interest in reading The findings showed that there was a significant difference in the mean scores of the pretest and posttest for the experimental group This means that the students dealing with authentic reading materials made certain improvement in their language competence In conclusion, data from the pretest and posttest scores showed a positive effect of authentic reading materials on students’ language competence Additionally, the program received favorable opinions and positive attitudes from most of the students Based on these findings, the implications, limitations of the study and some recommendations for further study will be presented in the next section 3.3 Limitations and recommendation for further study 3.3.1 Limitation Personally, I believe that the study was successful, reliable and valid However, shortcomings are unavoidable One big problem was that although English is a compulsory subject at high schools, many students are not interested in learning English; they’re only interested in the subjects which they are supposed to perform in the entrance university examinations In general, students learn English with low intrinsic motivation Thus, it is the teacher’s duty to motivate them and stimulate their spirit of learning English Secondly, the time of experiment was only eight weeks with 08 periods in all for applying the hypothesis This may be a relatively short time to come to a general conclusion of how to help grade 12 learners to improve their extensive reading effectively Perhaps if the experimental process could be lengthened, the results of the study would be more certain and convincing Next, there are still some questions that the researcher has not been able to answer For instance, whether the teacher should always use authentic materials for extensive reading, or that will make the students bored with the same activities Finally, the limitation comes from the author’s lack of techniques In fact, I have tried my best to choose and explore the best reading tasks on the Internet for my students However, types of work and activities could not be varied as my teaching experience was limited Despite such limitations, I strongly believe that my study is successful to some extents Though it is just a small-scale study on the issue, it really provides some helpful suggestions for improving extensive reading to grade 12 learners In conclusion, learners’ exposure to authentic materials for extensive reading was found to be relatively effective in the reading subject as well as in increasing interest Overall, the learners had positive opinions about authentic use; however, they sometimes had difficulty in understanding the texts because of some new and difficult language items 17 3.3.2 Recommendations for further study The study showed that using authentic materials for extensive reading may be an effective method to enhance the students’ success Yet, the proper choice of materials is necessary because authentic materials increase the students’ interest, but they might also reduce it Students’ needs and interest should primarily be considered If the students not like the subjects of the texts, for example, it will be impossible to make them engaged in the study And the texts should not be too easy or too difficult or too long They should be appropriate to the students’ achievement levels It is also suggested that learner autonomy should overweigh the teacher autonomy in an authentic material-based class When students are allowed to deal with the texts by themselves or by interacting with the other students very often, they will become more efficient speakers of the language because the language is an instrument to express yourself to the others Therefore, students should be encouraged to become better users of the target language Another recommendation is about the time spent for extensive reading class To be able to help students make every point very clear while analyzing the text, sufficient time should be used to give students a chance to comment and ask There might be some exceptional and complicated structures in the text which need to be explained Finally, authentic reading materials should also be combined with other skills and vocabulary instruction Authentic texts are good sources for the integrated skills activities Based on a text, a variety of activities and tasks can be designed in integration with each other, which aims to develop students’ language skills – listening, speaking and writing – and some other additional areas such as pronunciation and vocabulary All in all, the findings of the presented study indicate that using authentic materials in reading lesson is the interesting and motivating ways which can bring better results in improving 12th graders' extensive reading at Nong Cong high school However, they can also cause some disadvantages such as confusion, difficulty and discouragement for learners, especially the weak ones Signature of Principle Thanh Hoa, May 15th, 2022 Hereby, I certify that this study is the result of my own experience and has not been submitted by any others Writer Trần Thị Khánh Toàn 18 REFERENCES 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Portsmoth, NH: Heinemann Maley, A (2009) Extensive Reading: Why it is good for our students and for us Retrieved from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/extensive-reding-why-itgood-our-students%E2%80%A6-us Nunan, D (1999) Second language teaching and learning Boston, USA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers 10 Peacock, M (1997) The Effect of Authentic Materials on the Motivation of EFL Learners in English Language Teaching Journal 51/2 April 1997 Oxford: Oxford University Press Retrieved from http://www.elt.oxfordjournal.org/content/51/2/144.pdf 19 ... effective way of reinforcing, confirming and deepening knowledge of vocabulary, structures, and of developing an implicit understanding of when and how words are used And motivation is stimulated by combining... skills, a pretest and a posttest were addressed to students of the two groups Then, data collected from these sources were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively The data analysis results were... easy-to-understand material, with the reading done mostly outside the classroom and at each student's own pace and level There are few, if any, follow-up exercises, because the aim is for overall understanding