The effects of using authentic materials on learners reading comprehension and their attitudes in toeic reading class at an english language center

Trang 1 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY --- ∞0∞--- VO HUYEN TRINH THE EFFECTS OF USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS ON LEARNERS’ READING COMPREHENSION AND THEI

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Among a wide range of languages around the world, English is considered as one of the most useful languages It globally connects people through oral and written communication; therefore, learners around the world strive to study English fluently in four skills including reading, listening, speaking, and writing (Taylor, 2019)

Regarding learning English skills, reading is recognized as the prerequisite skill in a long- term English learning process because “reading, perhaps more than any other language skill, provides the foundation for success in language learning and academic learning” (Anderson, 2012, p 218) Among most international examinations, the reading section is a fundamental part to evaluate and assess learners’ language competence Hence, as students in college or university, they should acquire a good reading ability to easily handle any references, materials, as well as international examinations (Apsari, 2014)

To acquire a moderate ability in learning reading skills, the learners are required to have the ability to comprehend the text so comprehension instruction is a vital part in reading instruction (Grabe, 2009) However, students typically face various problems in their learning process like reading strategies, comprehension abilities and their interest in learning materials Accordingly, to enhance the learners’ interest and comprehension ability in reading skills, choosing appropriate materials is also a difficult responsibility for English teachers Therefore, the present study is to find out the suitable materials in English teaching and learning to apply for the learners in reading

2 classes The next part will clarify the problems which the students and teachers face in reading learning and teaching.

Statement of the problems

Students from universities or colleges struggle to enhance their reading skills and they are flocking to acquire a certificate of language competence, which are international standardized examinations such as TOEIC, TOEFL, and IELTS to satisfy graduation requirements and recruitment criteria (Nguyen, 2015) These standardized tests are to examine the student achievement and language use in their real life However, the majority of English teachers showed that they do not have sufficient time, financial backing, and teaching tools to choose and use authentic materials (AMs) in the classroom (Ozbek, 2016) Ozbek (2016) also stated that these issues happen to the students from university and college, which makes the learners find it difficult to understand clearly an article, a newspaper, a report, or a webpage in real life situations In Vietnam, the students find it difficult to access authentic reading materials if they do not actively find the materials to read (Dao, 2019) Therefore, difficulty in exposing to AMs when learning reading is inevitable for adult learners in the Vietnamese educational context However, the particular difficulties in learning reading comprehension and using AMs have not been much mentioned in previous studies in Vietnamese teaching contexts

The researcher has been teaching Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) for three years at an English language center The purpose of the TOEIC Test is to identify the learners’ current level of English proficiency (Im & Chen, 2019) The test is designed to demonstrate real-life circumstances regarding the workplace including in the office, at the airport, at the hotel, or in the store, etc In addition, various topics in the TOEIC Test consist of business fields such as finance, banking, accounting, or society fields such as advertisements,

3 brochures, or daily news However, the learners do not have many chances to expose to these kinds of text in authentic readings Taking the advantages and diversities of the authenticity of reading text, the researcher used AMs in teaching reading comprehension to practice the TOEIC Test The problems learners face when they learn reading comprehension in another language have been discussed in this section The following presents the purposes of the study and gives the hypotheses for the research questions.

Aims of the study

In an effort to help my learners improve their reading comprehension and get a better learning outcome, this study aims to investigate whether the use of AMs in reading classes has any effects on learners' reading comprehension in reading classes Besides, the study also aims to find out the learners’ attitudes towards the use of AMs in TOEIC reading classes Aligning the statement of problems and aims of the study, the present study makes effort to answer two specific questions in the following section.

Research questions

1 To what extent does the use of AMs affect the learners’ reading comprehension at an English Language Center in Ho Chi Minh City?

2 What are the learners’ attitudes towards the use of AMs in TOEIC reading classes?

Significance of the study

The finding of this study is significant in terms of seeking the theoretical and practical effect of using AMs in reading classes It shows educators another view of the relationship between AMs and reading comprehension In particular, if the application of using AMs at the English Language Center is helpful for the TOEIC learners, it can be applied by the other organizations in the same teaching fields Also, the TOEIC learners will be fostered to use AMs inside and outside

4 the classroom because they already have many opportunities to expose AMs in their classrooms After this study, the researcher contributes some suggestions for applying AMs to enhance the learners’ interest when studying reading comprehension Therefore, it provides curriculum programmers along with the application of new kinds of instructional materials so that English centers can take this application into consideration to be an official teaching material.

Scope of the study

This study has been experimented at the English Language Center, Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City The TOEIC learners in my classes include working people from various majors like information technology, education, sales executive, accounting, finance and banking, aviation, etc Besides, the TOEIC learners also students from different colleges or universities in Ho Chi Minh City They are all over 18 years old and enroll in the course with 4.5-month length Fortunately, they are willing to participate in this study by joining pretest, posttest, and answering a questionnaire.

Organization of the thesis

The thesis includes five main chapters

Chapter 1 is the Introduction which consists of general information of the study including a background of the study, statement of problems, aims of the study, research questions, the significance and the scope of the study, and organization of the thesis

Chapter 2 is the Literature review which includes the nature of reading comprehension, the definitions and types of AMs, the use of AMs in reading class, the description of reading section in TOEIC test, the importance of using AMs for TOEIC learners in reading classes, learners’ attitude towards using AMs in reading classes, previous studies on using AMs in reading classes, and research gap

Chapter 3 is the Methodology which shows a specific description of the methodology used for the thesis It will show specific information about research design, research site and participants, the treatment for control group and experimental group, data collection instruments, data collection procedure, reliability and validity

Chapter 4 is Data analysis which analyzes the data collected from the instruments, and discussion of findings

Chapter 5 is the Conclusion which demonstrates the main conclusion, implications for the teacher and students, limitation of the study, and recommendations for a further research

LITERATURE REVIEW

Authentic Materials (AMs)

The word “authentic” means something made to be the same as the original, the adjective

“authentic” describes something real, reliable, genuine, and based on fact In the education field, Authentic materials (AMs) are printed documents, videos, or audios which the learners might face in their real life (Umirova, 2020) Also, Li & Zhou (2018) implied AMs used in ESL/ EFL classrooms refer to original texts which are not particularly produced for language teaching purposes, they are produced accidentally by native speakers in their real-life conversations Meanwhile, Akbari & Razavi (2016) had another definition that AMs could be information from the internet, both authors cited printed information might be quickly outdated; however, the information on the internet is updated more regularly In another article, Apsari (2014) also indicated AMs are those picked up from life circumstances sources; and obviously, they are not designed for the teaching and learning process The use of AMs in the learning and teaching process will help the learners absorb the lesson more openly and comfortably (Azril & Al-Rashdi,

In short, AMs refer to any documents related to learning English skills that are not designed specifically for students used in the classroom or learning purposes AMs are also defined as

7 original sources from native speakers in real-life situations and the English teacher will find the ones meeting the criteria of choosing AMs in reading class without any adapting or modifying To find out whether AMs are effective and efficient teaching tools for the learners, depending on the authenticity and applicability of AMs and which suitable types of AMs are used in the reading classes

AMs comprise three main categories including “listening – viewing materials, visual materials, and text materials” (Umirova, 2020, p 130) According to the author, listening – viewing materials consist of a wide selection of AMs ranges from TV commercials, TV shows,

TV programs, films, songs, and movies Visual aids include videos, photographs, street signs, posters, brochures, restaurant menus, etc Finally, the last category – text materials include newspapers, magazines, company documents, web-pages, and publications More specifically, Sari et al (2020) clarified that AMs can be modified and adapted by English teachers to the needs of the learners, namely Listening – Viewing materials, authentic visual materials, authentic printed materials, and real object used In this definition, the author showed an additional AM is a real object For example, the lesson is about teaching some new vocabulary related to fruit, food, or beverage, the English teachers can show these real objects in the classroom to help the learners touch, feel, and remember

Meanwhile, according to Li & Zhou (2018), AMs consist of texts including both oral and written English materials For instance, oral materials can be English communication between native speakers naturally happening in life, or it is auditory English materials for listening like audiotaped stories, English radio programs, movies, TV commercials, cartoons, songs, or music videos Written English materials include a variety of printed texts for reading or viewing like

8 websites, newspapers, novels, picture books, invoices, etc Bordonaro (2018) also cited AMs used by English teachers include both oral and written materials However, the author clarified that oral materials can be used to improve the learners’ both listening skills and speaking skills through various social media platforms from the Internet such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, BBC learning English, or blogs

Shortly, AMs are divided into two or three main types depending on the teachers’ demand in their teaching process In this study, the researcher decides to choose authentic written materials drawing email and letters, memo and notice, advertisement, customer review, Web page, article and newsletters, invoice, schedule and agenda because these materials can be used for reading purposes To choose relevant and useful material, it should be criteria for AMs selection, which will be illustrated in the next section

The selection of AMs is an extremely essential factor when preparing the materials for English learners In the study, the selection of AMs will be followed by these three main criteria

Firstly, AMs must follow suitability of contents, which show the appropriateness to course objectives, students’ needs and abilities Also, the content, structure, and lexis used in the text must satisfy the readability requirements because AMs can appeal to learners’ creativity and interest to understand the topic (Akbari & Razavi, 2016)

Secondly, the AMs must obtain exploitability to find out whether the text can be used for teaching purposes and good tasks can be designed based on the text or not In the teaching process, many activities and lessons are designed from AMs Therefore, to acquire this purpose, the AMs selection must follow the third criterion

Secondly, the AMs follow the criteria of readability to find out whether the structure and lexis of AMs are too easy or too difficult, the appropriate amount of new vocabulary, the new ideas in AMs are relevant to the students’ interest or not Good materials must be suitable for the learners’ needs and abilities; moreover, they must enhance the learners’ interest and motivation in their learning process (Akbari & Razavi, 2016)

2.1.4 The use of AMs in reading classes

The idea of applying AMs in instructing English skills has appeared since the 1970s when the communicative language teaching (CLT) method was introduced (Mestari, 2017) It is recognized that using AMs in teaching language brings a lot of advantages for English teachers, who have more selection than before in terms of choosing the materials to use in their class In addition, the use of AMs in reading class helps the students expose the language use to a real context, and probably make the classroom atmosphere more comfortable

For ESL/EFL teachers in teaching reading skills, a limitation of choosing suitable materials for English proficiency leads to difficulty in engaging the learners with the text and the whole lesson Accordingly, AMs in reading classes should be selected based on the criteria for selecting AMs Besides, Sari et al (2020) indicated that English teachers who use AMs in their classroom want the learners to have a different atmosphere with an open, pleasant, and creative educational environment due to its relevance to the learners’ experiences, activities, and concerns The students might get good results after the course because they can follow the meaning of the text, and increase their reading ability and vocabulary after a long time of studying through AMs To achieve the purpose of using AMs in teaching reading comprehension effectively, the level of the text is also a necessary part, which will be analyzed in the next section

2.1.5 Using AMs at different levels

The application of AMs in the classroom for language teaching sometimes becomes a controversial issue due to its “complexity in vocabulary and structure for lower-level students” (Guo, 2012, p 197); nevertheless, this concern should be handled by appropriate instructional material supports In the study of investigating the teachers’ perspective of using AMs in their classroom (Akbari & Razavi, 2016), the authors showed a positive attitude towards choosing suitable materials for the learners; undoubtedly, the teachers are always willing to take times to find the most appropriate ones for each level Subsequently, the suited instructional materials chose to be taught in the lesson could create a higher level of the learners’ language competence and

The nature of reading comprehension

Languages allow people to share the meaning, information, or viewpoint of any aspect of life To achieve the final goal of using a language or to use a language fluently in communication by oral or written language, specifically in English, people try to master four skills in their English learning process Particularly, reading is vital to be taught in language classrooms which can help learners develop their ability in “extracting and applying to mean derived from the text” (Clarke et al., 2013, p 9) Reading is considered as one mandatory skill in teaching and learning English because of its helpfulness in brainstorming ideas in a new language, enhancing a better number of new vocabularies, and smoothing in writing English When considering the reading procedures, an English teacher bases on five content strands or tasks to teach their students for reading acquisition: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (Rupley et al.,

2009) This study concentrates on teaching reading comprehension to the learners to make them acquire one of the content strands Following the nature of reading comprehension of Perfetti & Stafura (2014), reading comprehension is followed by two main opinions, the first one involved in “the literal meaning of a text”, and the second one concerns “the cognitive dynamics of text comprehension” (p 22-23) These two theories could be clarified by an interactive combination of top-down and bottom-up processes Besides, Anderson (2012) also mentioned learning reading skills is a combination of “various bottom-up and top-down models” to achieve the final goal of comprehension (p 218)

In terms of the models of reading comprehension, there are bottom-up, top-down, and interactive models (Takaloo & Ahmadi, 2017) The bottom-up model is a process of reading from a small part to the whole of the text and readers based primarily on textual features and information provided in the text, or in short, the bottom-up model can be called a word-based process In the top-down model, the readers must focus on what they already know or foster the students’ previous knowledge, thought, analysis skill, and critique to comprehend the whole text In other words, the top-down approach means the readers tend to use their prior knowledge to make a prediction for the text or knowledge-given process Finally, the interactive model is an integration of top-down and bottom-up approaches It fosters the reader to infer, comprehend, and explain the whole meaning of a text and “interaction between the reader’s mind and the writer’s text” (Takaloo & Ahmadi, 2017, p 15)

Reading comprehension is a compulsory process in teaching a language through the educational system (Clarke et al., 2013) To comprehend each sentence in the whole text, readers must handle individual lexis, absorb and expose the “phonological, orthographic, and semantic representation” (Kendeou et al., 2014, p 10) Besides, McKee (2012) cited that “reading comprehension can be defined as the ability to understand a text, to analyze the information, and to interpret correctly what the writer is stating (p 46) Theoretically, text comprehension is the process of “identifying words, parsing sentences, and encoding context-sensitive meanings'' (Perfetti, 2001, p 1283) Paarmawati & Yugafiati (2017) stated that when the students read a difficult text, it is necessary to make them raise awareness of realizing main ideas and figuring out the text organization

In this study, the definition of reading comprehension followed McKee (2012) regarding reading comprehension as “the ability to understand a text, to analyze the information, and to

13 interpret correctly what the writer is stating” (p 46) At a higher level, the readers must understand the original meaning to find out the literacy and figurative meaning of the text; in addition, they also apply their existing knowledge and awareness to immerse themselves in the text To acquire the processes of reading comprehension smoothly in using English, the teacher should follow the right levels of reading comprehension, which will be clarified in the next section

Paarmawati & Yugafiati (2017) asserted that reading comprehension consists of four levels In particular, Burns (1996, as cited in Paarmawati & Yugafiati, 2017) mentioned there are

“literal comprehension, inferential comprehension, critical reading, and creative reading” (p 3) English learners gradually strive to achieve each level by a long period of practicing through learning reading processes

Literal comprehension is a prerequisite to obtaining a higher level of reading comprehension, which means understanding topic sentences, general meaning, causes, and effects of the text According to King (2007, p 268), literal comprehension “reflects a minimally coherent mental representation”, including drawing the meaning in the text to answer some questions in terms of what, where, when, or why in the passage Besides, literal comprehension refers to “Each of the tasks involved in understanding a text – whether it is simply to recall what is stated in the text” (Basaraba et al., 2013, p 352) King (2007) also mentioned literal knowledge focuses on the definitions of concepts or memorized contents The learners acquire these levels by practicing exercises in the classroom, answering teachers’ questions, or remarkable lectures However, to deeply comprehend the text, the learners need to absorb the reading text and try to go beyond it

Inferential comprehension is the inference of the meaning which is not stated in the text Alptekin (2006) stated that “In inferential comprehension, readers go beyond the literal meaning

14 of the text to understand what the text says and what it is about through knowledge-driven processes such as synthesizing, summarizing, generalizing the text” (p 495).Inferring the text is used to figure out what writers leave material implicit in the text or what they do not clearly state in their composition The readers themselves have a chance to figure out implicit information which is called inference According to Assiri & Siddiqui (2020), the inferential reading comprehension “could go a long way to bridge the gaps in understanding comprehension passages, as it is a performance, strategy and lies at a more intuitive level” (p 411) Inferential comprehension level automatically bases on the level of inference, which could be simple or complex depending on the text content This level needs the learners’ attempt on every part of the text

Critical reading is making questions, comparing opinions, and drawing a conclusion for the whole text It requires the readers to be active and put them into the text for acquiring comprehension This level of comprehension is a higher level than the previous levels of comprehension, it requires the reader’s background knowledge to connect the events of the text in understanding why they have occurred The readers can “pursue the deep explanations, causes, and implications underlying the knowledge presented” that help the learners rearrange their knowledge to apply the text in deeper meaning (King, 2007, p 269) In addition, education in critical reading comprehension “is not simply about deconstruction and response: it is about making a difference, moving the book out of the class, developing an awareness of the book as an artefact and giving learners a real voice to discuss text (Fisher, 2008, p 20)

Finally, the highest level of reading comprehension is created comprehension, which makes the learners engage themselves in the text or materials by authors According to McKee

(2012), the lower level abilities of reading comprehension include “word recognition,

15 graphophonic and others”, whereas the higher level abilities of reading comprehension included

“syntactic, semantic and other processes” (p 45) Readers immerse the text without translating it into L1 and comprehend it like a native language

In this study, the materials chosen for the research will follow the theory of literal comprehension and inferential comprehension because when the learners meet the requirements of the level, they can acquire a learning outcome of the English language center in terms of reading comprehension knowledge and competence The researcher will find the AMs which can help the learners find and understand topic sentences, the general meaning of the texts first, and then they can infer the meaning of the text and answer available questions created by the teachers To attain reading level, the instruction of reading comprehension in TOEIC class will be clarified in the next section

To find out whether the use of AMs can be successful or not, it relies on the role of teachers who select the materials and also depends on learners’ attitudes toward the use of AMs in their reading class In the next section, the researcher shows more about the definition of learners’ attitudes and their attitudes towards using AMs in reading classes in previous studies.

Learners’ attitudes

Prastiwi (2018) defined people’s attitudes as consisting of how they receive, think, and react towards something He also cited that attitudes towards studying a language affect the learners’ beliefs, ideas, reactions, and performances Meanwhile, Bromley (1995) who specializes in psychology cited attitude comprises three aspects including affect, cognition, and behavior

In terms of “affect”, which is defined as an evaluation of the degree of appreciation to attitudinal objects, which are interest, enthusiasm, and confidence For instance, when the students

16 express the degree of like or dislike a trainer, it will affect the learner’s attitude in their whole learning process and a final result of learning language, the author said that “affective component has received the most attention in attitudinal L2 research” (p 373) In learning reading comprehension, learners’ affective attitude towards the text and materials is a major determinant for the effectiveness of the learning process The students have interest in using AMs in reading class because Merisuo-Storm & Soininen (2014) mentioned while the learners are reading materials that relate to their lives, “they become engaged and proficient readers who enjoy reading” (p 123), and the students feel authentic reading material texts more interesting and inspiring (Peacock, 1979) In addition, in the Vietnamese learning context, Tran (2015) cited the positive results of study in terms of enthusiasm In particular, even though the students get difficulties when giving the answer, connecting previous knowledge to what they are reading, and raising questions, the students are willing to learn reading and “what exists in the different text” than the textbook (p 491) The learners will be ready to join classroom activities or contribute to developing activities with AMs if the teacher supports them appropriately (Martinez, 2002) Moreover, Martinez (2002) also mentioned the use of AMs could make the learners more confident in communicating with foreigners and “improve communicative competence” (p 124) Soliman

(2013) indicated that the learners expect to learn more new words and expressions from reading authentic text because they want to develop their reading skills According to Erbaggio (2012), the study of AMs in the classroom allows students to use what they have studied outside the classroom, it helps them understand almost all the new words written Zerhan et al (2015) concluded AMs could “empower students” with reading and communication advantages outside the classroom; besides, the use of AMs makes the learning environment more relaxed The authentic reading material could motivate the learners by changing their affective attitude toward the use of new

17 kinds of materials and learning activities The different attitudes are represented by interest, enthusiasm, and confidence aspects These aspects affect the learners’ engagement in participating in the lesson because of the AMs characteristics

Relating to the “cognition” aspect, which refers to what people “know about the attitudinal objects” For example, the students believe that the Chinese or Japanese language relates to hieroglyphs, it is more difficult than studying Latin letters, and their beliefs about the language’s nature may bring disadvantages in their learning process into the language class

The third aspect of learner’s attitude in terms of behavior, Hashim et al., (2016) showed that the attitude towards behavior definition is a positive or negative thought of a unique issue in evaluating another’s performance, which leads to people’s decision whether they could solve the issue or not AMs also change the learners’ behavioral attitudes, which shows what the learners extremely want to achieve in their learning process and they will complete it when it touches their desires Since 1997, Peacock claimed that language teachers should use AMs in the EFL/ ESL class for beginners because they can develop the learners’ levels of “on-task behavior, concentration, and involvement in the target activity” (p 152) They engage in the activities actively in the classroom and at home They are willing to complete tasks before, during, and after the class In addition, Berardo (2014) mentioned the variety of different kinds of reading text make the learner effort to learn a language and encourage them further reading or read for pleasure, they can take an advantage of reading a newspaper, magazine, or webpage in their classroom instead of photocopies of articles Therefore, learners’ behavioral attitude toward the use of AMs in reading class depends on three aspects including concentration, involvement, and effort in fulfilling the task In other words, the use of AMs could change the learners’ behavioral attitudes through these three aspects

In the language learning process, every learner has their attitudes and they are different among individuals This study is conducted to find out the learners’ attitudes in terms of the affective (interest, enthusiasm, and confidence aspects) and behavioral (concentration, involvement, and effort aspects) attitudes Through an awareness of the learners’ attitudes, the English teachers will adjust their teaching program as well as the material selection to help the learners achieve a good learning outcome This study is conducted with the hope of helping the learners experience a better learning program, and then they will show their positive attitudes towards learning a language

The study will clarify the learners’ attitudes relating to the behavioral and affective attitudes in learning reading comprehension of TOEIC classes; hence, the next section will explain how the TOEIC Test is designed

The description of the reading section in the TOEIC Test

The first version of the TOEIC reading test was released by ETS in 1979 to evaluate the language use of non-native speakers (Liao, 2010) After about 30 years of using the first format of the reading test, the updated version was released in 2006 and ten years later – May 2016 At the moment, the newest format of the reading test is modified and released in Asea countries at the end of 2018 This version is applied in Vietnam since February 2019 Now that the reading test experienced updated four times, it is organized in over 160 countries in the world Therefore, test- takers count on the test reliability and validity because of the determination of the TOEIC program to find out which items the test-takers can answer accurately at many score levels, content specialists then revise these items and adjust which questions have a general (Liao, 2010) TOEIC results can be used for job application, workplace use, or job promotion within international organizations because of their recognition around the world (Liu & Costanzo, 2013)

The TOEIC Reading and Listening test is using paper and pencil to complete the test with

200 multiple choices questions (MCQs) (Liu & Costanzo, 2013) It takes place at the same time including 7 parts The reading section is part 5, part 6, and part 7 with 100 MCQs, from question

101 to question 200 The test-takers must finish the reading section in 75 minutes right after 45 minutes of the listening section The treatment for the TOEIC learners will be concentrated on:

 Part 5 – sentence completion with 30 MCQs from question 101 to question 130, which include 30 short sentences, each sentence has a blank;

 Part 6 – text completion with 16 MCQs from question 131 to question 146, which includes four texts, each text has four MCQs;

 Part 7 – reading comprehension with 54 MCQs from question 147 to question 200, which includes 10 single passages, each passage with two to four MCQs, two set-based double passages, and three set-based double passages, each with five MCQs

The test-takers must read different materials and answer “at their own pace” (Liu & Costanzo, 2013, p.2) The content of part 5 focuses on short sentences mostly used at the office, airport, hotel, hospital, or real-life conversation The content of part 6 and part 7 concentrates on the application of emails, memos, letters, invoices, notices, documents, and websites used in the workplace; in addition, they also investigate the learners’ comprehension ability of general information of real-life situations such as articles, newspapers, brochures, information, advertisements, message chain, customers’ review, etc Test designers decide each item and information in the whole reading test based on the test-takers abilities and need by ways of considering and choosing which evidence would support the items and information through tasks on the test (Schedl, 2010)

In this study, the participants will complete pretest and posttest in Part 6 and Part 7 of the TOEIC Reading Test in order to test the learners’ reading comprehension.

The importance of using AMs for TOEIC learners in reading comprehension

Akbari & Razavi (2016) showed that the perspective of applying AMs in teaching and learning a language is followed by various references and articles in language pedagogy In the 1970s and 1980s, the demand for learning English effectively and the objective of engaging language learners in using English with “authentic social contexts” was expanding (Li & Zhou,

2018, p 2) This trend still has developed in teaching and learning a new language so far Specifically, the significance of using AMs in reading classes is numerous AMs provide the learners cultural information about the target language, make them have opportunities to expose real language, and be relevant closely to the learners’ requirements (Huda, 2017) Additionally, using AMs for TOEIC learners in teaching reading comprehension can enhance guessing-meaning skills of new vocabularies, and comprehend the culture of the countries in which the learners are studying the language (Blue, 2020)

The TOEIC test design teams were in recognition of the importance of “many real-world situations” applied in the TOEIC test to measure the test-taker ability and “increase the authenticity” in the reading and listening section, they decided to demonstrate longer listening and reading stimuli (Schedl, 2010, p.3-4) Nevertheless, learners must practice many kinds of exercises relating to “real-world situations” in non-AMs in the textbook in order to pass the TOEIC examination It is difficult for them to figure out how the “real-world situations” word use is operating outside the textbook Subsequently, AMs absolutely can help the learners and teachers to deal with this issue in practicing the TOEIC test progress because they are picked up from almost all of the documents used in real-life circumstances like its definition

The relationship between learning reading and vocabulary is also imperative in comprehension acquisition Through AMs, learning reading aims to help the learners review previously learned vocabularies and acquire new words in each text and the whole lesson Vocabulary plays an important role in reading comprehension acquisition (Guo, 2012) Accordingly, in addition to bringing the learners an amount of benefit in studying a language, AMs make the learners possible to immerse themselves and understand every circumstance and interaction despite not knowing the language extremely well For example, an article with some new vocabularies makes the learners not understand; however, they can guess the meaning of new vocabularies by the other common words or by native speakers’ word use As a result, the learners can apply the guess-meaning ability in the TOEIC test

McGinnis (1992) asserted that by a well-prepared and rich diversity of using AMs, the learners can acquire many skills in understanding and developing cultural information of the target language by themselves more effectively As a result, the use and application of AMs in the learning reading section are supported by many educators In addition to the improvisation of language use, AMs also use a wide selection of natural words including “slang and idioms” and

“involve natural language production and interactions” (Li & Zhou, 2018, p 3) Rinehart (1997) also cited when studying another language, ESL/EFL learners try to immerse in that language’s culture since it is a primary aspect to achieve successful communication

In addition, the AMs selected by the researcher play an important role in attracting learner’s concentration Except for the content, the appearance of the AMs also make the learners interested and excited An eye-catching material such as texts from a printed newspaper or a magazine is more likely to pay the reader’s attention than a paper full of text (Berardo, 2014) The learners

22 have an opportunity to hold the real authentic text on their hand in another language to read, comprehend and learn new words or phrases from the text in a new way.

Previous studies

The use of AMs in language teaching, especially in reading classes has been widely investigated in the past Particularly, the use of AMs in reading classes was also mentioned in these investigations with various results which were released by international journals The following investigations will be put in chronological order The findings for each research will be listed in a table after summarizing participants and methods for each one

In the research on identifying Taiwanese tertiary level attitudes by learning reading comprehension through extensive reading via E-book – a kind of AMs, the researchers showed the participants’ positive attitude probably due to their “low anxiety environment and rich comprehensible input” (Chen et al., 2013, p 308)

Apsari (2014) researched twenty-five pair of students, who divided into a control group and an experimental group joined to find out the result They were first-year students from Siliwangi College of Education Bandung, Indonesia, and participated in pretest and posttest to investigate the findings Later, the author found out the results of two groups by the posttest, which concluded that the investigated effect size of treatment was 0.082 (less than 0.1) and significant values were 0.037 & 0.002 (less than 0.05) The results showed that the two groups’ outcomes were not significantly contrasting (Field, 2009) Accordingly, the author suggested that English

23 teachers should use AMs for a choice, not the main material in the reading classroom and it must be appropriate for the learners’ ability

However, other conclusions show adverse effects on using AMs in reading classes For instance, the research of Marzban & Davaji (2015) investigated the use of AMs in reading classes for intermediate levels The participants for this research included 24 teenage students from an English teaching institute and they studied English as a foreign language This research used a placement test and questionnaires to collect data Both simplified and authentic groups join the pretest and posttest after two weeks of treatment The treatment for each group was different; specifically, the authentic group received online AMs chosen outside the course books and the simplified group received more simple forms of authentic texts in their course books After finishing the posttest, all of the participants complete the questionnaires After collecting the data, the researchers analyzed it in terms of frequency and percentage by using the SPSS package As a result, this study revealed that the participants have positive changes when using AMs in reading class After reading AMs, the students get more motivated to read about their interest topics and learn about new things from the materials This study also showed a solid relationship between AMs and reading comprehension of intermediate learners, AMs can enhance the learners’ comprehension ability and “other aspects of language learning such as motivation” (Marzban & Davaji, 2015, p 90)

Paarmawati & Yugafiati (2017) claimed that students stated their interest when using AMs in the reading class The participants were in the second semester at a university in Indonesia This research used four techniques of collecting data including observation, interview, questionnaire, and test The process includes four steps: observe the students during the reading process by evaluating indicators that show the students’ interest; analyze the result of the interview to detect

24 the information about the implementation of using AMs in reading classes; analyze the result of questionnaires to know the students’ impression in learning through AMs; the last step is analyzing the students’ reading progress based on the result of an analytic rubric The researchers showed that the learners enhance their self-study, self-confidence, and text description in reading interest, and they are not anxious about making mistakes Moreover, both authors also cited that AMs make the classroom environment more relaxed and engaged

In the research of finding out adults’ attitudes towards using AMs in learning reading comprehension for the students at a university in Turkey, Tulgar (2018), with the survey of open- ended questions and semi-structured interviews, stated that the learners show a positive attitude with broadening exposure to reading texts, willing to attain information in the whole text, concentrating on comprehension, not much critical analysis, and being more enjoyable in reading because of positive features of AMs

In the research exploring the effect of modified and AMs in reading comprehension for tertiary students in Iran, Taghavi & Aladini (2018) conducted research to determine whether AMs can enhance the learners’ reading ability at the upper-intermediate level The participants were 46 students at Shokoh English Language Institute in Rasht, Iran They were divided into 2 groups including experimental and control groups Both groups joined the pretest and received the same learning conditions except for the inputs for each group in every reading lesson After 8 sessions of the treatment, the posttest was administered for both groups to find out the possible effect of AMs The results showed that the participants in the experimental group improved in reading comprehension and performed better outcomes than those in the control group

Meanwhile, another research in the United States explores the use of written AMs in ESL reading classes Albiladi (2018) administered research in the US for 16 adult international learners

25 in four different advanced reading/vocabulary classes from intensive English programs The students are from China, Japan, Spain, and the Arab Their ages range from 19 to 41 years old and they are working in different majors The author used recorded interviews to collect and analyze data These interview recordings are coded, and then identifying recurring patterns and assigning categories There are five main categories which are synthesized from samples of coding from the interviews including motivation, culture, types of AMs, difficulty, and pedagogy After coding and assigning categories, the author draws three main themes for the research and concludes each theme The first theme is types of AMs, the author concluded the students prefer to read various kinds of AMs including newspapers, magazines, and advertisement books The second theme is perceived benefits, which showed that the students will increase motivation and raise their cultural awareness The participant realized that they were able to know more about different vacation days, human beings, and events (Albiladi, 2018) The third theme for this research explains issues in using AMs One of the issues in using AMs is text difficulty, the participants admit that some of the articles are over their levels and sometimes make them feel frustrated and unmotivated Another issue is lacking pedagogical intentions because some materials contain a strange abbreviation, word, or phrase

In addition, in the Vietnamese learning context, Tran (2015) researched for non-English major students from Van Hien University and the University of Social Sciences & Humanities to find out the learners’ attitudes in learning reading comprehension with Vietnamese lecturers, the researcher obtained the positive results of this study in terms of enthusiasm In particular, despite the students’ difficulties in finding the personal answer, connecting previous knowledge to what they are reading, and raising questions, the students are willing to learn reading and “what exists in the different text” than textbook (p 491)

Additionally, there is an article written about students in high school from Vietnamese educational environment, Vu (2018) cited that the terms “native speakers” should be left behind because the Vietnamese learner has a lot of chance to expose AMs in the classroom, which brings significant benefits for the learners to use the real of the language, provided that the materials meet the criteria for choosing the most suitable and effective materials Therefore, the author mentioned learners’ attitudes towards using AMs in learning reading comprehension can be changed after a period of practicing, by materials, levels, educational background, or by the method of teaching

In the Vietnamese educational context, Dao (2019) researched at Hue University of Foreign Language and Danang University at Foreign Language to find out what are English teachers’ perspectives of using AMs for tertiary students in central Vietnam The participants for this study included 170 English and French language teachers The result showed that 97,1% of language teachers agreed with using AMs in language classrooms Also, 63,3% of language teachers affirmed that they were choosing and using AMs in their classroom officially The language teachers who had 10-20 years of experience tend to use AMs more regularly than the others Besides, the result showed that the English teachers mostly used printed materials and audio materials in their classroom consisting of articles, documents, brochures, menus, TV shows, movies, cartoons, or TV commercials

-The participants show a positive attitude because of the comfortable environment and rich comprehensible input

25 pairs of students from Siliwangi College of Education Bandung, Indonesia

-Applying AMs in teaching reading comprehension did not bring a better learning outcome than teaching reading comprehension by textbook and available materials

- AMs enhance the intermediate learners’ comprehension ability

- The students get more motivated to read about their interest topics and learn about new things from the materials

First-year students in the second semester at STKIP

- AMs make the classroom environment more relaxed and engaged

- The learners improve their self-study, self-confidence, and text description in reading interest, they are not anxious about making mistakes

52 students at a university, in Turkey

- The learners willing to attain information in the whole text and concentrating on comprehension

- The participants show a positive attitude due to the features of AMs

46 tertiary students in Rasht, Iran

-The use of AMs improves the learners’ reading comprehension ability of upper-intermediate levels

16 adult learners from China, Japan, Spain, and Arab

- The students prefer to read various kinds of AMs including newspapers, magazines, and advertisement books

- The use of AMs makes the learners raise their cultural awareness and increase their concentration in reading classes

- The difficulty of using AMs is text content, the articles are sometimes over the learners’ levels and make them feel frustrated and unmotivated

Tran (2015) Non-English major students from Van Hien University and the University of Social

- The students are willing to learn reading in other materials than textbooks

- The participants show the positive attitude results of using AMs in terms of enthusiasm

Vu (2018) Students in high school

Learners’ attitudes towards using AMs in reading comprehension can be changed after a period of practicing, materials, levels, and the method of teaching

Dao (2019) 170 language teachers in Hue University

- Years of teaching experience affect the rate of using AMs in the classroom

- The teachers should use AMs for the basic level than advanced level

- AMs are used in receptive competencies class rather than in productive competencies class

After collecting the findings of previous studies, there are three common findings for the use of AMs in reading comprehension Firstly, the use of AMs in reading class sometimes makes a good impact on the learners reading comprehension and sometimes as a choice to complement the real knowledge to their learners in terms of raising cultural awareness and real-life situations Besides, the learners find it interesting and engaging in the lesson with the use of AMs provided that they are suitable for their levels and interests Finally, the students feel more motivated and excited about the lesson than the ones without AMs.

Research gap

Benavent & Penamaria (2011) asserted that AMs are an important tool to apply in ESP classrooms, specifically in teaching reading comprehension The AMs possess their variety from many different sources which the teachers can redesign or adapt the materials constantly for ESP learners, especially for TOEIC learners In addition to learning in a same-level class, they have common purposes of achieving a certificate and finishing the course in a short time To accomplish these purposes and become proficient in learning L2, the learners have to meet the requirements of language competencies One measurement for L2 acquisition in the learning process is reading comprehension Therefore, in the current study, the researcher will find out the impact of the use of AMs on reading comprehension to see whether it is a positive or negative impact

The review of literature addresses the effect of AMs in teaching reading comprehension in English classrooms, the importance of using AMs for TOEIC learners in reading class, and the learners’ attitudes towards using AMs in learning reading comprehension The use of AMs in teaching reading comprehension mentioned how to choose appropriate AMs for reading classes,

30 which are suitable for learners’ ability and interest Besides, AMs used for TOEIC learners in the reading classes should be applicable and realistic such as engaging the learners, increasing their motivation and interest in learning reading Additionally, the learners’ attitude towards the use of AMs in reading class in previous studies is positive and sometimes negative, these attitudes can be changed by their ages, levels, and teaching method in language classrooms

However, the investigation of using AMs in reading classes sometimes faces several challenges concerning the learners’ purpose of learning English Different learning purposes lead to a different attitude towards learning a language and the learners’ final result Also, Chang (2012) suggested that it should be applied more than single material in language classes; however, students in the Vietnamese educational environment sometimes face these problems In addition to the teacher’s perspective of using AMs in reading classes, the previous studies primarily researched the use of AMs at junior, senior high school, and tertiary levels Therefore, due to the lack of empirical research about applying additional materials, specifically AMs for ESP classes in the Vietnamese context and find out their attitudes towards AMs in the reading classroom, this research aims to investigate the use of AMs in reading classes for TOEIC learners at an English center in the Vietnamese context and find out what are attitudes of TOEIC learners towards AMs in learning reading comprehension.

Conceptual Framework

The summary of the current study will be conceived in the following conceptual framework

The present study is to find out the effect of AMs use in TOEIC reading classes have a negative or positive effect on learners’ reading comprehension Regarding the AMs, the researcher uses written materials including email and letter, memo and notice, advertisement, customer review, web page, article and newsletter, invoice, schedule and agenda These kinds of AMs are used as a intervention for the research with the purpose of finding out the result of reading comprehension, specifically in literal comprehension and inferential comprehension In literal comprehension, the researchers investigated the learners’ ability in understanding the text, answering questions, and memorizing contents In inferential comprehension, the learners are investigated for their ability in inferring the meaning of text The researcher chooses to investigate the first two levels of reading comprehension consisting of literal comprehension and inferential comprehension because of its relevance to the learning outcome of the TOEIC Actual Test

After finding out the impact of using AMs in TOEIC reading class, the researcher finds out the learners’ attitudes in terms of affective attitude including interest, enthusiasm, and confidence; and behavioral attitudes including concentration, involvement, and effort

The investigation of the research is with the hope that it can help Vietnamese teachers figure out what the learners think about existing materials applied in the reading classes and whether they feel comfortable or confident both inside and outside the classroom.

Summary of Chapter 2

Through this chapter, the relevant theoretical background of the research has been discussed The chapter included an overview of reading comprehension, authentic materials (AMs), learners’ attitude, the description of TOEIC reading Test, the importance of using AMs in reading comprehension in TOEIC reading In addition, this chapter provided a review of previous studies on the effects of using AMs in teaching reading comprehension in TOEIC class The following chapter presents the methodology used in this study.

METHODOLOGY

Research site and participants

The research was conducted at an English language center, located on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City The English center has been operating in educating basic communication, pronunciation, and primarily the TOEIC program since 2009 In terms of the TOEIC program, learners are trained in writing, speaking, reading, and listening skills The researcher is teaching reading and listening skills for 4 TOEIC classes The TOEIC classes are organized every Monday – Wednesday – Friday and Tuesday – Thursday – Saturday

The classroom is well equipped with good facilities for learning purposes such as projector, loud speaker, internet access, and air conditioner The students have their own chair and table which make them feel comfortable to move when working in a group in the classroom

The TOEIC program is divided into 3 levels including basic, pre-intermediate, and intermediate Main course books for each level are different This research was conducted with the main course book for intermediate level at the English center is TOEIC New Economy 1000, chosen by the academic program manager at the English center The text books were published in

2019 by YBM – an officially authorized organization to host the TOEIC test and publish a variety of book reviews for the TOEIC test in Korea, with the newest updated format for the TOEIC Test

In terms of the participants, there are approximately 20 – 25 students in TOEIC class, most of them are over 18 years old This research was conducted for intermediate students because all

34 the participants have finished their basic course at the English language center They are students studying in colleges or universities or people working in different fields The sample for this research was chosen in these 4 TOEIC classes and followed a convenient sampling method (Creswell, 2012), “A convenience sample is a group of individuals who (conveniently) are available for study” (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2009, p.98) Therefore, every student in these classes was chosen to join the research and there were about 80 students participating in this research According to Creswell, the participant's chosen convenient sample could not be representative of the population but it is easier than other methods and the sample can provide helpful information to find out the results for the research This method highlighted the necessity of participants’ features in the research including homogeneity, ages, genders, and language proficiency, which will be clearly stated in the next chapter

The research site is described in detail stating general information, facility of the English center and the main course books Besides, the general information of the participants has been discussed The next section will demonstrate the research design.

Research design

The present research was conducted by a quantitative method and followed by a quasi- experiment procedure because the participants are not randomly assigned to CG or EG Creswell

(2012) cited quasi-experimental research as a benefit of an intact group with existing participants and it also shows the strength of validity and reliability in experimental research About 80 students engaged in this research and they were divided into two groups, 2 classes were a control group and the rest 2 classes were an experimental group The procedure consists of a pretest, a treatment, a posttest, and a questionnaire for the experimental group The control groups also did the same pretest and posttest as experimental groups, but they did not join treatment and a questionnaire

The pretest was carried out to consider whether the level of all participants were suitable for the research and whether they had the same level In the pretest procedure, the researcher chose TOEIC standardized tests in the book – ETS Summer 2021, published by YBM in 2021 The test included 70 multiple choice questions in Part 6 and Part 7 All the participants from CG and EG completed the test in 55 minutes under the researcher’s supervision In the pretest procedure, the

CG completed the test on June 1 st 2022 and the EG completed the test on June 2 nd 2022 After two groups finished the test, the researchers scored the test one by one and sent the score transcript to the participants within one week Based on the pretest result, all the participants had passed basic level; therefore, they got the first requirement to join the research

The treatment was specifically applied for EG Both groups had the same curriculum, same amount of received knowledge and homework, but different lesson plans because the EG had different activities in their classroom and different homework relating to AMs The lesson plans for both EG and CG had been attached in Appendix 2A and Appendix 2B to compare the difference between two groups when applying the treatment The treatment was mainly applied on every Thursday each week for EG

Finally, after finishing 12 weeks of practicing, the CG and EG were required to complete the posttest Posttest was chosen by the researcher in the book ETS 2021 – published by YBM This test is also standardized TOEIC Test at the same level of pretest After one week, the researchers received the participants’ scores of two groups to investigate whether they had gained anything after the treatment by adding AMs in the lesson Eventually, the EG was required to complete the questionnaire to help the researcher find out more results for this study The table below clarifies more understandable the research design

Table 3.1: Summary of research design

2 Pretest TOEIC standardized test 1 in the book ETS Summer 2021

TOEIC standardized test 1 in the book ETS Summer 2021

3 Materials TOEIC New Economy 1000 AMs use only

Exercise in the main course book and other exercises in different TOEIC practice books

Exercise in the main course book

5 Posttest Posttest: TOEIC standardized test 2 in the book ETS Summer 2021

Posttest: TOEIC standardized test 2 in the book ETS Summer

The following section describes the instruments including the selection of the TOEIC Test and how to design a questionnaire used in this study.

The treatment for Control Group and Experimental Group

In the CG, the researcher provided reading materials, tasks, and exercises from the textbooks to the learners, which helps the students in the CG learn new vocabularies and answer questions of the reading text in the classroom Activities applied in the CG consisted of text

37 translation, answering comprehension questions, elicited repetition, and grammar processing In the EG, the researcher provided all reading materials in AMs and designed tasks for the purpose of reading comprehension Activities applied in the EG included text translation, answering questions, memorizing content, and inferring the text

The reading materials for both groups shared the same subjects, topics, and activities but the learners in these groups had different kinds of materials, and purposes inside and outside the classroom For example, in the third week of CG, the learners studied lesson 3 – Advertisement and Brochure, they read the text and answered questions in the textbook However, the learners in the EG studied the text in AMs and answered designed questions The different treatment listed in the following table, which is an extract of the lesson plan The while-reading period of every reading lesson for CG and EG will be clarified in the table

Table 3.2: An extract of lesson plan for CG and EG

Control Group (While-reading) Experimental Group (While-reading) Lead in:

- T divides class into groups of two

- Ss find the topic of the brochure in the textbook (Figure 3.1)

- Ss highlight new words in the brochure

- Ss guess the meaning of the new words

- T asks 3 Ss to stand up and tell the topic to the class

- T divides class into groups of two

- Ss find the topic of the brochure in the AMs (Figure 3.2)

- Ss highlight new words in the brochure

- Ss guess the meaning of the new words

- T asks 3 Ss to stand up and tell the topic to the class

T gives a guiding question for Reading 1 in the main textbook

- Ss discuss and answer the questions in group

- T goes around to observe and takes note students’ mistakes

- T calls 3 Ss to stand up and answer the question

- T gives Ss the meaning of new words

- Ss learn by heart new words

- T asks Ss to answer multiple choices questions in the textbook

- T consolidates the pattern of question and how to find the answer quickly

T gives a guiding question for Reading 1 in the AMs

- Ss discuss and answer the 6 questions above in group

- T goes around to observe and takes note students’ mistakes

- T calls 3 Ss to stand up and answer the question

- T give Ss the meaning of new words

- Ss learn by heart new words

- T asks Ss to answer questions designed

- Ss work in group to answer these questions

- T consolidates the pattern of question and how to find the answer quickly

Figure 3.1: An example of the material in the textbook for CG – TOEIC Economy 1000, page

Figure 3.2: An example of the authentic materials for EG from TTP Software Company

For the comparison of the treatment between EG and CG, the researcher provided an e- book called TOEIC Exploration 1000 as an extra material to ensure the equal treatment of the two groups The researchers also spent 15 minutes at the end of the while-reading period in each lesson for the students in CG learning in the extra material

Figure 3.3: An example of the text in extra material for CG

Figure 3.4: An example of the text in extra material for EG

On the last extra session of the course, the researcher delivered the same kind of TOEIC reading test to the two groups The procedure at that time were the same as the pre-test After that time, the researcher scores the test following the official TOEIC score conversion (Appendix 4)

In terms of the questionnaire, the researcher delivered to all the participants in the EG on the final- term test correction session The instrument for the current study will be clarified in the next section.

Data collection instruments

In the current study, the TOEIC test is used to conduct pretest and posttest due to its characteristics and relevance to the purpose of the research The actual tests in book reviews are recognized as a standardized test and used for practice in an educational environment There is a wide variety of books for practicing and reviewing the TOEIC test published by the YBM – an officially authorized organization by the ETS to host the TOEIC test and publish a great diversity of book reviews for the TOEIC test in Korea According to an official website of YBM (www.global.ybm.co.kr), the memorandum of understanding (MOU) of TOEIC test administration between YBM and ETS in the USA has been created since May 1983 This memorandum is consistently effective until now

The memorandum asserted that the books launched by the YBM are standardized, reliable, and closely relevant to the real test to evaluate test-takers The researcher selected the book named ETS Summer 2021, the newest offering by YBM published in 2021 for conducting pretest and posttest procedure The TOEIC Actual Test 1 and Actual Test 2 in the book – ETS Summer 2021 were chosen for administering the pretest and posttest, respectively to all the participants without any test adjustment This instrument is used to answer the first research question - To what extent does the use of AMs affect the learners’ reading comprehension at an English Language Center in

According to Creswell (2012), a survey design can “examine the participants’ current attitude, beliefs, opinions, or practices” (p.377) Therefore, the present study used a printed questionnaire to collect data from the experimental group at the end of the course The questionnaire was adapted from Abidin (2018), which included two main parts: (1) Participants’ demographic information and (2) Learners’ attitude The learners’ attitude section was designed at a five-point Likert scale with two main themes in terms of affective and behavioral attitude, which included 12 statements for each attitude aspect Those items were designed at levels ranging from 1 to 5 (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, and strongly agree) to identify the participants’ attitudes This instrument is used to answer the second research question - What are the TOEIC learners’ attitudes towards using AMs in TOEIC reading classes? The questionnaire consisted of two main themes, each of which was developed into several sub-themes

The first main theme, namely the students’ affective attitude toward the use of AMs in reading class, was designed in the three sub-themes comprising the learner’s interest, enthusiasm, and confidence in their learning process Their interest was investigated in five statements from 1 to 5 to find out the learners’ feeling of the topic, content and questions in the AMs, learner’s anxiety or eagerness when encountering AMs at the first time in classroom

Ex: Item 2 I feel comfortable when learning reading skill with AMs

Item 3 I prefer studying with AMs than other materials

Item 5 I do not feel anxious when studying with AMs in TOEIC reading class The second sub-theme, enthusiasm was listed in five statements from 6 to 10, these items were designed to learn about the students’ willingness in participating and contributing to activities in reading class and applying the AMs in their real-life

Ex: Item 6 I enjoy doing activities with AMs

Item 8 AMs are color and eye-catching

Item 9 Studying with AMs makes me more diligent in learning new vocabularies and phrases in AMs

Item 10 AMs help me to improve my readiness to read the materials

To survey the opinion of the participants’ confidence, the researcher adapted three statements 11 and 12, these items were used to ask whether the learners were ready to engage in reading class and be confident when talking with friends and taking the TOEIC test than before, or they are willing to read and find out AMs outside the classroom

Ex: Item 11 I feel confident in reading and understanding AMs outside the classroom Item 12 I feel confident in taking the TOEIC reading test than before

In terms of the second main theme, students’ behavioral attitude, there were 12 statements divided into three aspects of behavior including concentration, involvement, and effort of the learner to the lesson The statements from 13 to 16 were designed to find out if the learners focus on the lesson, paying attention to activities, learning new vocabularies, and taking notes of difficult part

Ex: Item 13 I pay attention to every activity with AMs in reading class

Item 16 I take note all the new vocabularies and phrases in class

During the class, there were 5 statements from 17 to 21, these items were selected to collect the learners’ involvement in the classroom such as preparing the lesson before class, joining the activities, facing the text, and solving new tasks

Ex: Item 17 I prepare the lesson before class

Item 19 I try to solve new tasks with AMs when being designated in reading class

Item 21 I usually express my opinion in reading class

After the lesson, the last 3 statements from 22 to 24 were reflected the learners' information about the learners’ effort during and after the class to find out whether they used it in their real- life and improved their English ability, and the learners would like to study with AMs in the future or not

Ex: Item 22 I expect to study with AMs in the future

Item 23 I complete my homework as much as possible

Item 24 When I miss the class, I ask my friends what the teacher has taught in AMs The summary of data collection instrument will be demonstrated in the next section 3.4.3 Summary of data collection instruments

To conclude the research instruments with their purpose, the summary will be conceptualized in the following figure

Figure 3.5: Summary of Data collection instruments

Data collection procedures

To collect data from the participants, the researcher prepared a permission form consisting of the title of the research, its purposes, and data collection instruments This form was approved by the head of the English Language Center After the permission, this research was conducted through three phases including before a treatment, the treatment, and after the treatment

In the first phase, 80 participants from 4 classes divided into control and experiment groups took the TOEIC actual test – reading section chosen from the book ETS Summer 2021 in 55 minutes All the questions in this test were MCQs and the researcher scored the test The participants did not know an answer key for this test, they just knew their final score These scores were saved as evidence for comparison to the result of the final stage of the research Regarding the reading class, each class attended three lessons per week and each lesson lasted ninety minutes Therefore, each student had 270 minutes to study English in class each week (equivalent to 4 hours

30 minutes per week) The students learned listening skills on the first day of week including Monday and Tuesday On Wednesday and Friday or Thursday and Saturday, they learn reading skills The students must learn reading skills more than listening skills because they have to study more grammar points, vocabularies, and strategies for the reading test than the listening test

In the second phase, the researcher carefully selected AMs Authentic text materials for ESL or EFL teachers used in reading classes are newspaper or magazine with the information of newsletter, advertisement, and article; besides, this study found out the efficiency of using company documents such as e-mail, web page, letter, memo, and information brochure Furthermore, this study also applied AMs from real-life situations such as text messages, reviews from a website, restaurant menus, or flight schedules These materials were chosen on the internet

47 and printed materials In the study, the participants were in intermediate levels; therefore, the teacher chose the authentic texts and analyzed the level by an online website: www.textinspector.com to evaluate the levels of the text in intermediate and upper-intermediate levels, which are equivalent to B1 and B2, following Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) During the experimental time, the teacher instructed a reading comprehension one days per week for each class The EG had studied with the treatment every Thursday The CG learned reading comprehension by traditional instruction and available reading material in the textbook The participants in CG were assigned the same amount of reading materials as the EG, but these kinds of materials were picked up in the textbook Conversely, the

EG were assigned the authentic reading materials which the teacher compiled from a variety of sources The sources of AMs chosen had been included in Appendix 6 These AMs must be appropriate for the participants’ level and meet the research criterion The treatment period was conducted in 13 weeks with 9 reading lessons The participants had completed the pretest in the first week; after that time, they took the midterm examination following the regulation and format of the English center in the ninth week The treatment had been finished at the twelfth week with the posttest and questionnaire for EG The researcher strictly complied with the curriculum (Appendix 4) and lesson plan for CG (Appendix 2A) and lesson plan for EG (Appendix 2B) in the reading classes

Table 3.3: An extract of curriculum for CG and EG

Week Date Control Group Date Experimental Group

 Reading material: in the main textbook

Reading material: in the other textbook

Teacher’s given materials regarding AMs

 Reading material: in the main text book

In the final phase, the participants from both groups took the posttest again after 12 weeks of treatment, this test was different from the pretest but at the same levels The scores of the posttest

49 were analyzed and compared to those of the pretest to find out whether the result of this research was positive or not After that time, the printed questionnaire was administered for the EG to obtain the students’ attitudes towards the use of AMs in TOEIC reading classes The participant in CG and EG ended the treatment in the thirteenth week with the posttest and the questionnaire

The data collection procedures will be summarized in the following table:

Phase Control group Experimental group

+ additional reading materials in a textbook

Direct instruction + authentic reading materials outside the textbook Phase 3: After treatment

Reliability and Validity

Regarding the terms of reliability and validity of the research, Fraenkel & Wallen (2009) mentioned reliability refers to the consistency of scores from the test or the items in the questionnaire, while validity refers to the “appropriateness, meaningfulness, correctness, and usefulness of the inferences a researcher makes” (p.147)

One of the three best-known ways to obtain a reliability coefficient is the “test-retest method” (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2009) To this end, in this research, the participants had completed the same level of pretest and posttest at a different time to ensure the reliability of the research In

50 other words, the reliability of the pretest-posttest instrument in this paper is the relationship between scores of the same individuals on the same instrument at two different times To check the reliability of the questionnaire, the questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese to avoid participants’ misunderstandings of the wording Besides, the researcher based on the Cronbach’s alpha for independent variables calculated in SPSS, according to Hoang and Chu (2008), if the Cronbach alpha is between 6 - 7, it is acceptable The Cronbach alpha statistic for each construct including affective attitude with the Cronbach’s alpha 678 and behavioral attitudes with the Cronbach’s alpha 686

Based on Cronbach's alpha, the rate of the questionnaire is acceptable and it has officially met the requirement to be conducted to find out the result for the second research question mentioned in chapter 1

In terms of validity, the pretest and posttest were used in the first phase and final phase of the research chosen from publisher whose authorization from the host of organizing the TOEIC test; therefore, the test was valid to the participants because they must complete the actual TOEIC tests at least once to three times through their entire practice course To check the validity of the questionnaire, the researcher checked three types of validity including face, construct, and content validity (Roopa &Rani, 2012) In terms of face validity, the questionnaire was translated into English and Vietnamese language Besides, the questionnaire conformed to existing ideas concerning the construct which were being measured including affective and behavioral attitudes construct In addition, the questionnaire followed content validity by ways of consulting the researcher’s advisor who also understood the research and went through the questionnaire She was double - checking whether the questionnaire had captured the topic under investigation effectively or not

Summary of Chapter 3

This chapter has discussed the methodology the current study employed including the participants in the study, the research design, the treatment for control group and experimental group, the instruments, the data collection procedure, and the method of analyzing the data The chapter has provided how the study was conducted in a reliable and valid way Thus, the next chapter shows the analysis and interpretation of the data.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

Data analysis

Following the characteristics among participants in this research including homogeneity, ages, genders, and language proficiency Firstly, in terms of the homogeneity, the participants are in intermediate level, they have passed basic and pre-intermediate level before joining this research All of them experienced the same physical condition of the classroom, the same official curriculum, and the same amount of time for the whole research However, to answer the research questions, the participant must study different materials depending on the researcher’s requirement and arrangement In addition, the participants from CG and EG did not join any TOEIC class outside the English center to make sure that they received the same amount of background knowledge in practicing reading skills Secondly, pertaining to ages, genders, and language proficiency, the table 4.1 below presents information of the learners’ background

The table presents female participants in two group were more than male participants (55% females compared to 45% males in CG and 62.5% females compares to 37.5% male in EG) Besides, the participants are all over 18 years old, most of them are students from college or university in Ho Chi Minh city (55% in CG and 62.5% in EG), and working people or postgraduate students Regarding time of learning English, it can be seen in the table that almost the participants have studied English for over 10 years (62.5% in CG and 57.5% in EG) Following the participants’ characteristic figure, it can be seen that there is no considerable difference between two groups

4.1.2 Participants’ TOEIC Reading comprehension test results

4.1.2.1 Students’ reading performance - Pretest result

The pre-test of CG and EG were conducted on Jun 1 st and Jun 2 nd , the result was marked by the researcher All of the questions in the test are multiple choice questions; therefore, the scores are marked following the available scale of the English Language Center (Appendix 5) There are

70 questions in the test and the participant gains approximately 5 marks for each right answer; therefore, the highest score for the test is 350 marks A descriptive statistic and an independent sample t-test was used to explore whether there was a statistically significant difference between the pre-test results of both CG and EG The results were displayed in Table 4.2 below

Table 4.2: CG and EG pre-test scores

Group N Mean Std Deviation Std Error Mean

After examining the test score, the mean scores of CG and EG pretest were measured Following Table 4.2, CG pretest mean score was about 241.12 while EG pretest mean score was 234.75 Particularly, CG pretest mean score (M$1.12, SDR.55, N@) was slightly higher than EG pretest mean score (M#4.75, SDY.48, N@) Obviously, there was a modicum of difference between the two values Accordingly, the independent sample t-test was applied to measure whether the difference between two groups was acceptable or not as the Table 4.3 below

Table 4.3: Independent sample T-test of pre-test results

Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means

Std Error Difference Pre_test_ result

As shown in Table 4.3, from the results of the T-test for equality of means, the Sig (2- tailed) value is 613>.05 showing that the CG and EG had no significant difference in the pretest scores Therefore, the reading comprehension result of CG and EG was considered being equal to each other before the intervention

4.1.2.2 Students’ reading performance – Posttest result

Posttest was completed after 12 weeks of treatment, and the Table 4.3 below shows the different mean score of CG and EG

Table 4.4: CG and EG posttest scores

Post_test_result Control group 40 242.62 51.19 8.09

After marking the posttest score, the mean scores of CG and EG posttest were measured The Table 4.4 demonstrates that CG posttest mean score was about 242.63 while EG posttest mean score was 313.25 Specifically, EG posttest mean score (M13.25, SDX.17, N@) was

56 considerably higher than CG posttest mean score (M$2.63, SDQ.19, N@) Apparently, there was a difference between the two values Then, the independent sample T-test was performed to measure how they were different as Table 4.5 below

Table 4.5: Independent sample T-test of posttest results

Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means

Std Error Difference Post_test

As shown in Table 4.5, from the results of the T-test for equality of means, the Sig (2- tailed) value is 002 05 This value shows that there is no significant difference between the pretest and posttest results in the CG

On the other hand, following the pair sample t-test analysis, the mean difference of EG pretest and posttest is 78.5 and Sig (2-tailed) value is 000 < 05 The value shows that there is a significant difference between the pretest and posttest results of the EG Moreover, it is remarkable that the posttest scores are higher than the pretest scores in this group It can be concluded that the participants in the EG significantly improved their reading comprehension performance after the intervention The kind of improvement can be visually seen from the following table and chart

Table 4.7: Summary of the pre-test and posttest results

Test Control group Experimental group Sig (2- tailed)

N Mean SD Sig (2- tailed) Independent sample t-test

The mean of pretest and posttest results can be demonstrated more clearly by the chart below

Figure 4.1: Comparison of mean of pretest and posttest scores

In general, as shown in Table 4.7 and Figure 4.1, after the treatment, the result demonstrated that there was a significant difference between the EG and CG Specifically, Table 4.7 showed that

59 the two group results were higher than the ones before the treatment; nevertheless, the EG results were considerably higher than CG results Therefore, the use of AMs in reading class helped improve the learners’ reading comprehension performances and have a positive impact on their reading process The participants’ attitude in reading classes will be demonstrated in the following section

To analyze the questionnaire data, the researcher used descriptive statistics through SPSS to obtain the result Further discussion of the data and its relation to the conceptual framework of the study will be shown in the chapter to answer the second research questions mentioned in chapter

4.1.3.1 Participant’s affective attitude toward the use of AMs in reading class

This section was conducted to investigate the learners’ attitude toward studying with AMs in terms of three categories including interest, enthusiasm, and confidence, which were listed from the highest to the lowest mean score There were 12 questions in total which were illustrated in the table below

Table 4.8: The learner’s affective attitude toward the use of AMs

11 I feel confident in reading and understanding AMs outside the classroom

12 I feel confident in taking TOEIC reading test than before 4.55 81

6 I enjoy doing activities with AMs 4.05 88

7 I enjoy learning real-life situations in AMs 4.60 99

8 AMs is colorful and visual 4.35 94

9 Studying with AMs makes me more diligent in learning new vocabularies and phrases in AMs

10 AMs help me to improve my readiness to read the materials 4.05 1.04

1 I feel excited when the instructor is about to show AMs 3.95 81

2 I feel comfortable when learning reading skill with AMs 4.55 92

3 I prefer studying with AMs than textbooks 4.10 96

4 Honestly, I initially have lack of interest in learning with AMs 3.80 1.10

5 I do not feel anxious when studying with AMs in TOEIC reading class

Discussion of findings

Based on the data analysis provided in the previous part, the date serves to present a discussion of the analysis in relation to previous the study of using AMs in teaching reading comprehension The discussion in this section is created depended on two themes regarding the two research questions mentioned in chapter 1, i.e the effect of using AMs in reading comprehension and the learner’s attitude toward the use of AMs in reading class

4.2.1 The effect of AMs on the learner’s reading comprehension at the English Language

Center The use of AMs in reading class is beneficial for boosting TOEIC reading comprehension based on the data analysis from the pre-test and posttest Contrary to the research of Apsari (2014), this research stated that the use of AMs brings a better learning outcome for TOEIC learners Specifically, concerning final score of TOEIC reading comprehension part, the two groups were nearly similar before the treatment; however, the experimental group increase significantly (from Mean = 242.62 to Mean = 313.25) while the control group score slightly increase (from Mean 241.12 to Mean = 242.62) The comparison between the mean scores revealed that the learners who studied with AMs collected from various sources outside the textbook were more successful than those who studied reading comprehension in the textbook The finding is consistent with the purpose of using AMs in reading class like the study of Marzban & Davaji (2015) that AMs improve the learners’ comprehension ability for intermediate level

In addition, the learners in the experimental group have the chance to be exposed to authentic reading materials, which have more attractive appearance It makes the learner more interested in the lesson than other text printed in the textbook with black and white and they prefer

67 to read various kind of AMs The finding also supported Tulgar (2018) studies that the learners prefer to learn new things from the AMs and concentrate on comprehension

Another characteristic of the AMs found is assisting the students in reducing anxiety and pressure when learning reading in the classroom, they can join the activities comfortably and give their opinion openly through the tasks designed by the teacher, this finding is contrary to Albiladi

(2018) which stated that the AMs sometimes over the learners’ level, make them frustrated and unmotivated The students in the experimental group appeared to be more motivated when AMs were introduced to use for teaching Besides, the topic for each lesson was similar but the content was updated and designed with suitable task types

Contrary to the research result of Dao (2019) which concluded the teacher should use AMs for basic level than advanced level This study showed that the AMs use for intermediate level also give a good impact for the learners In addition, the AMs used in receptive competencies class like reading classes is more frequently than in productive competencies class, this result also support Dao (2019) findings

In conclusion, the results of the current research did support the effectiveness of using AMs for teaching reading comprehension The results were in accordance with other researchers who also administered researches relating to the use of AMs in not only reading but in other skills and linguistic aspects as well The first question “To what extent does the use of AMs affect the learner’s reading comprehension at an English Language Center in Ho Chi Minh City?” was answered through these above finding in this section The students in the experimental group got more advanced in term of reading comprehension compared to those in the control group To find out further about the student’s attitudes, following was the finding for the second research question

“What are the learners’ attitudes towards the use of AMs in TOEIC reading classes?”

4.2.2 The learners’ attitudes towards the use of AMs in reading classes

In this study, the learners’ attitudes towards the use of AMs in reading classes were investigated in terms of affective and behavioral attitude The affective attitudes are more positive than behavioral attitudes, which is demonstrated by the average of mean score in the questionnaire

The affective attitudes investigated including interest, enthusiasm, and confidence; according to the result of the questionnaire, the learners have positive attitude and good impression about the new materials and a stimulating attitude toward learning with AMs In comparison, these findings of the current study are in line with other researchers like Tran (2015) and Tulgar (2018) who researched in the same field The research found out that the application of AMs motivated the students in learning reading comprehension and made them have positive affective attitudes towards learning how to read different materials outside the classroom Particularly, the students show their interest in the new materials including the content, activity design and the material appearance The learners can find enjoyment in learning with AMs, they enjoy learning real-life situations more than the one in their textbook and solving new tasks relating to the AMs Despite being anxious at the first time of exposing AMs, the students are still enthusiastic about the activities and tasks They show more enthusiasm about engaging in and contributing to reading activities when learning with new material As a result, AMs grab the students’ attention and make them want to read other AMs In other words, the learners feel their learning process is more enjoyable and understandable Regarding confidence, one aspect of affective attitudes, the finding also supports Paarmawati & Yugafiati (2017) study stating that the learners could defeat challenging text in AMs which bring them confidence in taking the actual test They feel more confident in their encountering the new materials and their reading ability Besides, AMs used in the classroom made it more relaxed; to this end, the learners changed their mind set about how to

69 learn reading skill with AMs and they can actively read any other text by themselves outside the classroom because of the real and applicable knowledge in AMs They must invest more time and effort in preparing the lesson for what they are going to learn since there were no reference books; as well as search for difficult words before the class It was important to help the learners acknowledge the benefits of self-study outside the classroom like the research of Paarmawati & Yugafiati (2017) which showed the learners enhance their self-confidence and text description in reading comprehension

The students’ behavioral attitudes also change positively and can be found in concentration, involvement, and relatively positive effort They concentrate on the lesson and activities happening in the classroom and try to solve them by themselves like the finding of Albiladi (2018) The use of AMs makes the students boost their knowledge about the language use of native speakers and increase the concentration in reading class In addition, the learners spontaneously take note of all the new words and phrases and learn by heart at home, they prepare for the lesson more often The preparation includes reading the text in advance, checking vocabulary, and taking notes on difficult parts This way makes them have a good test final result and use the knowledge in AMs to answer questions in TOEIC reading comprehension, especially in Part 7 However, while the students’ preparation and joint activities during the class changes dramatically, their behavior after the class is not remarkable After the class, the learners are not usually complete their homework and make an effort in asking their friends what the teacher has taught in AMs when they miss the class The learners’ effort cannot change after a short time of practicing with AMs This finding is contrary to Vu (2018) which showed that the learners’ attitudes towards using AMs in reading comprehension can change after a short period of practicing

In conclusion, the students’ affective and behavioral attitudes have changed positively after learning 12 weeks learning with AMs which were shown in the result of the questionnaire They actively read the materials and solve new tasks relating to the AMs; moreover, they would like to study with AMs in the future.

Summary of chapter 4

In this chapter, the data were analyzed by SPSS vs 22 and the findings were discussed in relation to the objective of the research Also, the pre-test and posttest result, the effect of AMs, and learners’ attitude were apparently presented in the chapter The positive affective and behavioral attitudes make the learners recognize some good benefits of the new materials and have an optimistic attitude towards language learning, especially in learning reading comprehension

CONCLUSIONS

Conclusion

The present study was to see how the AMs affected the TOEIC learners’ reading comprehension skill at the English Language Center The researcher examined the influence of the AMs use on the reading comprehension result as well as explored the learners’ attitudes towards the use of AMs in reading class after the whole course for 40 participants who were chosen into the experimental group It can be said that the research had been carried out successfully regarding finding evidence and statistics to answer the two research questions cited in Chapter 1

The result of pretest, posttest, and questionnaire were calculated and analyzed according to the aims of the two research questions

The following is a summary of what was said:

Research question 1: To what extent does the use of AMs affect the learner’s reading comprehension at an English Language Center in Ho Chi Minh City?

The results of the pretest and posttest revealed that after the intervention using AMs in reading class, the reading comprehension performance of the participants in the experimental group had been improved significantly while the control group had no significant difference The improvement is the result of using AMs in conjunction with the main course for reading comprehension practice in the TOEIC Test The learners in the experimental group have to expose new kinds of materials for the first time in the classroom, which brings them effectiveness after

72 the whole intervention They reduce anxiety and pressure but improve their confidence and self- study ability due to the reality and application of the AMs

Research question 2: What are the learners’ attitudes towards the use of AMs in TOEIC reading classes?

Implication

5.2.1 Implication for the TOEIC trainers

The application of AMs during reading lessons with a view to guiding the students expose to different kind of material resources outside the classroom gained a positive result Based on the findings of this research, the TOEIC trainers should take into consideration these factors when using the AMs in reading class, including students’ concentration, confidence improvement and their concentration

Based on the finding of learners’ attitude, the teachers should use the AMs in reading class to enhance the learners’ confidence and enthusiasm as well as self-study ability Beside using the

AMs in the classroom, they should be used outside the classroom by the teachers’ support After the course, the teacher introduced a lot of sources of AMs for their students to make them have more chances to access the AMs as a good habit

To engage the learners in TOEIC reading class, choosing suitable materials for the students’ need and abilities as well as structure and lexis is considered as the most difficult job and take an amount of the teachers’ time and effort The most important rule of selecting AMs is following the criteria to measure if the AMs fit the teachers’ requirements The teachers clearly determine teaching purposes before each lesson first, and then choose the materials The materials should be long enough to encourage discussion and suggest pedagogical abilities, and short enough to make sure the learners achieve a good treatment and maintain sense of impact, and create a positive environment for language learning

In short, the support from the teacher is important in the successful of the teaching and learning process in reading class The teacher plays roles in their class such as a facilitator, an observer, or a friend of the learners The teacher’s responsibility is to help the learners solve the difficulties in class, give feedback and opinion whenever the learner needs However, it does not mean that the teachers do all the task and expect the students to follow exactly what they want The learner’s autonomy should be encouraged in authentic material-based class, it will help them become efficient communicator and explore the AMs by themselves outside the classroom The next section will give some suggestions for the TOEIC learners

For the learners, the use of AMs in reading class help them have a chance to expose new kind of materials in learning English process AMs provide real example of language in real context, which make the learners gain higher score in reading comprehension part of the TOEIC

Test Moreover, the use of AMs makes the English class more comfortable and interactive As a result, the learners are aware of the efficiency of AMs which encourage them to use these kind of materials outside the classroom For instance, the learner can easily expose to English newspaper, magazines, website, brochure, or advertisement without anxiety In this way, the learners can recognize how the language is used in real life circumstances.

Limitations of the study

Despite finding a number of good effects on students’ reading comprehension performance, there are several limitations of the present study that can be addressed in further research

The first restriction of the study is relating the study’s sample size, which is not sufficiently enough to satisfy the demand for generality The small sample size of this study might influence on the significant effectiveness of the AMs use in reading class The number of participants in each group was 40 that was over the minimum number of participants in an experiment The results would be more reliable and valid if there were a larger number of participants

Another limitation for this research is the period of conducting the intervention, 12 weeks for data collection might be quite short to collect data and to document the most comprehensive and overall picture of the research problems The research findings would have been more significant if it had lasted longer and covered all of the topics more thoroughly

In addition, the current research intends to investigate the learners’ attitudes including emotion and behavior; however, the questionnaire was designed to measure those aspects with many items, which might take the students tired and it might affect the accuracy and reliability of their responses From the limitations found in this study, some recommendations for further research in the following section are shown to avoid these limitations

Recommendations for further research

Based on the aforementioned limitation of the study, the following recommendations for further research are made

To begin a further research, a larger sample size should be used to enhance the accuracy of the study’s conclusions Future studies in the same field could select more participants in the experiment and expand the time in the experiment to achieve a stronger result In particular, each group should have a minimum of 50 learners Moreover, the study should be undertaken over a longer period of time to allow researchers to collect more data analysis Finally, the questionnaire used to conduct the research should be designed to elicit deeper attitude from the participants in order to obtain more accurate results Besides, the questionnaire should contain the participant’s email to bring more reliable and valid results

With the help of research instruments and data collection procedures, the present study expects to share significant results to contribute to English teaching education in the Vietnamese context concerning practical and theoretical aspects This will lead to a further path for other researchers who are interested in the topic.

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QUESTIONNAIRE

This questionnaire is to find out your attitudes toward the use of authentic materials (AMs) in TOEIC Reading comprehension class in terms of affective and behavioral attitude Besides, the results of this questionnaire will help my teaching process improve more effectively and rigorously in the TOEIC preparation courses Therefore, your cooperation is highly essential for my research

Please be noted that your answer is recognized and respected, it is not a right or wrong answer and it is not a part of your course evaluation, so please give your opinion honestly The answer and personal information you provide is anonymous and will be used for my research purposes only

Thank you very much for your valuable time and responses!

Please carefully read the statement below and select a suitable choice

 Time of learning English (years)

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following items? These items ask you about your attitude towards the use of AMs in our reading class recently Please read the statements below carefully and tick () the most appropriate selection to show what your opinion is Use the scale below to answer the questionnaire items

1 = Strongly Disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Neutral 4 = Agree 5 = Strongly Agree

1 I feel excited when the instructor is about to show AMs

2 I feel comfortable when learning reading skill with AMs

3 I prefer studying with AMs than textbooks

4 Honestly, I initially have lack of interest in learning with

5 I do not feel anxious when studying with AMs in TOEIC reading class

6 I enjoy doing activities with AMs

7 I enjoy learning real-life situations in AMs

8 AMs are colorful and eye-catching

9 Studying with AMs makes me more diligent in learning new vocabularies and phrases in AMs

10 AMs help me to improve my readiness to read the materials

11 I feel confident in reading and understanding AMs outside the classroom

12 I feel confident in taking TOEIC reading test than before

13 I pay attention to every activity with AMs in reading class

14 I learn by heart new vocabularies in AMs because it makes me know more real-life situation

15 The activities for learning AMs makes the lesson more comfortable and understandable

16 I take note all the new vocabularies and phrases in class

17 I prepare the lesson before class

18 I do all the task in class because the content in AMs is the same as the content in main textbook

19 I try to solve new tasks with AMs when being designated in reading class

20 I use the knowledge in AMs to answer question in TOEIC reading comprehension (Part 7)

21 I usually express my opinion in reading class

22 I expect to study with AMs in the future

23 I complete my homework as much as possible

24 When I miss the class, I ask my friends what the teacher has taught in AMs

Gửi các em học sinh,

Bảng câu hỏi này nhằm tìm hiểu thái độ về cảm xúc và hành vi của các em đối với việc sử dụng tài liệu nguyên bản (AMs) trong lớp Đọc hiểu TOEIC Bên cạnh đó, kết quả của bộ câu hỏi này sẽ giúp quá trình giảng dạy của cô được cải thiện hiệu quả và chặt chẽ hơn trong các khóa luyện thi TOEIC Vì vậy, sự hợp tác của các em là rất cần thiết cho nghiên cứu của cô Xin lưu ý rằng câu trả lời của em được công nhận và tôn trọng, nó không phải là câu trả lời đúng hay sai và nó không phải là một phần đánh giá khóa học của các em, vì vậy hãy đưa ra ý kiến của em một cách trung thực Câu trả lời và thông tin cá nhân em cung cấp sẽ được ẩn danh và chỉ được sử dụng cho bài nghiên cứu của cô

Cảm ơn bạn rất nhiều vì đã dành thời gian để làm bài khảo sát này của các em!

 Số năm học tiếng Anh

B Thái độ của học viên

Em đồng ý hay không đồng ý với các mục sau đây ở mức độ nào? Những mục này hỏi em về thái độ của em đối với việc sử dụng AMs trong lớp đọc của chúng ta gần đây Vui lòng đọc kỹ các câu dưới đây và đánh dấu tick () vào lựa chọn thích hợp nhất để thể hiện ý kiến của em Sử dụng thang điểm dưới đây để trả lời các mục của bảng câu hỏi

1 = Rất không đồng ý 2 = Không đồng ý 3 = Trung lập 4 = Đồng ý 5 = Rất đồng ý

PHẦN 1: THÁI ĐỘ CẢM XÚC

1 Tôi cảm thấy hào hứng khi người hướng dẫn sắp trình chiếu tài liệu nguyên bản

2 Tôi cảm thấy thoải mái khi học với tài liệu nguyên bản

3 Tôi thích học với tài liệu nguyên bản hơn giáo trình

4 Thành thật mà nói, ban đầu tôi không có hứng thú học với tài liệu nguyên bản

5 Tôi không cảm thấy lo lắng khi học với tài liệu nguyên bản trong lớp luyện đọc TOEIC

6 Tôi thích thực hiện các hoạt động với tài liệu nguyên bản

7 Tôi thích tìm hiểu các tình huống thực tế trong tài liệu nguyên bản

8 Tôi không cảm thấy lo lắng khi phải trả lời một câu hỏi trong lớp

9 Học với tài liệu nguyên bản giúp tôi chăm chỉ hơn trong việc học các từ vựng và cụm từ mới

10 Tài liệu nguyên bản giúp tôi cải thiện khả năng sẵn sàng đọc tài liệu

11 Tôi cảm thấy tự tin khi đọc và hiểu tài liệu nguyên bản bên ngoài lớp học

12 Tôi cảm thấy tự tin khi làm bài thi TOEIC Reading hơn trước

PART 2: THÁI ĐỘ HÀNH VI

13 Tôi chú ý đến mọi hoạt động với tài liệu nguyên bản trong lớp đọc

14 Tôi học thuộc lòng các từ vựng mới trong tài liệu nguyên bản vì nó giúp tôi biết nhiều tình huống thực tế hơn

15 Các hoạt động học tài liệu nguyên bản giúp bài học thoải mái và dễ hiểu hơn

16 Tôi ghi chú tất cả các từ vựng và cụm từ mới trong lớp

17 Tôi chuẩn bị bài trước khi đến lớp

18 Tôi làm tất cả các nhiệm vụ trong lớp vì nội dung trong tài liệu nguyên bản giống với nội dung trong sách giáo khoa chính

19 Tôi cố gắng giải quyết các nhiệm vụ mới với tài liệu nguyên bản khi được chỉ định trong lớp đọc

20 Tôi sử dụng kiến thức trong tài liệu nguyên bản để trả lời câu hỏi trong phần đọc hiểu TOEIC (Phần 7)

21 Tôi thường bày tỏ ý kiến của mình trong lớp đọc

22 Tôi mong đợi được học tài liệu nguyên bản trong tương lai

23 Tôi hoàn thành bài tập về nhà nhiều nhất có thể

24 Khi tôi bỏ lỡ lớp học, tôi hỏi bạn bè của mình những gì giáo viên đã dạy trong các buổi sáng

APPENDIX 2A: LESSON PLAN FOR CG

I Objectives: Students are able to

- Comprehend an email and letter structure

- Find the main idea of email and letter text

- Know how to answer main idea/purpose of the email and letter

- Know which vocabularies or phrases usually use in the email and letter

- Predict the outcome of the text

III Teaching aids: handout, textbook

Stages Teacher’s activities Students’ activities Warm up (5 minutes)

+ Have you ever received an email or letter?

+ Is the email or letter in Vietnamese or English?

+ Have you ever written an email or letter to your friend or colleague?

+ In this modern art, do you like to use electric mail or air mail?

- Show a sample of standardize email in textbook TOEIC New Economy 1000, page 28

- Watch and write down some main ideas

- Ask students to guess how many main parts in the email and letter

- Ask them to summarize the main parts of email and letter

Introduce the topic: Tell students they are going to learn reading an email and letter; in addition, they will find out how to read

- Look at the email and answer what they guess

89 the email and letter and answer questions effectively in the TOEIC Test

- Divide class into groups of four

- Ask students to read the email in the textbook

- Ask students to write down which part must be included in the email

- Ask some students to stand up and tell the class their answers

- Ask students to exchange their paper and check other groups’ answers

Parts must be included in the email:

Signature; Personal information for contact

 Give students time to discuss, take notes so that teacher gains specific information

-Divide group -Discuss in group

-Exchange the papers -Take notes

Teacher gives a guiding question for Reading 1:

- Ask students to answer guiding question

1 What is the subject in an email?

2 How can we find the main idea of the email?

3 What is the main idea of this email?

4 Which part include detail information in the email?

5 How does the sender make a suggestion or plan in the email?

6 Which sentence can be used in the closing part?

- Ask them discuss and answer the 6 questions above in group

- Go around to observe and take note students’ mistakes

- Call some students to stand up and answer the question

1 The subject of the email is Business Loan through Anoka Bank

2 The main idea of email and letter is in the first or second sentence

3 To notify the business loan to the customer

4 The detail information is included in body part

5 In the email, they used the pattern:

6 In the email, they used “warmest regards”

- Ask students to read the email twice in the main textbook TOEIC New Economy

- Call 3 students to answer the questions:

1 What does the main idea of the email?

2 What is detail information of the email?

3 What does Amherst Bank offer?

4 What does Amherst Bank suggest?

1 The main idea is that informing the limit of credit card has been raised

2 Detail information: account’s interest rate will be lowered; service contact will be updated

3 The bank offers the client to return to the previous credit and interest rate

4 The bank suggest the client inform the bank by calling 1-800-555-7799

- Look at the emails in the textbook, page

- Ask students to answer question in the test

 Consolidate the pattern of question and how to find the answer quickly

APPENDIX 2B: LESSON PLAN FOR EG

V Objectives: Students are able to

- Comprehend an email and letter structure

- Find the main idea of email and letter text

- Know how to answer main idea/purpose of the email and letter

- Know which vocabularies or phrases usually use in the email and letter

- Predict the outcome of the text

VII Teaching aids: handout, written authentic reading materials

Stages Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

+ Have you ever received an email or letter?

+ Is the email or letter in Vietnamese or English?

+ Have you ever written an email or letter to your friend or colleague?

+ In this modern art, do you like to use electric mail or air mail?

- Show a sample of standardized email (Appendix 2B)

- Ask students to guess how many main parts in the email and letter

- Ask them to summarize the main parts of email and letter

- Look at the email and answer what they guess

Introduce the topic: Tell students they are going to learn reading an email and letter; in addition, they will find out how to read the email and letter and answer questions effectively in the TOEIC Test

- Divide class into groups of four

- Give students the handouts APPENDIX 2A

- Ask students to write down which part must be included in the email

- Ask some students to stand up and tell the class their answers

- Ask students to exchange their paper and check other groups’ answers

Parts must be included in the email:

Signature; Personal information for contact

-Divide group -Discuss in group

-Exchange the papers -Take notes

 Give students time to discuss, take notes so that teacher gains specific information

Teacher gives a guiding question for Reading 1:

- Ask students to answer guiding question

1 What is the subject in an email?

2 How can we find the main idea of the email?

3 What is the main idea of this email?

4 Which part include detail information in the email?

5 How does the sender make a suggestion or plan in the email?

6 Which sentence can be used in the closing part?

- Ask them discuss and answer the 6 questions above in group

- Go around to observe and take note students’ mistakes

- Call some students to stand up and answer the question

1 The subject of the email is Guideline to manage your card security via

2 The main idea of email and letter is in the first or the last sentence of the body part

3 The main idea of this email is to share with Cardholder security tips to use your card in safety by manage card limit and transaction types

4 The detail information is included in body part

5 In the email, the author used the pattern: “Please”

6 In the email, they used “Sincerely”

- Ask students to read the email again and highlight new vocabularies

Suggested new vocabularies or phrases:

Teacher gives a guiding question for Reading 2:

- Ask students to answer guiding question

1 What is the heading in a letter?

2 What is the purpose of this letter?

3 Who will transfer the card to the holder?

4 How can the hold change electronic PIN of the card?

5 What does the email suggest about the application?

1 Notice of issuance of VIB credit card

2 To announce that the Credit Card has been successfully issued

3 VIB staff or a partner authorized by VIB

4 Customers can actively request anytime, anywhere in just 3 seconds with detailed instructions, click the link

5 Please download the application and use the login information sent to you via email and phone number registered with VIB

- Ask students to read the email again and highlight new vocabularies

Suggested new vocabularies or phrases:

3 deploy (v): to use something effectively

 Consolidate the pattern of question and how to find the answer quickly

-Ask students to remember the structure of the email and letter, take note how to find the main idea of email or letter

- Make questions to the teacher

From: Shinhan Bank Vietnam Ltd

Subject: Guideline to manage your card security via SOL/Internet Banking

GUIDELINE TO MANAGE YOUR CARD SECURITY VIA SOL/ INTERNET BANKING

Shinhan Bank Vietnam Limited would like to express our sincere thanks for your trust and usage of Shinhan Bank’s products and services during the last time

Customer’s information security awareness is more importance, especially Card transactions Therefore, we would like to share with Cardholder security tips to use your card in safety by manage card limit and transaction types

Please kindly find our guidelines click here

For further assistance, please contact us at Contact Center at 1900 1577

Notice of issuance of VIB credit card

Dear VO HUYEN TRINH CUSTOMERS,

Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB) would like to thank you for your interest in VIB's credit card service VIB is pleased to announce that your Credit

Card has been successfully issued with the following information:

Cardholder's name: VO HUYEN TRINH

Card type: VIB FINANCIAL FREE credit card

The card will be delivered to you within 03-07 working days at the address you have

100 registered Note: for VIB Toss 2in1 card, the card will be delivered when your request to issue a physical card on the Toss app is processed or when VIB receives a request to issue a physical card

Please prepare ID / CCCD (original), Household registration (original) for comparison when receiving the card VIB staff or a partner authorized by VIB will carry out authentication procedures by comparing documents, taking portraits, signing documents and handing over cards In order to support the quick and convenient card delivery and receipt, please see instructions on how to prepare documents here

Right now, you can activate your e-Credit Card (*) at MyVIB application according to the instructions here and start making online transactions After receiving the physical card, you unlock the transaction function at ATM/POS by:

- Access and activate at MyVIB application; or

- Contact Customer Service 24/7 (toll free) 1800 8195

In order to join hands to protect the green environment, VIB has deployed to provide electronic PIN through MyVIB application completely free of charge and customers can actively request anytime, anywhere in just 3 seconds with detailed instructions details here

In addition, if you still need to use a paper PIN, please contact the Hotline 1800 8195 or the nearest branches for support Paper PIN issuance fee will be applied according to the fee schedule from time to time

If you do not have the MyVIB application, please download the application and use the login information sent to you via email and phone number registered with VIB

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE LESSON PLAN OF CG AND EG

Control Group (While-reading) Experimental Group (While-reading) Lead in:

- T divides class into groups of two

- Ss find the topic of the brochure in the textbook (Figure 3.1)

- Ss highlight new words in the brochure

- Ss guess the meaning of the new words

- T asks 3 Ss to stand up and tell the topic to the class

- T divides class into groups of two

- Ss find the topic of the brochure in the AMs (Figure 3.2)

- Ss highlight new words in the brochure

- Ss guess the meaning of the new words

- T asks 3 Ss to stand up and tell the topic to the class

T gives a guiding question for Reading 1 in the main textbook

1 What is the main idea of the brochure?

2 How many main parts are in the brochure? and what are they?

3 What does Enterprise Inc work for?

T gives a guiding question for Reading 1 in the AMs

1 What is the main idea of the brochure?

2 How many main parts are in the brochure? and what are they?

4 What does Mr Tedesco mention?

5 What does Mr Merrill mention?

6 What should the reader do after reading the brochure?

- Ss discuss and answer the 6 questions above in group

- T goes around to observe and takes note students’ mistakes

- T calls 3 Ss to stand up and answer the question

- T gives Ss the meaning of new words:

+ shred (v): to cut or tear something into small pieces

+ disposal (n): the sale of part of a business

+ confidential (a): meant to be kept secret and not told to or shared with other people

- T asks Ss to answer multiple choices questions in the textbook

- Ss to learn by heart new words

- T consolidates the pattern of question and how to find the answer quickly

3 What does Aizen Accounting Software work for?

4 What unit does Aizen Accounting Software use for?

5 What will the user do after 3 months?

6 How to contact the Aizen Accounting Software?

- Ss discuss and answer the 6 questions above in group

- T goes around to observe and takes note students’ mistakes

- T calls 3 Ss to stand up and answer the question

- T give Ss the meaning of new words:

+ customizable (a): can be customized + robust (a): strong and not likely to fail or become weak

+ accuracy (n): the state of being exact or correct

+ professionalism (n): the high standard that you expect from a person who is well trained in a particular job

+ module (n): a unit of a computer system or program

+ inventory (n): all the goods in a store

- Ss learn by heart new words

- T asks Ss to answer questions designed

1 What is the software used for?

2 What will happen after 3 months of using the software?

3 Which module plays a role like a bookkeeper?

- Ss work in group to answer these questions

- T consolidates the pattern of question and how to find the answer quickly

CURRICULUM FOR CG AND EG

Week Date Control Group Date Experimental Group

 Reading material: in the main textbook

Reading material: in the other textbook

Jun 9 th  Unit 1 – Email and Letter

 Reading material: in the main textbook

Teacher’s given materials regarding AMs

 Reading material: in the main text book

Jun 16 th  Unit 2 – Memo and notice

 Reading material: in the main textbook

 Reading material: in the main text book

 Reading material: in the main text book

 Reading material: in the main text book

 Reading material: in the main text book

 Reading material: in the main text book

 Reading material: in the main text book

 Reading material: in the main text book

 Reading material: in the main text book

 Reading material: in the main text book

 Reading material: in the main text book

 Midterm exam and Test correction

Aug 4 th  Midterm exam and Test correction

 Reading material: in the main text book

Reading material: in the other textbook

 Reading material: in the main text book

Teacher’s given materials or students’ choice

 Reading material: in the main text book

 Reading material: in the main text book

 Reading material: in the main text book

 Reading material: in the main text book

TOEIC SCORE CONVERSION

MATERIAL’S RESOURCES FOR THE TREATMENT OF EG

Personal email account of the researcher TTP SOFTWARE COMPANY https://venngage.com/templates

TTP SOFTWARE COMPANY https://martech.org/ https://searchengineland.com/ https://oursocialtimes.com/ https://adage.com/ https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-review-sites https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/ https://www.quora.com/

Invoice http://mediasite.com http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ https://www.odoo.com/ https://www.freshbooks.com/invoice-templates/english Article

The Saigon Times https://www.huffpost.com/ https://www.foxnews.com/ https://edition.cnn.com/

(852) 2263 6104 yandyw@isl.com.hk https://www.isl.com.hk/en/

Unit 512, Lakeside 1, No.8 Science Park

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Its core product, ReportNOW, is a mobility digital transformation platform, withReportNOWs.the art technology and tonsJ!^practical functionaiides.itustomer can now be easily satisfied the demand of digital transformation as well as to quickly improve the mobility of their task force.

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, . nlatform with ReportNOWs the state of art technology and tons of practical functonScu^omeYcan now be easTy satisfied thT demand of digital transformation as we?l as to quicWy improve the mobility of their task force. practice, user can continuously digitalise existing

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HONG KONG’ S ICT INDUSTRY °L ,£ ne i se Acc °r ,dli.l„- he Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong n 20 9' th, ere were 11,095 enterplises ICT industf y.with 108,982 persons engaged in the ICT sector, including profession 9 and technical workers (e.g network engineers, technicians, programmers, web portal designers, informatiorI technology professionals etc.) and workers in non technical fields (e.g clerical and accounting staff).

To foster the ICT development, Hong Kong Government has put in place various initiatives, such as funding support, provision of infrastructure, international cooperation and manpower development Also, with rising corporate engagements in incubation and accelerators programmes, new initiatives to help start-ups hatching from universities, particularly the emergence of start-ups with a

"unicorn" status, it is anticipated that Hong Kong's technology sector may soon reach a tipping point and will be propelled into much faster growth.

Currently Hong Kong Government has a Talent List which comprises 11 professions Talents in the List are those Hong Kong needs most in the immediate to medium term for the development of economy Big data software engineer and cyber security specialist are specifi cally needed for Hong Kong's ICT industry We believe the unlimited opportunities in Hong Kong definitely attract targeted ingenious talents from around the world to create cluster effects, stimulate the development of local talents and propel Hong Kong forward.

We also believe with new opportunities from the Guangdong-Hong 3ay irea develo P™ent, Hong Kong will further capital ize on its advantages in R&D capabilities, technological inf rastructure.l^al ^stern and intẹlle5tual property protection to spearhead the ICT development, and act as a solid business platform for innovative companies to access the Asian market, or mainland China ’ s innova tive companies to go international.

EXTRACTS OF THE TOEIC TEST

Directions: In this part you will read a selection of texts, such as magazine and newspaper articles, e-mails, and instant messages Each text or set of texts is followed by several questions Select the best answer for each question and mark the letter (A), (B), (C), or (D) on your answer sheet.

Questions 147-148 refer to the following notice.

The City of Asherton proudly presents a Garden Fair on the grounds of Asherton Manor

Free admission includes Children’s games, crafts, and local bands Shuttle buses from nearby Asherton Train and Bus Station

Plants and seeds for sale Refreshments for purchase—hot and cold beverages, cakes, sandwiches, and more!

Tours of Asherton Manor available for a small fee Parking available at the manor for $10 per vehicle

147 What is indicated about Asherton Manor? 148 What will NOT be free at the fair?

(A) It is available for private parties.

(B) It is open daily from 11:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.

(C) It always offers guided tours.

(D) It is near a train station.

(A) Games (B) Music (C) Shuttle rides (D) On-site parking

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

Questions 149-150 refer to the following advertisement.

Looking for a caterer for your special occasion? Search no longer! Eleanor’s Catering can be of help for every type of social gathering—from small, intimate gatherings to large, formal events Eleanor’s offers high-quality, delicious food for all occasions Our full-service catering service includes beverages and rentals of tables, linens, dishes, and cutlery Our staff will do everything to make your special event a success—we will deliver everything you need, set it up, and then remove it afterward.

To get a cost estimate, please complete a Catering Request Form on our Web site at www.eleanorscatering.com Tasting of menu items is available upon request.

149 What is the purpose of the advertisement?

(A) To offer a discount to new clients

(B) To announce new menu items

(C) To describe the services of a business

150 According to the advertisement, what is available by special request?

(A) Food sampling (B) Vegetarian meals (C) Itemized bills (D) Decorations

Questions 151-152 refer to the following e-mail.

To: rrwiest@lupinecityhall.com I l-'roni: ! dbryant@arcospartners.com 1

I e-mailed you the site survey document on Monday, so it’ s strange that you didn’t see it Perhaps because I sent it from my personal e-mail rather than my work e-mail, your server didn’t recognize it and routed it to your junk-mail folder instead In any case, I will reattach the document here.

If the site is approved by next week, my team will expedite the completion of the final blueprints The property owner hopes to have the full building project approved before the end of the month so that the construction team can start laying the foundation in

151 According to Ms Bryant, why might

Mr Wiest not have seen the original document?

(A) She forgot to attach it to her e-mail.

(B) She sent it to a different person.

(C) It may have gone to the wrong e-mail folder.

(D) The file in it may have been too large.

152 Who most likely is Ms Bryant?

(A) An architect (B) An apartment-building manager (C) A banker

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE

Questions 153-154 refer to the following online chat discussion.

Mandi Garafelli (3:32 P.M.): Hello Thanks for contacting Pictures Camera customer service How can I help you today?

Theo Ubari (3:33 P.M.): Hi I recently bought the Picturos 3000 Pm having ttouble downloading photos from the camera to my computer.

Mandi Garafelli (3:35 P.M.): OK Have you done these steps? 1 Check the connection between the camera and the computer 2 Turn the camera off and on again 3 Reboot the computer with the camera connected.

Theo Ubari (3:38 P.M.): I tried steps 1 and 2 Nothing improved.

Mandi Garafelli (3:41 P.M.) : Before you try step 3, go into your “applications” folder and look for an icon that says “Pictures 3000.” Do you see it?

Theo Ubari (3:42 P.M.): Yes, it’s there.

Mandi Garafelli (3:43 P.M.) : Double click it Your pictures should automatically appear.

Theo Ubari (3:44 P.M.): That worked! Thanks for your help!

153 What has Mr Ubari NOT done?

(B) Connected the camera to the computer

154 At 3:42 P.M., what does Mr Ubari most likely mean when he writes, “ Yes, it’s there ”?

Questions 155-157 refer to the following memo.

Tomorrow, September 4, we will have a safety inspection here in the factory The inspector,

Ms Hannah Langan, is expected to arrive at 8:30 A.M and depart by 3:30 P.M Note that there will be preliminary meetings prior to the inspection itself The schedule is below.

Time Activity Required Attendees Location

9:00 A.M Opening meeting AU staff Cafeteria

10:00 A.M Inspector meets with General Manager Damian Perez Meeting Room c

12:30 P.M Operations inspection AU staff Factory floor

With the exception of the opening meeting, factory floor workers should be at their regular stations throughout the day During the operations inspection, the inspector may visit workstations and ask about machines Please respond directly and honestly, and then continue working as soon as the inspector moves on.

155 Who most likely is Mr Perez?

156 When will the inspection begin?

157 What does the memo suggest about factory floor workers?

(A) They must prepare written reports. (B) They will be able to leave work early. (C) Their afternoon work might be interrupted.

(D) Their workstations might be unavailable.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE