A study on using authentic materials in teaching English in the context of Bac Giang High school for gifted students = Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng tài liệu xác thực

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN DANH HÀO A STUDY ON USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS IN TEACHING EN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN DANH HÀO

A STUDY ON USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS IN TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE CONTEXT OF BAC GIANG HIGH SCHOOL FOR

GIFTED STUDENTS (Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng Tài liệu xác thực trong giảng dạy Tiếng Anh tại

ngữ cảnh Trường THPT Chuyên Bắc Giang - Bắc Giang)

MA MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi, 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN DANH HÀO

A STUDY ON USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS IN TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE CONTEXT OF BAC GIANG HIGH SCHOOL FOR

GIFTED STUDENTS (Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng Tài liệu xác thực trong giảng dạy Tiếng Anh tại

ngữ cảnh Trường THPT Chuyên Bắc Giang - Bắc Giang)

MA MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

Cohort: MA 17

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

Hanoi, 2010

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Summary of selected students

Table 2: Authentic materials and frequency

Table 3: Types of authentic materials used

Table 4: Authentic materials and skills

Table 5: Usefulness of authentic materials from students‟ perspective Table 6: Problems in using authentic materials

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ………

Abstract ………

List of tables ………

Table of contents ………

PART A: INTRODUCTION ………

1 Rationale for the study ………

2 Aims of the study………

3 Scope of the study ………

4 Significance of the study ………

5 Design of the study………

PART B: DEVELOPMENT ………

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ………

1 1 Authenticity and authentic materials ………

1.1.1 Authenticity in CLT ………

1.1.2 Authentic materials ………

1.1.2.1 Definitions ………

1.1.2.2 Types of authentic materials ………

1.1.2.3 Criteria for selecting authentic materials ………

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

1 2.1 Reasons for using authentic materials ………

1 2.2 Possible problems in using authentic materials ………

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ………

2 1 Participants ………

2 1.1 Students ………

2.1.2 Teachers ………

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ii iii

iv

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2 2 Research settings ………

2 3 Research methods ………

2 3.1 Student Questionnaire ………

2 3.2 Teacher Interview ………

2 3.3 Classroom Observation ………

2 4 Data collection procedure ………

2 5 Data analysis procedure ………

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS ………

3 1 Data description and analysis ………

3 1.1 Research question 1 ………

3 1.2 Research question 2 ………

3 1.3 Research question 3 ………

3 1.4 Research question 4 ………

3 2 Implications ………

PART C: CONCLUSION ………

1 Summary of findings ………

2 Contribution of the research ………

3 Limitation of the research ……… ………

4 Suggestion for further research ……… ………

REFERENCES ………

APPENDIX 1: Student Questionnaire ………

APPENDIX 2: Teacher Interview ………

APPENDIX 3: Interview Transcript ………

APPENDIX 4: Observation Checklist ………

14 16 16 17 17 18 18 20 20 20 24 27 31 35 38 38 39 39 40 41 I IV V

IX

PART A: INTRODUCTION

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

1 Rationale for the study

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

of materials supporting the process of English teaching and learning has always been encouraged

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

There are a number of reasons supporting this idea

In the first place, it is the real situation of teaching and learning English at Bac Giang

High School for Gifted Students, where the research study was carried out Bac Giang High

School for Gifted Students is among a few schools in Vietnam having the best quality of foreign language teaching The students of the school are carefully chosen from all over Bac Giang province and most of them are assured to have high level of proficiency in English compared with those in other schools For this reason, the school curriculum designed for the textbooks often finishes at the end of the first term In the second term, it mainly focuses on developing the students‟ language skills with the help of other supplementary materials Thus, the demand for seeking new sources of materials has been taken into consideration by the teachers and authentic materials are found to be an effective solution to this task

Secondly, it is the availability of authentic materials Due to technological

advancements and the government open-door policy, it is easy to have access to authentic materials rich in content, diverse in forms, and of different levels of linguistic complexity This assists teachers and learners in using authentic materials with much convenience An enormous wealth of authentic materials enables teachers to have a wide variety of choice

based on the objectives of the lesson, as well as learners‟ age, language level, interests, needs, expectations and goals Consequently, teachers will be able to make their lessons more flexible, suitable and especially, interesting enough to motivate learners to learn and practice the language

Thirdly, it is the benefits of using authentic materials in teaching and learning

English The materials obtained from various sources can attract learners‟ attention and create

their motivation towards learning a foreign language As the materials help learners bridge the gap between the classroom and the outside world and enable them to put their theoretical knowledge into practice, they open a way for positive transfer of learning Therefore, authentic materials can increase the quality of foreign language teaching

Last but not least, it is the students‟ need of communication in English in and out of

the classroom Besides English grammar and the fixed teaching points given in textbooks,

there should be other materials to develop students‟ communicative competence, help students to express their ideas fluently and accurately Thus, authentic materials if used properly will encourage learners to communicate in the target language though they are not designed to teach a foreign language

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

2 Aims of the study

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

These objectives were accomplished by answering the following research questions:

(1) How are authentic materials used as supplementary materials for English

learning and teaching?

(2) How effective are authentic materials in English learning and teaching?

(3) What are problems in using authentic materials?

(4) What solutions can be suggested to solve the identified problems?

3 Scope of the study

The study mainly focused on exploiting authentic materials as supplementary materials for English learning and teaching in the context of Bac Giang High School for Gifted Students The subjects in the study were restricted to three English specializing classes ranging from grade 10 to grade 12 and five teachers who directly taught English to these

classes

4 Significance of the study

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

Teachers and students at Bac Giang High School for Gifted Students are those who directly benefit from the information the research provides Teachers will have an overview of the situation of their own using authentic materials to increase students‟ language proficiency, identify difficulties that they themselves and their colleagues have encountered and consider solutions to adjust their teaching methods Students are likely to be well aware of the benefits

of authentic materials, which leads to their positive attitudes and effective resulting in exploitation of authentic materials

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

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

In general, students, teachers, educational administrators and researchers are those who are likely to benefit from the study

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

PART A, Introduction, provides the rationale, the aims, the scope, the significance

and the design of the study

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

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

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

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

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

PART C, Conclusion, summarizes significant findings, highlights contributions of the research, addresses notable limitations, and puts forward practical suggestions for future research

References

Appendix

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 1 Authenticity and authentic materials

1.1.1 Authenticity in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

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

“… a term which loosely implies as close an approximation as possible to the world outside the classroom, in the selection both of language material and of the activities and methods used for practice in the classroom” (cited in Murdoch, 1999)

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

These authors also stress one of the features of CLT as "learner-centeredness view of

second language teaching" This means that teachers need to create a learner-centered

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

of a particular class

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

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

is not comprehended, regardless of how applicable and adaptable it is, it appears to serve no purpose to the learners

is whether s/he understands the material as it was meant to be understood If

so, the material is authentic to the learner regardless of its origin

for the students‟ cognitive and linguistic competence and the steps to do the tasks should be staged properly

the contexts teachers create in conjunction with materials have to be relevant Regarding the four types identified by Breen, authenticity can therefore be considered the interaction between the reader and the discourse, not just the text in itself Davies (1984:

192) states, “It is not that a text is understood because it is authentic but that it is authentic

because it is understood …Everything the learner understands is authentic for him” Using

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

1.1.2 Authentic materials

1.1.2.1 Definitions

Reviewing literature, it is clear that authors tend to be in a consensus in defining authentic materials Nunan (1988: 99-102) provides the conventional definition of authentic

texts like this: “Authentic materials are usually defined as those which have been produced

for purposes other than to teach language”, in contrast to non-authentic texts that are

especially designed for language purposes

Wallace (1992: 145) defines authentic materials as “…real-life texts, not written for

pedagogic purposes”; they are therefore designed for native speakers while not for language

students and they contain “real” language

Little et al (1988: 17) also has the same opinion as these authors when he states that authentic materials are “created to fulfill some social purposes in the language community in

which it was produced” Similarly, Jordan (1997) refers to authentic texts as texts that are not

written for language teaching purposes

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

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

between classroom knowledge and “a student‟s capacities to participate in real world

events” (Wilkins 1976: 79)

1.1.2.2 Types of authentic materials

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

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

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

information brochures, leaflets, receipts, etc

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

novels, etc

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

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

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

movies, etc

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

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

Each of these types of authentic materials has certain benefits to certain kinds of learners in certain contexts of teaching and learning It goes beyond doubt that some of the teachers in non- English speaking countries, to some extent, have ever used authentic materials in their language teaching However, whether incorporating these types of materials into classrooms is effective or not greatly depends on the selection of materials Therefore, much attention must be paid to this aspect in order to make use of them to the full in language teaching

1.1.2.3 Criteria for selecting authentic materials

The sources of authentic materials that can be used in the classroom are infinite, but the most common are newspapers, magazines, TV programs, movies, songs and Internet For the authentic materials to be effective, they should not be chosen randomly There must be an aim in using them and the chosen materials should meet the objectives of the lesson Nuttal (1996) gives three main criteria when selecting authentic materials to be used in the

classroom: suitability of content, exploitability and readability

 Suitability of content can be considered the most important of the three, in that

the materials should interest the students, motivate the students as well as be relevant to their needs

 Exploitability means that the materials facilitate the development of language

skills in order to help the students become competent and independent learners

 Readability is used to describe the combination of structural and lexical

difficulty of a text, as well as refer to the amount of new vocabulary and any new grammatical forms presented It is important to assess the right linguistic level for the right students

Besides the three main criteria given, presentation also influences the effectiveness of

authentic materials Whether the text appears authentic or not, depends much on how it is presented to learners The authentic presentation, by using pictures, diagrams, photographs, etc helps put the text into the context This helps learners understand not only the meaning of

the text better but also how it would be exploited A more “attractive” text and interesting

ways of introducing it will appeal to learners, grab learners‟ attention and motivate them to get engaged in the discovery and learning process

Other factors worth taking into consideration when selecting authentic materials for the classroom can include whether the text challenges the students‟ intelligence without making unreasonable linguistic demands, the language reflects written or spoken usage, the language in the text is natural or it has been distorted to include examples of particular teaching points or to draw inferences in a particular context

Above all, selecting authentic materials are supposed to make learners want to read or listen for themselves, tell themselves something they do not know as well as to introduce new and relevant ideas to them Therefore, being aware of different types of authentic materials, what these materials can offer and how to incorporate them into classrooms is very important

to every language teacher When selected and used properly in the language environment, authentic materials may have many benefits for both teachers and learners

1.2 The use of authentic materials in the classroom

1.2.1 Reasons for using authentic materials

Authenticity is felt to be significant because it offers learners a sense of the real world,

a chance to “rehearse‟ in a protected situation, hence the less authentic the materials we use,

the less preparation learners make for that real world (McGrath, 2002) Using authentic materials in foreign language teaching has many advantages as follows:

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

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

(1996: 172) also states, “Authentic texts can be motivating because they are proof that the

language is used for real-life purposes by real people.”

Besides, a variety of text types and language styles of authentic materials also affect learners‟ motivation positively It is very difficult to find this variety in conventional teaching materials, particularly in textbooks, which include only the proper and fluent language

(Martinez, 2002) It also means that it is easier to find something in authentic materials that will interest learners and may encourage them to read and enjoy reading since they are likely

to contain topics of interest to learners, especially if learners are given the chance to have a say about the topics used in the class As a result, learners will keep high motivation and interest in language learning through these meaningful interactions with the materials

Nunan (1999: 212) also supports:

“The use of authentic sources leads to greater interest and variety in the material that learners deal with in the classroom This authentic material helps bring the contact to life, and ultimately makes learning and using language more meaningful, and, ultimately, easy for students”

Second, authentic materials provide authentic cultural information According to

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

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

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

Also, Shanahan (1997: 168) states:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 2.2 Possible problems in using authentic materials

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

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

linguistically difficult for learners to understand outside the language community, thereby making them inaccessible to learners, especially to beginners or elementary learners (Matinez 2002; Peacock, 1997) Authentic materials created purposefully for native speakers may contain unnecessary or/and inappropriate structures and vocabulary items for teaching and learning a language, which may impose a burden on learners, especially those in lower-level classes when decoding the texts As a result, learners might become less motivated, or even develop negative attitudes towards these kinds of materials (Richards 2001: 253; Matinez 2002; Peacock, 1997)

The second problem may be caused by the too culturally biased content of the

authentic materials (Matinez, 2002) Prepared for native speakers in a specific language

community, some authentic materials can only be understood with readers‟ good cultural

background This may discourage both teachers and learners from using authentic materials in

language teaching and learning

The third problem is that obtaining and adapting authentic materials can be

time-consuming Teachers may need to spend hours and hours selecting and preparing these

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

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

of the participants, research settings, research instruments, data collection and data analysis procedures

2.1 Participants

2.1.1 Students

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

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

Table 1: Summary of selected students

2.1.2 Teachers

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

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

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

2.2 Research settings

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

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

One of the ways to achieve better proficiency in English is to establish a natural learning environment and to use authentic materials in the classroom However, these praiseworthy objectives can hardly be achieved when a large number of teachers and students

still maintain the traditional learning and teaching habits and styles of passiveness

Besides, it should be noted that there are typical features in Bac Giang High School for Gifted Students including geographical locations, level of specialization in English Bac Giang High School for Gifted Students is the top foreign language specialized school in Bac Giang, which is located in downtown However, teaching and learning facilities are far from standard and have never met the teachers & students‟ satisfaction To make up for teaching and learning conditions, we have good students who, in order to be admitted to an English-specializing class in this school, must take a hard entrance examination in English and thus ensure a relatively high linguistic competence These students study not only for the regular exams nationally but also for a special exam for top students held for all the specializing high schools in Vietnam every year

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

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

Thus, in this context, the research was conducted with the hope that the research could suggest possible solutions to the problems so that authentic materials can be used the most successfully in the classroom

2.3 Research methods

In this study, questionnaire, interview and classroom observation were fully employed The combination of these three instruments was expected to triangulate and thus generate

valid and reliable data

2.3.1 Student Questionnaire (See Appendix 1)

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

“providing structured, numerical data, being able to be administered without the presence of

the researcher, and often straightforward to be analyzed” The advantages of questionnaire

were also recognized by Mackey and Gass (2005: 94) as “being economical and practical

than individual interviews” as “questionnaires in many cases elicit longitudinal information from learners in a short period of time.”

In this research context, the questionnaire consisted of two main parts Part 1 collected the learners‟ personal information (years of learning English, grade and English score of the previous term) Part 2 was the main content of the questionnaire that was used to deliberately find the answers to the research questions such as the teachers‟ employment of authentic materials, the effectiveness of the work, difficulties, and some suggestions In order to get sincere opinions and objective assessment, the questionnaire was carefully designed with a brief overview of the study, the purpose of conducting the survey and a desire for cooperation from respondents The researcher also emphasized the confidentiality of the shared information In the main part, questions were mostly of three main types namely multiple choices, table grading, and open-ended questions As for the language, in order to make it easy for students to understand, the questionnaire did not consist of difficult terminology

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

to design it as carefully as possible in terms of both appearance and content

2.3.2 Teacher Interview (See Appendix 2 and 3)

To gather more information and crosscheck data collected from the questionnaire about using authentic materials in teaching and learning English, five teachers of English in Bac Giang High School for Gifted Students were interviewed Justification for this tool of research lies in the fact that interview is a tool helping the researcher explore opinions and feelings to find out insightful and valuable information that can hardly be revealed in a questionnaire or just by observation (Gillham, 2000)

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

suggestions in using authentic materials that were raised in the last two research questions

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

2.3.3 Classroom observation (See Appendix 4)

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

Manion and Morrison (2000: 305) claimed, “Observational data are attractive as they afford

the researcher the opportunity to gather „live‟ data from „live‟ situations” This merit is

particularly significant in a research where both questionnaires and interviews are also

included With the use of “over time and repeated observation, the researcher can gain a

deeper and more multilayered understanding of the participants and their content” (Mackey

and Gass 2005: 176)

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

In conclusion, the combination of the three most common tools namely questionnaire, interview and classroom observation brought to the researcher a rich amount of valid and reliable data, the analysis of which would be presented in the next chapter

2.4 Data collection procedure

To collect data for the study, the researcher did undergo two steps as follows

Step 1:

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

Step 2:

Classroom observation was conducted in three lessons, the choice of which was not determined by the researcher himself but on permission Before the date of observation, a checklist was drafted to make the observation more oriented and focused Due to several external obstacles, the researcher was permitted to attend only three lessons: one at the 10thgrade (Unit 12: Lesson 2: Listening), one at the 11th grade (Unit 13: Lesson 1, Reading), and the other at the 12th Unit 4 (lesson 3, Speaking skill) The lessons were observed, recorded and the checklists were completed so that the analysis became more convenient and precise

2.5 Data analysis procedure

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

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

Regarding classroom observation, the researcher made a thorough analysis on the observation details recorded from the three lessons The results then were compared with those of the questionnaires and interviews

To sum up, this chapter has clarified major characteristics of participants and settings

of the research Later on, thorough descriptions of data collection instruments, procedure and data analysis procedure were also provided

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS

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

3.1 Data description and analysis

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

materials for English learning and teaching?

The researcher investigated three major aspects of the issue, namely the frequency of using authentic materials, types of authentic materials used and the language skills developed when teachers use authentic materials to teach English in the classroom The results can be seen as follows

 Student questionnaire results

Question 1 : The 1st question asked the students how frequently their teachers use authentic materials to teach English in the classroom

Table 2: Authentic materials and frequency

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

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

The statistics shows that the percentage of students saying that their teachers rarely

used authentic materials is very small (16.7% in grade 10, 0% in grade 11 and 30% in grade

12) while no students reported that their teachers never used authentic materials These data

proved that authentic materials were used in all 3 grades

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

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

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

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

grades 10 and 12, 63.3% in grade 11) Justification for this might be the lack of time, students‟ insufficient language level or lack of facilities in the classroom

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

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

authentic materials in the classroom while the percentage of the 10th grade students is only 13.3% and of the 12th grade students is 0%) Two reasons might be given to explain the situation One might be that the 11th grade students, who were equipped with sufficient language knowledge as well as skills, could tackle problems arising when they used authentic materials to learn English The other reason might be because, unlike the 12th grade students, the 10th and 11th grade students did not have to learn English to meet the immediate need of passing university entrance examinations, they could spend more time on authentic materials for developing skills needed for real communication

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

materials were often used to teach English in the classroom

Table 3: Types of authentic materials used

Types of authentic materials Students

What can be seen from the table, most of the students showed that their teachers used various types of authentic materials based on certain contexts, language skills being trained and developed and language knowledge being taught They stated that their teachers gave their preference to incorporating Printed materials (83.3%), Visual materials (60%) and Audio materials (58.8%) into the classroom The most widely used authentic materials were posters, news, songs, movies, quiz shows, newspapers, postcards, literatures (stories, novels), etc

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

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

Table 4: Authentic materials and skills

The most distinguishable feature was that authentic materials were used to develop all the four language skills Justification lay in the fact that only a very small number of students

said that their teacher never used authentic materials to develop the four language skills (1.1%

for listening, 3.3% for writing & speaking, and 4.4% for reading)

Besides, the data proved that using authentic materials to develop each language skill was at a relatively high frequency Of the four language skills, reading was noticed to be paid the most attention to by teachers when they used authentic materials (accounted for 52.2%) while the concerns descended from writing (46.6%) to listening (33.3%), and finally speaking (32.2%) Reasons given might be due to the current examination system in Vietnam which mainly focuses on grammar items, lexical items rather than language skills

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

 Teacher interview and observation results

All the interviewed teachers (5 teachers) were asked to answer the first three questions concerning the first research question The results showed that all the teachers seemed to reach agreements on their use of authentic materials in teaching English

In terms of the frequency of using authentic materials, 2 out of 5 teachers shared the opinion that they often used authentic materials in the classroom They reasoned that using authentic materials to teach English brought their students close to the target language culture, making learning more enjoyable and therefore more motivating The same number of the

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

very time-consuming to prepare and adapt to their class situation The rest of the interviewed teachers, who was the one with the least experience of teaching (5 years), admitted that she

rarely used authentic materials in her teaching and she never put the textbook aside She said:

“Textbooks let students practice all aspects of the language, especially reading and grammar although the use of authentic materials in the classroom is very time consuming and may not meet students‟ sole need - passing the examinations”

In brief, the use of authentic materials seems to differ a lot among teachers depending

on personal experiences and varying backgrounds It seems natural for inexperienced teachers

to seek comfort in textbooks and other teaching aids, while experienced teachers lean towards incorporating authentic materials in their teaching to a larger extent

Regarding types of authentic materials, one similarity between the teachers‟ and students‟ opinions was that almost every type of authentic materials was exploited and posters, news, songs, movies, quiz shows, newspapers, postcards, literatures (stories, novels), etc were the most used authentic materials in the classroom

For which language skills being developed using authentic materials, all of the teachers were aware of the importance of the four language skills However, they often made use of authentic materials to improve students‟ reading and writing skills since they thought