The effects of authentic reading materials on the first year students at an giang vocational college

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

—— wm — —

THE EFFECTS OF AUTHENTIC READING

MATERIALS ON THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT AN GIANG VOCATIONAL COLLEGE

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS (TESOL)

Submitted by NGUYEN THI VIET NGA

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYEN THANH TUNG

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ABSTRACT

Vietnam’s integration with many countries in the world causes the change in people’s awareness of teaching and learning English, an international language English for specific purposes (ESP) has been being taught in many universities and colleges to equip students with essential language knowledge for their future job However, the lack of authentic learning materials leads to the shortage of their motivation In order to solve that problem, learning materials need to be authentic and this study aims to investigate their effects on ESP students’ motivation

In order to utilize authentic materials in teaching a trialed group, a conceptual framework of authenticity was set up The impact of authentic materials on students’ motivation was examined in terms of their thought, feeling and behavior

A group of 100 students in two classes with different levels of language proficiency participated in the study A questionnaire was used to ask what they thought, how they felt and what their behavior was in relation to the change of reading materials T-tests were used to check the statistical significance of the changes in their responses and test scores before and after the treatment as well as the differences of the final test scores between the treatment group and the population

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of authorship Acknowledgements Abstract Table of contents List of tables List of abbreviations CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Aim of the study

1.3 Research questions 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Organization of the study

CHAPTER 2: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF AUTHENTIC MATERIALS 2.1 Introduction 2.2 What are authentic materials? 2.2.1 Definition 2.2.2 Characteristics

2.2.3 Summary of the definition of authentic materials 2.3 Why are authentic materials used?

2.3.1 The effects of authentic materials on students’ cognitive attitude

2.3.1.1 The relevance of the materials

2.3.1.2 The usefulness of the materials from their relevance 2.3.1.3 The text difficulty and the teacher’s supports

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2.3.4 Summary of the reasons for using authentic materials

2.4 Whom are authentic materials used for? 2.5 How are authentic materials used? 2.6 Previous studies 2.7 Summary of Chapter 2 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Research site 3.3 Sampling 3.4 Participants 3.5 Research design 3.6 Data collection procedures 3.7 Analytical framework 3.8 Summary of Chapter 3 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 4.1, Introduction 4.2 Students’ information

4.3 What do students think of the change in the reading materials?

4.3.1 Students’ cognitive attitude toward the relevance of the reading materials

4.3.2 Students’ cognitive attitude toward the usefulness of the materials from their relevance

4.3.2.1 Filling the gap

4.3.2.2 Developing students’ communicative competence - Linguistic competence

- Discourse competence - Sociolinguistic competence - Strategic competence

4.3.2.3 Students’ cognitive attitude toward text difficulty and the teacher’s supports

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4.4.1 Interest 4.4.2 Enjoyment 4.4.3 Enthusiasm 4.4.4 Confidence 4.4.5 Responsibility 4.5 How do they behave in relation to the change in the reading materials? 4.4.1 Before class 4.4.2 During class 4.4.3 After class

4.4 Summary of data analysis

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 5.1 Introduction

5.2 Expected findings

5.2.1 General findings 5.2.2 Specific findings

5.2.2.1 Students’ cognitive attitude

5.2.2.2 Students’ affective attitude

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6.4.1 Textbook designers 80 6.4.2 Teachers of English 81 6.5 Suggestions for further research 81 6.6 Summary 82 REFERENCES 83 APPENDICES

Appendix 1.1: Transcription of a typical interview 88 Appendix 1.2: Summary of the answers from the interview 89 Appendix 2: Questionnaire (English version) 93 Appendix 3: Questionnaire (Vietnamese version) 100 Appendix 4: The authentic reading materials applied in the trialed

group 107

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.3.1a: Students’ thought of the relevance of their previous

materials

Table 4.3.1b: Students’ thought of the relevance of the authentic materials Table 4.3.1c: The paired samples t-tests of students’ thought of the

relevance of the materials

Table 4.3.1d: The change in KSNO9.A students’ thought of the relevance of the materials

Table 4.3.2.1a: Students’ thought of the usefulness of the relevance in filling the gap of the previous materials

Table 4.3.2.1b: Students’ thought of the usefulness of the relevance in filling the gap of the authentic materials

Table 4.3.2.1c: The paired samples t-tests of students’ thought of the usefulness of the materials in filling the gap

Table 4.3.2.2a: Students’ thought of the role of the previous materials in developing linguistic competence

Table 4.3.2.2b: Students’ thought of the role of authentic materials in developing linguistic competence

Table 4.3.2.2c: The paired samples t-tests of students’ thought of the usefulness of the materials in developing linguistic

competence

Table 4.3.2.2d: Students’ thought of the role of the previous materials in developing discourse competence

Table 4.3.2.2e: Students’ thought of the role of authentic materials in developing discourse competence

Table 4.3.2.2f: The paired samples t-tests of students’ thought of the usefulness of the materials in developing discourse competence

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Table 4.3.2.2h: Students’ thought of the role of the authentic materials in developing sociolinguistic competence

Table 4.3.2.2i: The paired samples t-tests of students’ thought of the usefulness of the materials in developing sociolinguistic

competence

Table 4.3.2.2j: Students’ thought of the role of the previous materials in developing strategic competence

Table 4.3.2.2k: Students’ thought of the role of the authentic materials in developing strategic competence

Table 4.3.2.2]: The paired samples t-tests of students’ thought of the usefulness of the materials in developing — strategic

competence

Table 4.3.2.2m: The change in KSNO9.A students’ thinking of the role of the materials in developing strategic competence

Table 4.3.2.3a: Students’ thinking of text difficulty of the previous materials Table 4.3.2.3b: Students’ thinking of text difficulty of the authentic materials Table 4.3.2.3c: The paired samples t-tests of students’ thought of text difficulty Table 4.3.2.3d: Students’ thought of the teacher’s support in learning the previous materials Table 4.3.2.3e: Students’ thought of the teacher’s support in learning the authentic materials Table 4.3.2.3f: The paired samples t-tests of students’ thought of the teacher’s support

Table 4.3.2.3g: The change in KSNO9.A students’ thought of the teacher’s support in learning the materials

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materials

Table 4.3.2.3): The paired samples t-tests of students’ thinking of effective learning

Table 4.4.1a: Students’ interest in the previous materials Table 4.4.1b: Students’ interest in the authentic materials

Table 4.4.1c: The paired samples t-tests of students’ interest in the reading materials

Table 4.4.2a: Students” enjoyment in learning the previous materials Table 4.4.2b: Students’ enjoyment in learning the authentic materials Table 4.4.2c: The paired samples t-tests of students’ enjoyment in learning

the reading materials

Table 4.4.2d: The change in KDNO09.1A students’ enjoyment in learning the materials

Table 4.4.3a: Students’ enthusiasm in learning the previous materials Table 4.4.3b: Students’ enthusiasm in learning the authentic materials Table 4.4.3c: The paired samples t-tests of students’ enthusiasm in

learning the reading materials

Table 4.4.4a: Students’ confidence when learning the previous materials Table 4.4.4b: Students’ confidence when learning the authentic materials Table 4.4.4c: The paired samples t-tests of students’ confidence when

learning the reading materials

Table 4.4.5a: Students’ responsibility when learning the previous materials

Table 4.4.5b: Students’ responsibility when learning the authentic materials

Table 4.4.5c: The paired samples t-tests of students’ responsibility when learning the reading materials

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Table 4.5.1c: The paired samples t-tests of students’ behavior before the class Table 4.5.2a: Students’ behavior during the class when learning the previous materials Table 4.5.2b: Students’ behavior during the class when learning the authentic materials Table 4.5.2c: The paired samples t-tests of students’ behavior during the class

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AGVC BA ESP FDI HCM TESOL ZPD LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS : An Giang Vocational College : Bachelor of Arts

: English for Specific Purposes : Foreign Direct Investment

: Ho Chi Minh

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

Vietnam has entered the period of integration with many countries in the world After the sixth congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1986, the government opened to trade and exchange goods as well as technologies with some countries outside the socialist group In 1996 our country normalized the relations with the United States after the American government had diminished the embargo Until now we have had the economic and diplomatic relations with more than 240 countries Becoming the 150" member of the World Trading Organization in 2007, Vietnam had many opportunities to attract foreign investment especially Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Thanks to the FDI flow, a number of multi-national and trans-national companies set up their subsidiary companies in this peninsular country

The integration period contributed to the changes in the Vietnamese people’s awareness of learning foreign languages in general and English in particular They have a positive attitude towards learning it They recognize its importance in this period Consequently, the number of students studying this language in the late 1990s increased year by year

English has three types in terms of purposes — general English, English for specific purposes (ESP) and majored English — among which ESP has a special role According to Nguyen Thuy Van (as cited in Thuy Vinh, 2009), an associate professor of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, it is a key to explore new knowledge, especially in technology The knowledge of this language helps to understand reference books and materials in students’ majors

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In spite of the importance of this skill in ESP, teaching reading has not been improved much because its materials lack authenticity In a survey of 160 students of Ho Chi Minh City National University, in which they were asked to answer the question why teaching and learning ESP were not effective, 38% of them said that it was because the materials were not close to reality (Giang & Loc, 2009) If what they

read is distant from what they hear or see, it is considered inauthentic Therefore, they

cannot find the usefulness and necessity of what they learn to read

In order to solve that problem, reading materials need designing carefully to be close to the real-life situations and language use Students need to feel familiar to what they learn as well as realize the realness of the documents and then they can appreciate the meaningfulness of their learning It is the expectation of the positive effect of authentic materials on students’ motivation in terms of their attitude toward learning ESP that brings the ideas for conducting this study

1.2 Aim of the study

From the context of the study presented and from the research gap identified, the study aims at examining the effect of authentic reading materials on ESP students’ motivation in terms of their attitudes toward learning through the change in their cognitive, affective and behavioral attitude

1,3 Research questions

To achieve the aim established above, the study is guided by the following research questions:

1 What do students think of the change in the reading materials? 2 How do they feel about this change in the reading materials?

3 How do they behave in relation to the change in the reading materials? 1.4, Significance of the study

The study has contributions to the theory and practice of ESP teaching and learning

Theoretically, this research asserts the importance of authentic materials in increasing students’ motivation in terms of their attitude toward learning ESP

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knowledge as a guideline to help teachers to select materials suitable to their students’ interest as well as relevant to language use in real situations

1.5 Organization of the study

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CHAPTER 2

A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

2.1 Introduction

In Chapter 1, the background to the study has been presented In this chapter, the conceptual framework of authentic materials is set up The four themes of authentic materials are discussed including their definition, the reason for using them, the type of learners suitable for their use and how to use them Some previous studies related to the issue are also reviewed

2.2 What are authentic materials?

Before applying the authentic materials in teaching the trialed group, it is important to determine what materials are authentic and what features they have to bring students many advantages

2.2.1 Definition

Albeit slightly different, there are many definitions of authentic materials among which the followings are applicable in the situation of Vietnam, where English is used as a foreign language

Many authors defined authentic materials as language not for teaching The proponents for this idea include Geddes and White (1978), Harmer (1983), Nunan (1989), and Porter and Roberts (1987) (all as cited in Adams, 1995) who stated that authentic materials are texts that have been created not for pedagogical purposes Thus these materials are not written for learners of a second or foreign language for teaching purposes with any simplification or modification As such an imaginary dialogue, a story, or a sample essay, for example, created by the teacher for teaching a certain pattern or practicing writing cannot be called authentic

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areal telephone conversation, video clips or films on television, for instance, can be used as authentic teaching resources because they are generated for real social communication

Roger (1988, as cited in Kilickaya, 2004) also defines authentic materials as “appropriate” and ‘quality’ in terms of goal, objectives, learner needs and interest” The materials need to be not only good in quality but also suitable for the learners’ purpose, objectives, needs, and interest This is a very important feature of authentic materials in selecting appropriate texts for teaching purposes

The first definition of authentic materials is chosen as the operational one for the study The materials which will be used for this study are not written for teaching because they are collected from the website of a real company, newspaper on the Internet and real documents used to trade with each other They are also suitable to students’ objectives and needs in learning foreign language for their jobs of business Therefore, they are considered authentic according to the above definitions

2.2.2 Characteristics

From those definitions, an important feature of authentic materials can be isolated It is their relevance in terms of content and language use

In terms of content, authentic materials have the following sub-characteristics: Firstly, authentic materials are informative with a variety of information They are different from textbooks which usually deal with over-familiar topics (Neikova, 2005) Because they are content-oriented, these texts bring readers information but not language practice These materials are also relevant to the real reason of reading for information because they provide new information students want to read (Grellet,

1981, as cited in Neikova, 2005)

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Thirdly, authentic texts can be “selected to meet students’ specific needs,

unlike textbooks which cater to an international audience” (Morrison, 1989, as cited in

Gilmore, 2007): Based on the need of specific students of a specific region at a specific time, authentic texts can be selected to be appropriate with their demand rather than materials in textbooks which are designed for a wide range of students More importantly, in ESP the materials can also be selected based on the subjects that are inherently relevant to the discipline of the school (Carney & Franciulli, 1992) These authors stated as evidence that the materials selected from a newspaper for their students of business deal with economics and politics, two of their disciplines

In terms of language use, authentic materials possess many features of a natural and real language The first feature is that the language has natural redundancy which is hard to find in artificial texts This provides necessary repetition for constructing the

entire text or inferring unfamiliar words (Goodman, 1976; Johnson, 1982; both as

cited in Crossley, Louwerse, McCarthy, & McNamara, 2007) Gardner (2008) also argues that the collection of authentic texts written on similar topics or by one author will improve the chance that essential linguistic redundancy will take place That means students will be exposed to necessarily repetitive, comprehensible input as they move from one text to another

The second feature is that authentic materials include many clues to meaning These materials embrace many linguistic cues as they usually use synonyms or related words, equivalents, hyponyms, antonyms and so on to convey meaning (Grellet, 1981) Brosnan et al (1984, as cited in Oura, 2008) argue that the language of these materials is natural and thus has many non-linguistic clues to meaning such as layout, pictures, colors, symbols, and the physical setting in which it occurs Neikova (2005) is also in agreement with that idea by saying that authentic texts, especially Internet- based ones, have non-linguistic visual support to predict what the text is about As a result, simplifying authentic texts will reduce the number of both linguistic and non- linguistic clues to meaning

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Lautamatti, 1978; Phillips & Shettlesworth, 1988; all as cited in Crossley et al., 2007) The cohesive devices include conjunctions and other intersentential linguistic devices (Cowan, 1976; Mackay, 1979; both as cited in Crossley et al., 2007) In their study, Crossley et al (2007) give a profound linguistic analysis of simplified and authentic texts They found many cohesive devices of the authentic texts in comparison with simplified texts such as more causal verbs and particles, and more causal connectives and negative temporal connectives According to Halliday (1985, as cited in Crossley et al., 2007), the use of connectives is one of the major lexical features that create cohesive bonds between sections of texts In the theory of cohesion, the more cohesive devices language depends on, the more coherent it is and the easier it is to understand (Crossley et al., 2007)

An important feature of the materials is that their language is varied The language in authentic texts provides students with “a variety of hyponyms and synonyms to converse naturally in English” (McCarthy, 1991, as cited in Gilmore, 2007) They also have natural occurrence of different patterns, whereas in a “non- authentic” text there is often one single structure that is repeated (Neikova, 2005) Furthermore, unlike textbooks, authentic texts contain incidental and improper examples (Martinez, 2002) rather than intentional examples of a particular teaching point (Berardo, 2006) Furthermore, authentic texts from books, articles, newspapers and so on contain a wide variety of text types and language styles not easily found in conventional teaching materials (Martinez, 2002)

Unlike the language in textbooks, the natural language of authentic materials contains more common speech acts Boxer and Pickering (1995, as cited in Gilmore, 2007) assessed the presentation of complaint speech acts in seven EFL textbooks and found that they all deal with direct rather than indirect complaints which are more common in a normal conversation As a result, authentic texts from real documents provide students with many common and updated speech acts

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Moreover, the language is vague and contains many idioms as well (Channel, 1994; McCarthy & Carter, 1994; both as cited in Gilmore, 2007)

2.2.3 Summary of the definition of authentic materials

Authentic materials are defined as those reading texts that are written not for teaching, but for real communication They need to be appropriate to learners’ objectives, needs and interests Thus they are informative, relevant and contain real language with natural redundancy, many clues to meaning, essential cohesion and coherence, and more common speech acts The language is also varied and always changing

2.3 Why are authentic materials used?

Authentic materials are used for teaching because they affect students’ attitude toward learning a language in general and English in particular Attitude consists of three components-cognitive, affective and behavioral “We here indicate that attitudes are predisposition to respond to some class of stimuli with certain classes of responses and designate the three major types of response as cognitive, affective and behavioral” (Rosenberg & Hovland, 1960, p 3) “The cognitive component refer to the individual’s belief structure, the affective to emotional reactions, and the conative (behavioral) to the tendency to behave toward the attitude object” (Gardner, 1985, p

8)

2.3.1 The effects of authentic materials on students’ cognitive attitude Learning with authentic language has an effect on students’ cognition They recognize the relevance of the materials and their useful effect on their communicative competence as well as their effective language learning

2.3.1.1 The relevance of the materials

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concepts and ideas are also relevant to their objectives and needs which are to communicate in their major

Moreover, the relevance is also reflected in the way the vocabulary, structures and other factors are used in language These texts contain the natural use of vocabulary, varied and mixed structures (Neikova, 2005) and a combination of linguistic and non-linguistic factors (Brosnan et al., 1984, as cited in Oura, 2008)

2.3.1.2 The usefulness of the materials from their relevance

Recognizing the relevance of the language they study with that in the real world, students will find the usefulness of the materials in filling the gap between the classroom learning with language used in the real world and in developing their communicative competence

Seeing that it is the texts they learn in class that they will encounter later in their real life, students believe that those documents will help to build the bridge between classroom and the real world Due to the relevance to their real life, the use of authentic materials helps to bridge the gap between classroom knowledge and their capacity to participate in real world events (Wilkins, 1976, as cited in Guariento & Morley, 2001) When they are still in class, students can get acquainted with not only what people communicate in real situations, but also how the language is being used naturally outside Moreover, they realize the ability to struggle with authentic materials in class is the capacity to handle language in real language situations Nunan (1999, as cited in Oura, 2008) also argues that reading authentic texts of many different kinds will help to bring the content and the subject matter to life for them, and enable them to make the important connections between the classroom world and the world beyond it

More importantly, students will find that the materials help to develop their communicative competence This competence will be examined in terms of their linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence (Canale & Swain,

1980)

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Students will have opportunities to encounter different facets of the language in the same text and their performance will be based on this real use of language rather than descriptive notions (Williams, 1990, as cited in Gilmore, 2007) These useful situations help to improve their knowledge of vocabulary, structures as well as their

use in real contexts

Authentic materials also contribute to the development of students’ discourse competence It is the feature of containing natural redundancy and cohesive devices of the learning language that helps students not merely enhance their awareness of the use these devices but also improve their competence in this aspect when learning authentic language in meaningful contexts Moreover, the linguistic cohesive devices and resulting coherence found in authentic texts make them more comprehensible than simplified texts (Phillips & Shettlesworth, 1988, as cited in Crossley et al., 2007) They are also likely a factor in helping second language learners come to understand unfamiliar words without too much disruption in their overall understanding of the text (Johnson, 1982, as cited in Crossley et al., 2007) Other researchers also argued that recognizing and understanding cohesive devices are vital to the development of information processing and reading comprehension skills in second language learners (Cowan, 1976; Mackay, 1979; both as cited in Crossley et al., 2007)

These materials also help to develop students’ sociolinguistic competence Reflected as the most common use of the language in an appropriate way, they contextualize the language learning, which helps learners know “in what situations, and with whom, the target language is appropriate” (Boxer & Pickering, 1995, as cited in Gilmore, 2007) The authentic texts are real examples to illustrate the relationship between the communicators Therefore, they can also recognize how close the rapport is between the writer and reader in those situations Furthermore, through the language use in the materials, students can know the appropriate use of language in each specific case for a specific purpose and other conventions related to the context (Canale, 1983)

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breakdowns in communication due to performance variables or to insufficient competence” (Canale & Swain, 1980, p 30) It relates firstly to students’ capacity to use linguistic knowledge in understanding a text Besides, they gain the ability to use other strategies to overcome their imperfect knowledge in reading comprehension They can apply top-down strategies, for examples, by using their prior knowledge and their own experience in guessing, predicting and interpreting the text In their study, Kienbaum et al (1986) find that after studying with authentic materials students are quite capable of drawing inferences from those materials rather than relying on the teacher’s interpretation or their personal experience They help to build up their inferential skill which enables learners to overcome some difficulties in reading a text They are encouraged to make inferences without understanding every word

These texts are also ideal to teach or practice reading skills such as scanning for specific information (Martinez, 2002) The teacher using authentic reading texts enables students to gain those useful mini-skills, scanning and skimming, for their real reading purposes These skills will help them much in grasping the main ideas or extracting correct information from any materials they meet in their real life They have a chance to improve their competence to use those skills appropriately

2.3.1.3 The text difficulty and the teacher’s supports

Authentic materials, however, are usually considered difficult Many researchers find that the text difficulty is derived from their content as well as their length (Brown & Yule, 1983, as cited in Gilmore, 2007; Kienbaum et al., 1986)

In terms of content, Brown and Yule (1983, as cited in Gilmore, 2007) presented that the factors affecting text difficulty are their grammar, vocabulary, discourse structure, and presumed background knowledge in a text Richards (2001) and Martinez (2002) (both as cited in Berardo, 2006) explain those difficulties result from their difficult language, unneeded vocabulary items and too many complex and mixed language structures Other factors that contribute to the text difficulty include the way in which information is organized, topic familiarity and degree of explicitness (Anderson & Lynch, 1988, as cited in Gilmore, 2007)

As for text length, Brown and Yule (1983, as cited in Gilmore, 2007) argue that the factors affecting text difficulty include the number of elements in the text and how

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easily they can be distinguished from one another They also conclude that a short narrative with a single character and a few main events will be easier to comprehend than a long one involving more characters and events Kienbaum et al (1986) also agree that too long texts easily overwhelm students

Although challenging to them, text difficulty will not be out of students’ reach if the teacher gives them necessary support By carefully selecting texts with an appropriate level of lexical and syntactic difficulty as well as of content familiarity and predictability, he or she can help them to control the text difficulty (Guariento & Morley, 2001) The facilitator can choose those texts with either familiar topics and fairly complex discourse structure or moderate linguistic ease This takes much time and effort of the teachers who are responsible for their schooling career

Selecting suitable texts is very helpful but not always able to be implemented for the constraint of fixed curricula The more important support the teacher can provide students in this case is to vary the tasks They can deal with more difficult texts provided that the task is not too challenging (Nuttall, 1982, as cited in Neikova, 2005) and does not require total understanding (Guariento & Morley, 2001) As long as students are able to extract necessary information they need from a difficult text, total understanding is not important (Guariento & Morley, 2001) Therefore, the instructor can redesign the tasks to be within their reach or just call for partial understanding such as skimming to get the main idea or scanning for specific information (Berardo, 2006)

Another way the teacher can do, as Berardo (2006) suggests, is that instead of changing the language of the text, he or she can make it more approachable by eliciting students’ existing knowledge in pre-reading suggestion, reviewing new vocabulary before reading and then asking them to perform tasks that are within their competence before they begin intensive reading This scaffolding help will reduce the struggle and attempt students have to make when encountering those challenging texts as well as diminish their failure in reading them

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1997, as cited in Gilmore, 2007) They foster the learning process and give them a sense of achievement when understanding The challenge needs to be in their zone of proximal development (ZPD) That is it is just beyond students’ level of competence so that it can only be achieved with support The courage from the teacher in both text selection and task design ensures that their learning opportunities are created within their ZPD Therefore, the difficulty of authentic materials is essential for learning as long as they are accompanied with timely support

2.3.2 The effects of authentic materials on students’ affective attitude The authentic language also motivates students through the changes in their affective attitude toward the materials and learning activities They will have interest, feel the materials enjoyable, and have enthusiasm, confidence and responsibility for their learning

First, students have interest in the materials and want to interact with them

because of their realness in terms of their content and presentation They feel these texts more interesting and stimulating (Allwright, 1979, as cited in Peacock, 1997), more updated (Berardo, 2006) and more informative (Neikova, 2005; Sweeney, 2008) than textbooks Moreover, they reflect real life, not just language (Sweeney, 2008) and are likely to contain topics of interest to learners (Martinez, 2002)

Furthermore, these materials are also interesting for their authentic look and attractive presentation (Berardo, 2006) They contain authentic illustration with realia that helps to put the materials into contexts Simultaneously, their attractive appearance also grabs students’ attention and makes them want to read more rather than a page full of impersonal print

Second, students feel enjoyable in learning with the materials This feeling is derived from their perception that the authentic materials are very useful In a study by Chavez (1994), learners “appreciate authentic materials as conducive to language learning” and they enjoy working with them Students also enjoy dealing with authentic materials since they enable them to interact with the real language and its use and then bring them closer to the target language (Chavez, 1998, as cited in Kilickaya, 2004; Little, Devitt & Singleton, 1989, as cited in Peacock, 1997) Peacock

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(1998) also found that the more usefulness students appreciate in the materials, the more enjoyableness they perceive from them

Third, students will have more enthusiasm when studying with the materials They heighten their enthusiasm for learning because of their perceptions of the relevance of the materials (Freeman & Holden, 1986, as cited in Spratt, 2002; Kienbaum et al., 1986) They feel keen on and enthusiastic for the use of the materials in learning language They are enthusiastic not only about learning that language but also about encountering those materials outside (Thanajaro, 2000) In addition, they are willing to engage in learning activities if the teacher provides necessary support (Martinez, 2002) They are even more eager to contribute to learning activities

Fourth, authentic materials bring students confidence They are exploited to foster the development of their reading skills, thus helping them gain confidence in their reading ability in the foreign language (Kienbaum et al., 1986; Neikova, 2005) With supports from the teacher, when knowing that they read a difficult text and manage to understand it adequately, students will feel confident in their own ability to read in the foreign language Most of the students in the study by Thanajaro (2000) found that learning with authentic materials assisted their handling with the target language outside the classroom by “lessening the nervousness and heightening the self-confidence” (p 70) They have confidence in dealing with the target language in

the real world situations

Finally, when they gain confidence and ability in coping with authentic materials, students become autonomous readers, who can take responsibility for their own reading (Neikova, 2005) They will be more willing to take charge of their own learning in general and their reading in particular They can and want to select the materials they need for reading in class and out of school according to their purpose and use appropriate strategies according to the types of texts they have chosen for reading

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The study by Kienbaum et al (1986) shows that as students gained confidence and ability in dealing with authentic materials, they became quite “adamant” in choosing active involvement rather than setting for a passive learning role Peacock (1997) also found that these materials increase the learners’ level of involvement in the target activity They actively engage themselves in the learning activities including in class and at-home doings They consciously do all jobs that they think necessary for their learning before, during as well as after the class

Peacock (1997) proves that students’ level of concentration increases after studying with authentic materials This is reflected in the degree of concentration and the amount of time with which they pay attention to the text or reading tasks Moreover, their concentration can be seen through the time used for reading even

outside the class

Jacobson, Degener, and Purcell-Gates (2003) found “the use of authentic literacy materials and activities is statistically related to increased uses of reading in the lives of the students” (p 105) This is an “empirical evidence that using authentic materials and activities results in important changes in out-of-school literacy practices” (p 106) Students use learning skills such as reading to serve their real life purposes They may, for example, read pieces of news in newspapers or magazines to find some necessary information or read the instruction manual of a product Tian (2005) also argues that once their motivation changes, it influences “the actual effort the students make in learning the language, their readiness in engaging actively in the work, their persistence in accomplishing the task of learning the language” These are teflected in the frequency of their active participation in reading activities and their attempt to overcome difficulties

2.3.4 Summary of the reasons for using authentic materials

Authentic materials are recommended to use because they affect students’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitude They find the relevance of the materials and their usefulness in filling the gap between classroom learning and the use outside, in developing their communicative competence and in providing them effective learning from the text difficulty and the teacher’s supports They also gain interest, enjoyment, enthusiasm, confidence, and responsibility for learning these materials

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This feeling leads to some changes in their learning behavior in terms of their involvement, concentration, effort, and persistence in performing the task

2.4 Whom are authentic materials used for?

The types of students for whom authentic materials are used differ in terms of their levels of proficiency and the subject matter

In terms of the levels of proficiency, authentic materials are advisable to be used for students of a low level The reason for this is because they often contain difficult language, unneeded vocabulary items and complex language structures As such, they cause a burden for the teacher in lower-level classes (Richards, 2001, as cited in Kilickaya, 2004) They also make students have a hard time decoding the texts (Martinez, 2002) Besides, at this level the use of authentic materials may lead students to feel de-motivated and frustrated since they lack many lexical items and structures to use in the target language (Guariento & Morley, 2001) However, this does not mean that beginners cannot get any benefit from authentic materials If the texts selected are suitable to students’ levels, realistic in their belief and interesting in their own right, then they can be taught without any doubt of their effect

Although they are of limited use for low level students, authentic texts are advised for post-intermediate students At a post-intermediate level, authentic materials are available for use in classroom (Guariento & Morley, 2001) Kilickaya (2004) presented the findings of a survey carried out by Chavez (1998) in which the learners enjoyed dealing with authentic materials since they enabled them to interact with the real language and its use This enjoyment of interaction was only derived from understanding the texts because they had some basic knowledge of the target language to help them overcome some linguistic difficulties they encountered in studying authentic texts

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be used in the earlier stages, but he highlighted that “upon students’ dealing with materials from their own subject area, authentic materials should be introduced”

Although ESP students are not at a post-intermediate but at a pre-intermediate or an intermediate level, the obligation of authenticity of the materials causes them some difficulties They may face some troubles with structures and vocabulary as well However, with their basic linguistic knowledge and professional awareness, they will find it more interesting and useful because of their reality It is their interest and goal-orientation along with the teacher’s pedagogical supports that can help them to

overcome those difficulties

In short, authentic materials should not be used for learners of a beginning level or in some cases they can be used but with consideration However, they should be used to teach those of a higher level and ESP students who can benefit a lot from the reality and practicality of the materials

2.5 How are authentic materials used?

Authentic materials are likely to lose their authenticity unless an authentic learning environment is created However, it seems impossible to create a truly authentic learning experience Authenticity can be neither “predetermined nor preordained” whereas these attempts result in little more than “preauthentication”, that is, “the attempt to make learning materials and environments correspond to the real world prior to the learners’ interaction with them” (Petraglia, 1998a, 1998b, as cited in Herrington, Oliver & Reeves, 2003) In addition, Barab, Squire and Dueber (2000, as cited in Herrington et al., 2003) argued that authenticity occurs “not in the learner, the task, or the environment, but in the dynamic interactions among these various components” It is related to the two other facets of authenticity, authenticity of the tasks conducive to language learning and authenticity of the actual situation of the language classroom (Breen, 1985, as cited in Tatsuki, 2006)

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of the task needs to be connected with real world activities such as buying a house, booking a table in a restaurant, signing a labor contract, and preparing for a meeting Tasks with a multiple choice from A, B, C, or D are considered irrelevant to students’ real life because “life in the real world doesn’t usually ask you to choose from provided options A, B, C, or D” (Kolk, 2010)

Secondly, authentic tasks need to provide students with the opportunities to collaborate (Herrington, et al., 2003) “Working in teams on complex problems requires skills and expertise, helping students identify their own strengths and weaknesses, and driving them to achieve their team goals” (Kolk, 2010) The activities should require students to work in pairs or groups to solve the problem in order to enhance their skill of working collaboratively

Thirdly, authentic tasks need to “provide the opportunity for students to examine the task from different perspectives, using a variety of resources” (Herrington et al., 2003) To solve the problem, the activities should require them to use a variety of their viewpoints from different disciplines It is more obvious in learning ESP Students need to use the knowledge of their major combined with the linguistic competence to understand the reading texts in their professional domains

Finally, authentic tasks need to require students to create a complete “product” rather than as “preparation for something else” (ibid.) What they are requested to do needs to be meaningful or with a certain reason because rarely in reality, something is asked to be created without any reason at all or never used

In brief, authentic materials should be used along with authentic tasks which bring students more benefits Otherwise, they can ruin the authenticity of the learned language

2.6 Previous studies

Since there is no empirical research on the effect of authentic ESP materials, the theory of their positive effect is referred to from some studies on general English materials

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Kienbaum et al (1986) conducted research to examine the effectiveness of traditional second language teaching using non-authentic materials and a communicative approach using authentic materials Both students’ performance and their attitude are examined Comparison of the test results of the control group and experimental group showed no significant differences between them However, the attitude survey of the two groups revealed that students were enthusiastic about and seemed generally well-motivated by the use of the authentic materials

Unfortunately, the two groups (control and experimental) used different materials and teaching methods The experimental group used authentic materials in a communicative setting while the control group was taught with inauthentic texts and a traditional method rather than a communicative approach Therefore, whether the difference is a result from the effect of authentic texts or from the application of the new teaching method in the experimental group is questionable Furthermore, in the attitude survey only 3/23 items actually focused on the method or the materials employed, so the result is far from convincing This research did not find any change in students’ performance and attitude except the detail that they became more enthusiastic and seemed well-motivated

Examining more issues related to the impact of authentic materials, the research by Gonzalez (1990), an unpublished doctoral dissertation, investigated the effect of authentic materials on learners’ attitude, motivation, culture, and language achievement Forty three students studying Spanish as a foreign language participated in the research The findings showed that there was no significant difference in levels of satisfaction or achievement after the use of the materials The qualitative data from the students’ feedback and teaching logs indicated that they reacted somewhat positively to their use However, only one item on the self-report attitude questionnaire was used to measure their feeling of the use of the materials

Investigating students’ motivation in several aspects, Chavez (1994) examined the perspectives of 186 university-level learners on authenticity A 212-item questionnaire consisting of 53 scenarios was used to investigate their evaluation of the authenticity of learning materials, its contributions to language learning, the level of ease or difficulty and associated anxiety or enjoyment The findings show that native

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inception is “associated with extremely high ratings in all four cycles” (p 6) This means that the students found the situations related to native speakers height in authenticity, contribution to learning, difficulty, and enjoyment However, in item-by- item correlation, they found authentic materials essential for learning and enjoyable There was rarely significant positive correlation between authenticity and perceived difficulty from the materials (only 4 over 53 scenarios) Although they enjoyed interacting with the materials, the students appreciated pedagogical support, choosing grading tasks over grading texts A long questionnaire with many items might make students tired and less concerned when answering it, which might affect the reliability of the collected data Moreover, their perception of language learning was much more important than that of the language itself, which needs taking into consideration The result might be more persuasive when observation was used to evaluate students’ motivation

Peacock (1997) provides the most convincing empirical result He examined whether the authentic materials increased the classroom motivation of the beginner- level students at the University of South Korea over a period of 20 days He examined their motivation in terms of their interest in and enthusiasm for the materials used in class, persistence with the learning task, attention, action, and enjoyment The study found that their on-task behavior and observed motivation increased significantly but their self-reported motivation only actually increased after day 8 The researcher suggests that this may be due to the learners getting used to the new materials However, he did also find that they found authentic materials less interesting than artificial ones This may explain that other components of their motivation are affected by the materials The generalization of the research is also limited by the small scale of the study, the small size of the sample as well as the level of learners At this beginning level, authentic materials are suggested not to be used for their constraint rather than advantage

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attitude Therefore, this study aims to find the answer to the following research questions:

1 What do students think of the change in the reading materials? 2 How do they feel about this change in the reading materials?

3 How do they behave in relation to the change in the reading materials? 2.7 Summary of Chapter 2

In Chapter 2, the conceptual framework of authentic materials, including their definition, the reason for their use, the types of learners to be applied to and the way to use this language, are presented Furthermore, the four studies associated with this issue are reviewed This is set up as a guide for measuring the effect of authentic materials on students’ motivation The framework can be summarized as follows:

Authentic texts are defined as of the language that has been created not for teaching but for real-life communication between real people for real purposes; they need to be appropriate with learners’ need and interest and suitable to their objectives in learning Therefore, the materials are relevant to the reality and students in content and language use

Authentic materials are used because they motivate students by affecting their cognitive, affective and behavioral attitude toward learning the language

These materials are advised to be used with post-intermediate students but not suggested for students of a beginning level or in some cases, they should be used but with contemplation However, they are necessary to be chosen for ESP courses

In order to reinforce and promote their benefits in teaching, authentic materials should be utilized with authentic tasks in meaningful contexts

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CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

This chapter aims to present the design and methodology of the research To do this, it describes the research site where the study was conducted, the sampling to choose the sample, the participants, the data types and data collection procedures The analytical framework is also set up for analyzing and interpreting the data to be collected

3.2 Research site

The research was conducted at An Giang Vocational College (AGVC) in Long Xuyen City, An Giang Province This school has 9 faculties in charge of 124 classes with 4,467 students of the regular programs and 25 classes with 1,417 students of the in-service program They major in different fields, such as economics, mechanics, electronics, and electricity Students graduating from senior high schools or junior high schools can enroll in the school because there are two different curricula for their different levels High school graduated students can follow the two-year curriculum for certificates of technical high school or the three-year curriculum for certificates of college Junior high school graduated students can also follow the three-year curriculum for certificates of technical high school Because they majored in different fields, only students of economics who were of the biggest quantity in comparison with those of other faculties in the school were chosen to participate in the study

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seem not to want to overcome difficulties and have no desire to gain the achievement in learning and, of course, no ideas of self-learning

Learning materials have great contribution to their unwillingness of studying Many of them were written for teaching vocabulary and grammar or practicing reading or writing skills However, some materials were excerpted from real newspapers, magazines but they are about something unfamiliar or very strange Accordingly, for these students that kind of materials cannot be considered authentic and useful for their jobs

The study was conducted in the circumstance that their learning materials were compiled by substituting those texts with authentic but familiar with the real situations of their future jobs in Vietnam

The study was implemented in four months from April to July, 2010 3.3 Sampling

Sampling is a process in which units are selected from a population so that “we may fairly generalize our results back to the population” from the sample The population is the group that we want to generalize to (Trochim, 2005, p 30) As presented above, the population in this study is the students of the Department of Economics There were 14 classes with 703 students that were studying English for Business (2 classes with 85 students graduating from junior high school and 12 classes with 618 students graduating from senior high school)

In order to save time and cost when studying the whole population, a sample needs to be chosen (Hunt, 2004) The sample is the group that actually participates in the study and it needs to be representative of the population There are two methods of sampling: probability or random sampling and nonprobability consisting of accidental and purposive sampling In the former method, different units of the population receive an equal opportunity of being selected (Trochim, 2005, p 35) This way of sampling is preferred because it helps to avoid researchers’ subjectiveness

In order to have the sample that could be standardized for generalizing to the whole department, the classes of senior high school graduated students were chosen as the sampling frame This list did not contain the names of students but the names of classes The two classes chosen randomly from that list were KSNO09.A (Official

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Accounting) and KDN09.1A (Business Accounting) with the total of 100 students All of them had graduated from senior high school and had one semester studying ESP After choosing the sample, the researcher asked for the permission to teach those classes

3.4 Participants

The participants in the study include 100 students of the Department of Economics They had one semester learning ESP They learned the new materials in the second semester and were then asked to complete the questionnaire about their cognitive, affective and behavioral attitude before and after learning the new materials at the end of the school year The two classes of the sample had different levels of proficiency This was used to investigate whether their linguistic knowledge had any effect on their motivation in this aspect

The materials used to teach those students consisted of six reading texts These texts were collected from the internet, labor contract, and some transactional records They were taught with tasks that were designed suitably to students’ level and text difficulty

3.5 Research design

The study aimed to investigate the effect of authentic reading materials on the students of ESP in terms of the change in their cognitive, affective and behavioral attitude toward learning the new materials, a survey was conducted at An Giang Vocational College In it, the questionnaire was used as the unique instrument because it is a “very efficient way of collecting facts” and “provides data amenable to quantification, either through the simple counting of boxes or through the content analysis of written responses” (Hannan, 2007) The questionnaire was designed based on Likert scaling with five points from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” It was utilized to ask about what students thought of the reading materials, how they felt when learning them and how they studied before and after their application

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The first main theme, namely students’ cognitive attitude toward the reading materials, was investigated through the three main sub-themes consisting of the relevance of the materials in terms of contents and language use, the usefulness of the materials from the relevance and students’ perception of text difficulty and the teacher’s supports

In order to examine students’ thinking of the relevance of the reading texts, five questions (questions 1 to 3c) were used to ask about that suitability in terms of contents and language use including vocabulary, structures and combination of linguistic and non-linguistic factors

Based on certain relevance the students perceived, the usefulness of the materials was explored in terms of their role in filling the gap between what is studied in class and what is actually used outside This was found in the three questions of 4a - 4c asking about their acquaintance with the ideas, the concepts as well as the use of language in the real situations even when they were still in class This sub-theme is also based on the item examining the degree of their agreement that the ability to handle in a real language context was based on their struggling well with the materials in class (question 5)

Similarly, the usefulness of the materials was explored in the role of developing students’ communicative competence including linguistic, discourse, sociolinguistic and strategic competence To investigate their thought of linguistic competence, the four questions of 6a - 6d were used to ask about the help of the materials in enabling them to know and use vocabulary and sentence patterns better Their discourse competence was found through the same number of questions as in the previous theme (questions 7 to 9) They aimed to explore their recognition and comprehension of the cohesive devices in a text such as reference, conjunctions and substitution The sociolinguistic competence was also discovered via the four questions of 10 - 11c about the relationship between the writer and the reader and the appropriate use of the language in specific situations Their strategic competence was uncovered in the five questions of 12 - 14b about their capacity to use reading strategies in understanding a text and in dealing with reading difficulties as well as to use them appropriately for specific situations

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'

: The third sub-themes, namely students’ thinking of the text difficulty, the 'teacher's supports and the effective learning from the materials, were investigated in the next part In terms of text difficulty, seven questions from 15 to 18 were utilized to ask about their problems with vocabulary, structures or the topic and arrangement within the text, their thinking of the implicitness as well as the length of the text The teacher’s support was found in the five questions of 19 - 20d They were used to get the students’ answers about the help from the selection of the reading texts as well as from the task design The supportive tasks may be within their competence, require their partial understanding, activate their existing knowledge, or preview new key vocabulary before reading The text difficulty along with pedagogical support helped to bring students effective learning in terms of effort and time used for reading This occupies three questions of 21 — 23 in the questionnaire

The second main theme, namely students’ affective attitude toward the materials, was found in the five sub-themes consisting of their interest, enjoyableness, enthusiasm, confidence, and responsibility for their learning Their interest was investigated through the five questions of 24 - 28 about their feeling of the topic, content as well as the presentation of the reading texts Their enjoyableness was reflected in the three questions of 29 - 31 about their first fear when encountering the materials and enjoyment in learning them The enthusiasm was examined in the four questions of 32 - 35 about their willingness and eagerness in engaging themselves in and contributing to learning activities as well as in facing the materials in the world outside To select the information of the students’ confidence, the three questions of 36a - 36c were used to ask about their nervousness and self-confidence in facing the materials outside and in their reading ability Their responsibility was also found in the same number of questions from 37 to 39 as of the previous sub-theme These asked about their willingness in taking charge of their learning as well as their choice of the materials and strategies for reading

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Before the reading class, the four questions of 40 - 43 were used to ask about their preparation for the lesson such as reading the text, find the meaning of the new words, taking notes of difficult parts, and doing the tasks in advance During the class, the thirteen questions of 44 - 48e were set up to ask about their learning activities in class, including the way they solved problems in reading such as difficult words, structures and tasks These questions also determined their persistence in reading by asking about how often they quit reading when facing those troubles After the class, the five questions of 49 - 53 were conducted to get information about the consolidation of what they had studied in class, including taking notes, summarizing and translating the text

The final question of 54 was also used to find the amount of time spent on reading out of class This indicated whether the students’ self-learning would increase or decline in comparison with the previous time

After its design, a copy of the questionnaire was delivered to a group of students having similar characteristics with the sample in order to estimate the time spent answering the questions and check its understandability before it was administered to the two classes It needed to be done because there might be “misunderstandings of questions” and “low response rate” due to “lack of clarity in wording of questions, excessive complexity and/or length of the questions and/or questionnaires themselves” Piloting the questionnaire also helped to avoid a waste of resources due to wrong timing and wrong package and to inspire new ideas from the respondents’ comments or suggestions (Gile, 2006)

The questionnaire was duplicated and delivered to 30 students of the similar features with the sample The data collected after piloting the questionnaire were measured the reliability by using Cronbach’s Alpha The value of Cronbach’s Alpha is 0.809 and Cronbach’s Alpha based on standardized items is 0.826 These values indicate a high level of internal consistency for the scale

3.6 Data collection procedures

The questionnaire aimed to investigate the students’ motivation but was administered after they learned the new materials This is because the researcher wanted them to compare their perception, emotion and learning behavior between the

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old and new materials This also helped to avoid the interference of the pre- questionnaire in their learning and answering the post-questionnaire

The questionnaire was multiplied and delivered to the students in the two separate classes to examine the change of their motivation in learning before and after studying with the new materials The teacher would make sure that they understood the purpose of the survey and answered all of the questions honestly

3.7, Analytical framework

The questionnaire was used as the unique instrument to measure the students’ attitude It contained three main themes each of which was divided into several sub- themes The items in the first two themes provided five options for students to choose one from based on their thinking and feeling from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” In the third main theme, their learning behavior was investigated with 23 questions each of which also offered five degree of frequency from “always” to “never”

The questionnaire was then numbered for each answer and calculated The mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the collected data The mean is “probably the single most commonly reported indicator of central tendency” (Brown, 1988, p 66) It is used to analyze the data of students’ thought, feeling and the frequency of their learning behavior

In addition, the standard deviation was essential to use in data analysis because it showed the heterogeneity of their responses It is “a measure of how much the scores in a distribution vary from the mean score” and thus, “the larger the standard deviation, the more dispersion around the mean” (Bernard, 2011, p 130)

These measurements were used to analyze the descriptive statistics of the data before and after applying the new materials However, to check the significance of the difference in their cognition, affection and behavioral attitude, a paired samples t-test was used to compare the means of the two sets of data The t-test is very commonly used in language studies because it applies regardless of the size of the sample (Brown, 1988, p 165)

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Therefore, this value will tell us whether the new materials have any effect on their motivation in that aspect

3.8 Data analysis

The first research question, “What do students think of the change in the reading materials?” will be answered by the data analysis of the first theme, namely students’ cognitive attitude toward the reading materials, from questions | to 23 The answer to the second research question, “How do they feel about this change in the reading materials?” will be found by analyzing of the data of the second theme, students’ affective attitude toward the materials, from questions 24 to 39 The third research question, How do they behave in relation to the change in the reading materials?”, will be answered by examining the data of the third theme, students’ behavioral attitude, in 23 questions of 40 — 54

3.9 Summary of Chapter 3

This chapter presented the research site of the study, the sampling with the participants of 100 students of the Department of Economics The data types and data collection procedure as well as the analytical framework with the three measurements (mean, standard deviation and t-test) were also discussed The analysis and interpretation of the data after collection will be addressed in the next chapter