As we can seen from Chart 4.17, in comparing responses to Item 21, Item 22 and Item 23 (see Appendix 2), we see that this Chart shows a big gap between what students‟ difficulties in practicing using authentic materials . The Mean of Item 21 is highest (2.48), the Mean of Item 23 is in the second position (3.86) and the Mean of Item 22 ranks third (4.08). Therefore it can be said that authentic materials generally go too far beyond the students‟ level or prior knowledge. In addition, Underwood (1989) asserts that authentic materials cannot be arranged before they are produced, thus careful selection by the teacher to match the material with the course books topics is needed.
When I talk about students‟ difficulties when they learn speaking skill with authentic materials, some students smiled and shared many the different opinions.
Student 1 said that:
“You know that the language in authentic materials is by native speaker, and often appropriate with intermediate and advanced level, but I am just low level, so it is so difficult to catch it and understand effectively. Moreover, I must always be careful to observe watching any Video or film in my lesson to take notes and remember as well. (student interview)
Another student added that:
“Because authentic materials often contain and mix lexical, syntactic complexity and grammatical items, so I must face some difficulties to understand the whole of conversation. (Student interview)
Student 3 answered my question that:
“ In fact, I have learned English a long time before, but I could not speak very well as I want to speak. That’s a reason why when my teacher use some authentic materials, example, Printed materials, audio-visual for us to practice, but I can not understand what they say. (student interview)
4.4 Chapter Summary
Chapter four dealt with what the researcher had found and discussed during the process of research implementation. Although data were collected with two different participants but they have the same view about the necessity of authentic materials in speaking skills. And Data were analyzed by SPSS for both teachers and students with the high reliability.
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 5.1 Summary of the findings
5.1.1 What are teachers’ perception of using authentic materials in speaking skill
The results from both quantitative data and qualitative data indicate that the teacher and at HUFL generally highly appreciate the necessity of learning and teaching speaking skills with authentic materials. Ideas collected from all participants show that teachers and are well aware of the position of authentic materials in teaching and learning as well.
It can be said that teachers understood what their students need through cluster 2. In this part (students‟ knowledge and skill) the teachers reviewed that students are quite passive in learning speaking skills and the limitation in terms of knowledge for skills.
Nearly all participants in the questionnaires agreed or strongly agreed with statements in this cluster 2.
With regard to students‟ learning methods and habits (cluster 3) the number of teachers who strongly agreed to statements are high. They have the same ideas as cluster 2, that is students often are quite passive and build traditional habits in learning speaking skills. Teachers say that students are shy and afraid of practicing speaking in front of the class because of individual problems.
The cluster 4 (approach and method of practice using authentic materials in speaking skill). Most teachers chose audio-visual to support their teaching. They realised that audio-visual aids made lessons more interesting, and motivate students more effectively. Participants in the questionnaires support this argument.
5.2 What are students’ attitudes toward using authentic materials in speaking skills?
Like teachers‟perceptions using authentic materials in teaching speaking skill, students agree that learning speaking skills with authentic materials is necessary.
Students like learning speaking skill with authentic materials because of its authenticity in real-life communication. Even though the language from authentic materials are sometimes very hard to understand.
Students can learn many things and practice by themselves using other factors from authentic materials such as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar structure, social culture, etc. Furthermore, learning with authentic materials motivates learners to communicate, they help make communication „real‟and guide learners toward the language they need for their particular context.
Concerning the students‟ difficulties in practicing speaking using authentic materials, students disagreed with items in questionnaires for this part.
Students were asked for their opinions of the materials and tasks they used.
Most of them gave positive affective and cognitive responses. They said that the materials and the tasks were both interesting and useful, as they were readable, accessible, and more importantly, gave them a chance to rehearse what they would have to face in the future. This suggested that materials and tasks were learned.
5.3 Implications 5.3.1 For Teacher
The teacher plays an important role, but even if the materials that are taught are authentic they will cease to be, if the teacher assumes an authoritarian role in class, or opts for a traditional teaching approach which does not give students the chance to interact with one another. They will be more likely to create a good learning atmosphere, and to hold discussions with learners on material content, teaching methodology, and evaluation.
Teacher should choose authentic materials which can be used for all levels of students, from the beginners to the advanced. Especialy having access to authentic texts from the early stages of language acquisition. This will help students develop intergratedly the language skills which will be usefull for them to seek communication in the modern workplace.
However, teachers should seek some pedagogical support when selecting and implementing authentic materials into their language classrooms, including the textbook decided by the institutaion and other additional teaching materials chosen or prepared by the teacher or the students, both of which are visible part of any English language teaching.
In the use of authentic materials, non-native speaker teacher of English will be likely to encounter a lot of difficulties, for instance in the seclection of the materials appropriate to the aims of course and syllabus.
When choosing authentic materials, teacher should take into consideration three aspects relating to students‟background : linguistic background, knowledge background and cultural background.These three aspects really have great influence on the effectiveness of language classrooms, on student-teacher interaction, and decide the needs for common knowledge from those authentic materials.
5.3.2 For students
Although the selection and implement of authentic materials place emphasis on the teachers‟role, students‟attitudes toward the question of authentic materials should also be regarded as important to the enhancement of the teaching and learning process.
Students should be encouraged to practice speaking the use of a wide variety of sources in classroom with their teachers‟guidance.
Students should be aware of the necessity of authentic materials for future communication.
5.3.3 For Administration
The effectiveness of using authentic texts in the language classroom will be also enhanced when the following factors are taken into account :
Teacher should be offered enough training in different aspects such as pedagogical techniques, social and cultural aspects of the language being taught and techniques for diagnosing certain psychological characteristics of the learner.
Most students are good at grammar but they can hardly used the language to communiate with others who speak English.Thus, authentic materials should be use to evaluate students work as well as provide feedback improvement.
Curriculum innovation and authentic materials development should be more interesting. Great efforts should be made to build flexible and perfect curriculum for the application of text and task authenticity in communicative language teaching. The chosen materials should suite the capabilities and mentality of each class or each community.
5.4 Limitation of the study
The study was conducted on a small scale of the English department at HUFL, within limited time of implementation, so the results may not be generalized for the situtation of teaching and learning English in the region in the light of authentic materials.
A considerable shortcoming of this research is the lack of students‟participation.
The conductor of the research fully undertands that learners play an intergral part in second language researches.
Some issues were not analyzed thoroughly and deeply due to the authors own constraints of knowledge and time.
The research has inevitably undergone some limitations. The author hopes to have the readers‟symphathy and looks foward to receiving any constructive comments on this study.
5.5 Suggestion of futher study
This study aims to investigate using authentic materials to develop speaking skills for 1st year students in HUFL. How does the teacher use and get authentic materials to teach and develop speaking skills for students. What are the responses to students to those teaching authentic material in speaking skills. It is hoped that there should be futher research on a larger scale with more subjects and facilities.
REFERENCES
Breen, M. (1987). Learner contributions to task design. In C. Candlin and D.
Murphy ), Language Learning Tasks, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Breen, M.P.(1985), Authentic in the Language classroom, Applied Linguistics 6, pp.60-70
Breen ,M.P, and Candlin, C.N.(1980), Essentials of a Communicative curriculum in Language Teaching . Applied Linguistics, 1(2), 89-112
Brown, H.D. (1994). Teaching By Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall
Brown , H.D. (2001).Teaching by principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Second edition , NY: Addison Wesley Lonman, Inc .
Brown, J.D.and Rogers, T.S.(2002), Doing Second Language Research , Oxford University Press , Oxford-New York
Bygate, M. 2001. Effects of task repetition on the structure and control of oral language. In M. Bygate, P. Skehan and M. Swain (eds).(pp.23.48)
Candlin , C.N.and Edelhoff, C.(1982), Challenges –Teacher‟s guide, Longman.
Corder, P. S. (1966) The Visual Element in Language Teachin London: Longman Clarke, D. F. 1989. „Materials adaptation: why leave it all to the teacher?’ ELT
Journal 43/2: 133-41.
Chaney, A.L., T.L. Burke, Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K-8.
Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.
Guariento, W, and Morley , J.(2001), Text and task authenticity in the EFL classroom, EFL Journal , Vol.55(4), pp.347-53
Hamer, J.(1991), The practice of English language teaching : New Edition , london : longman
Hwang , C.C (2005), Effective EFL Education Through Popolar Authentic Materials , EFL Journal , Volume 7 (1) pp.90-101
Kelly, C.kelly , L., Offner, M.land ,Vorland, B.(2002), Effective ways to use Authnentic materials with ESL/EFL Students , The internet TESL Journal , Vol.8(11), pp.1-6, retrieved August, 6th , 2007, from
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kelly-Authentic.htm
Larsen-Freeman D.(1986)Techniques and Principles in LanguagTeaching.
NewYork-Oxford:Oxford University Press.
Littlewood, W. (1992) Communicative Language Teaching. An Introduction Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics (2nd ed.), (1987). London: Longman Martinez, A.G. (2002) Authentic Materials: An Overview on Karen's Linguistic
Issues -http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/authenticmaterials.html
Nunan, D. (1989). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom.Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Nunan, D. (1991). Communicative tasks and the language curriculum. TESOL Quarterly, 25 (2), 279-295.
Nunan, D. (1999). Second Language Teaching and Learning. Boston:Heinle and Heinle Publishers
Peacock, M. (1997) The effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFLlearners. ELT Journal, (51) 2, 144-156.13.
Richards, J. C. and Rodgers, T. S. (1986). Approaches and Methods in
LanguageTeaching. (6th edition) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press sanderson, P. (1999): using newspapers in the classroom. cambridge: cambridge
university Press
Stempleski, S. (1990). Teaching communication skills with authentic video. In Stempleski, S. and Arcario, P. (eds.)Video in Second Language Teaching:
Using,Selecting, and Producing Video for the Classroom, pp. 7-23. New York: TESOL16.
Tatsuki, D. (2006, May) What is authenticity? Proceedings of the 5th AnnualJALT Pan-Sig Conference. Shizuoka, Japan: Tokai University College of
MarineScience, pp.115. Retrieved 26 January 2009 from:http://jalt.org/pansig/2006/HTML/Tatsuki.htm.
Taylor (1994) Inauthentic authenticity or authentic inauthenticity?
TESL-EJ,1(2)A-1. Retrieved November 27, 2008 from http://www- writing.berkeley.edu/tesl-ej/ej02/a.1.html.18.
Turula, A. (2000) Metoda komunikacyjna - więcej blasków czy cieni? JęzykiObce w Szkole, 2-3, pp. 41-46.19.
Ur, P. (1990) Discussions that work . Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.20.
Uzar, R. (2005) Authenticity in language learning. The Teacher , 8-9 (31), 44-47.
Werbińska, D. (2000) Metoda komunikacyjna - więcej blasków czy cieni? J ę zykiObcew Szkole, 2-3, pp.50-58.22.
Wong, V., Kwok, P. and Choi, N. (1995, October). The use of authentic materials at tertiary level. ELT Journal,49 (4), 318-322.23.
Wright, A., Haleem, S. (1991)Visuals for the Language Classroom London:Longman.
Widdowson, H. G. 1980. „The authenticity of language data‟ in H. G. Widdowson Explora tions in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Widdowson, H. G. 1984. Explorations in Applied Linguistics 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Yuk-chun Lee, W. (1995, October). Authenticity revisited: text authenticity andlearner authenticity ELT Journal,49 (4), 323-328
APPENDIX
APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS
This questionnaire aims at investigating using authentic materials to develop speaking skills for 1st year students at Hue University of Foreign Languages. All the data collected in this questionnaire are ONLY for the purpose of the research .I would like to invite you to take part in this research by completing the following questionnaire by ticking the box for the answer that suits you most.
Your feedback will be of great value for my research and the implication for teaching –learning EFL in Vietnam , I am grateful to you for your contribution.
PART 1: BACKGOUND INFORMATION Please fill in some information about yourself
1. Name: (optional)………
2. Age: ………
3. Sex: Male Female
4. Number of year(s) teaching /working in field:………
PART 2:PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS BY TICKING ( ) FOR THE ANSWER THAT SUITS YOU MOST.
items
Statement
options Strongly
agree agree undecided disagree Strongly disagree Teacher‟s perception using authentic materials in speaking skills
1 Using authentic materials to teach
speaking skills is necessary. 1 2 3 4 5
2
I think students often like to learn speaking skills with authentic materials from other sources than textbook.
1 2 3 4 5
3 The language in authentic materials is
often appropriate to my students. 1 2 3 4 5
4
When using authentic materials,I have opportunity to help my students practice English for real communication.
1 2 3 4 5
5
The topics in authentic materials are more familiar than general themes in textbooks. Therefore the students‟
motivations in speaking are higher.
1 2 3 4 5
*Your additional ideas
:………
Students‟ knowledge and skills 6 My students‟ level of English
proficiency is intermediate
1 2 3 4 5
7 My students do not know the necessity
of authentic materials. 1 2 3 4 5
8 Most of my students‟ speaking skill is
weak 1 2 3 4 5
9 My students only concentrate on
grammar when they speak English. 1 2 3 4 5
10 My students‟ English is influenced
much by Vietnamese in their speaking 1 2 3 4 5
11 My students do not know how to
begin , develop, or end their speaking. 1 2 3 4 5 Your additional ideas:
………
………
Student‟s learning methods and habits 12 My students only speak English
when they are asked and required. 1 2 3 4 5
13
My students only follow the topics which are available in textbooks without any creation or change.
1 2 3 4 5
14 My students are often passive in their
learning process. 1 2 3 4 5
15 My students only practice speaking
English in class. 1 2 3 4 5
16
My students are generally shy and afraid of speaking English in front of class
1 2 3 4 5
17
My students do not often ask me to provide real conversation and situation for them to practice
1 2 3 4 5
Approach and method of practice using authentic materials in speaking skill 18
I often use learner-centered approach in practicing oral skill by asking students to suggests topics or ways to discuss.
1 2 3 4 5
19
I often use some speaking activities such as : role -play , group work , problem-solving, discussion , games in my teaching
1 2 3 4 5
20
I often pay attention to both content and language in my speaking
activities.
1 2 3 4 5
21 I often give feedbacks for students
after finished each activity . 1 2 3 4 5
22
I often use video tapes to show some real situations for my students because they are an important resource for real communication.
1 2 3 4 5
23
I often use audio-visualaids , namely video, film, television to support my teaching.
1 2 3 4 5
24
I often use visualaids , namely photographs , magazines , pictures flashcards, wall pictures, chalkboard as authentic printed materials to teach speaking skills
1 2 3 4 5
25
I often follow four activities procedure in teaching
speaking:warming , Pre-speaking , speaking stage, post-speaking
1 2 3 4 5
Your additional
ideas:………
………
Do you meet any difficulties in using authentic materials for speaking classes?
………
………
………
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION
APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRES FOR STUDENTS
This questionnaire aims at investigating using authentic materials to develop speaking skills for 1st year students at Hue University of Foreign Languages. All the data collected in this questionnaire are ONLY for the purpose of the research .I would like to invite you to take part in this research by completing the following questionnaire by ticking the box for the answer that suits you most.
Your feedback will be of great value for my research and the implication for teaching –learning EFL in Vietnam, I am grateful to you for your contribution.
PART 1: BACKGOUND INFORMATION Please provide your personal information
1. Name : ………
2. Year of study
a. First year b. second year c. third year d. forth year 3. Gender : a. Nam b Nu
4. Age: ………
5. English proficiency :
a. Excellent b. very good c. good d. fair e. Not sure
PART 2: PLEASE ANSWERING THE FOLLOWING QUESTION BY TICKING ( ) FOR THE MOST ANSWER THAT SUITS YOU items Statement
options Strongly
agree
agree undecided disagree Strongly disagree Students‟ responses to the teaching of authentic materials in speaking skills
1 I think that learning speaking skills with authentic material is necessary
1 2 3 4 5
2 I like to learn speaking skill with authentic materials than only textbook .
1 2 3 4 5
3
I realized that I have more opportunity to show my ability when my teacher uses authentic material to teach speaking skills
1 2 3 4 5
4
I have more chance to practice pronunciation, listening skill through authentic materials
1 2 3 4 5
5
Learning with authentic materials is more interesting than textbook.
1 2 3 4 5
6
The topics in authentic material are more interesting than those in textbook.
1 2 3 4 5
7
There are not many real topics in learning speaking skills with authentic materials.
1 2 3 4 5
8
I am able to develop my language competence through learning speaking skills with authentic materials.
1 2 3 4 5
9
I realize that the language of authentic materials is close to communicating in real-life.
1 2 3 4 5
10
I have many more
opportunities to discuss and interact for the topics with my partner in classroom .
1 2 3 4 5
11
When I learn speaking skill through authentic materials such as : Video , news, Films , etc , I have more opportunity to approach native language.
1 2 3 4 5
12
Through authentic materials, I know about many different cultures and social mores.
1 2 3 4 5
Students’ view to the teacher’s tool /activities to develop speaking skills in classroom
13
My teacher selected topics which relevant to our lesson to supplement
about vocabulary, grammar and some useful languages.
1 2 3 4 5
14
The topics and activities chosen to develop oral language were not suitable to my current language proficiency.
1 2 3 4 5
15
My teacher do not often used authentic materials such as visual, audio-visual to practice and along with the development of some other skills through speaking lesson.
1 2 3 4 5
16
My teacher do not often use some activities to practice speaking such as : Role-play, group work, discussion problem-solving
1 2 3 4 5
17
Sometime I was not interested in my teacher‟s speaking activities . Because they were not interesting and useful .
1 2 3 4 5
18
My teacher do not often adapts some real dialogs from internet, films, newspapers to enhance his speaking instruction .
1 2 3 4 5
19
My teacher does not often update or provide me with new methods and approaches to practice speaking .
1 2 3 4 5
20
The language instruction (grammar and vocabulary) introduced by my teacher in each speaking activity is difficult to understand and to practice.
1 2 3 4 5
Others:………
………
The students’ difficulties in practising speaking using authentic materials
21
When I practice speaking skills with authentic materials , I realized that it was so difficult in comparison with my current level.
1 2 3 4 5
22 Due to lacking of knowledge 1 2 3 4 5
about society and culture, I thought that I hadn‟t enough confidence to learn with authentic materials.
23
I realized that learning with authentic materials was very exciting, but too hard to understand , because of variety of vocabulary, structures.
1 2 3 4 5
Your additional ideas………
You have suggestions to improve the teaching/learning of speaking using authentic materials?
………
………
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION