1
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


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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

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………. i
Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………... ii
List of tables …………………………………………………………………………… iii
Table of contents ………………………………………………………………………

iv

PART A: INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………............. 1
1. Rationale for the study …………………………………………………………......

1

2. Aims of the study………………………………………………………………......... 2
3. Scope of the study ………………………………………………………………....... 3
4. Significance of the study ……………………………………………………………

3

5. Design of the study………………………………………………………………......

4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT ………………………………………………………….

5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………. 5
1. 1 Authenticity and authentic materials ……………………………………………



CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY …………………………………………………… 13
2. 1. Participants ……………………………………………………………………… 13
2. 1.1 Students …………………………………………………………………….
2.1.2. Teachers ……………………………………………………………………

13
14


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2. 2. Research settings …………………………………………………………………

14

2. 3. Research methods ………………………………………………………………..

16

2. 3.1. Student Questionnaire ……………………………………………………...

16

2. 3.2. Teacher Interview ………………………………………………………….

17

2. 3.3. Classroom Observation …………………………………………………….

17


PART C: CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………….

38

1. Summary of findings ……………………………………………………………….. 38
2. Contribution of the research ……………………………………………………….

39

3. Limitation of the research ……………………………………..…………………...

39

4. Suggestion for further research ………………………………..………………......

40

REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………………... 41
APPENDIX 1: Student Questionnaire ……………………………………………….

I

APPENDIX 2: Teacher Interview ……………………………………………………

IV

APPENDIX 3: Interview Transcript …………………………………………………

V

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


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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

exploitation of authentic materials.


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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




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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:
(1)

Authenticity of the texts that we may use as input data for learners. If the input
is not comprehended, regardless of how applicable and adaptable it is, it
appears to serve no purpose to the learners.

(2)

Authenticity of the learner‟s own interpretations of texts. The question arising
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.

(3)

Authenticity of tasks conductive to language learning. Tasks should be suitable
for the students‟ cognitive and linguistic competence and the steps to do the
tasks should be staged properly

(4)

Authenticity of actual social situation of the classroom language. It means that
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:

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.


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

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


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(Martinez, 2002). It also means that it is easier to find something in authentic materials that


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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

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
Grade

Number of

Gender

Average Score

students

Male

Female


11

12

12 English

30

2

28

7

8

15

Total

90

5

85

17

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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.


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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 Englishspecializing 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

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


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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

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


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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.


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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.


11

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

19 (63.3%)

11 (36.7%)

0 (0%)

12

0 (0%)

9 (30%)

21 (70%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

Grade

As shown in table 2, all of the students said that their teachers did use authentic
materials to teach English in the classroom. However, the frequency of using them was not
very high (mostly sometimes) and differed considerably in each grade. Authentic materials
were said to be the most often used in the 11th grade.