CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
B. Reading Authentic Text
3. Authentic Material
Here, the researcher wants to describe students‟
reading comprehension of English Educational Department of IAIN Padangsidimpuan by using multiple choice test only.
It is based on Barbara Gross Davis‟ suggestion that multiple choices test is suitable to use in reading test.
In line with the definition above, Guo (2012) states that authentic materials contain real language produced by real speakers or writers for a real audience and designed to convey a real message. It means that in authentic materials, the language is not artificial but originally used in the real world contexts. Further, Harmer also states that authentic material is language where no concessions are made to foreign speakers. It is normal and natural language used by native or competent speakers of a language.
The language is unlikely to be simplified, spoken slowly, or to be full of simplistic content as some textbook language has a tendency to be. Adam and Thomas consider (2005), Authentic materials can refer to passages that were written by native speakers, but primarily for a non-native speaking audience. Authentic materials are increasingly viewed as uniformly far superior to any materials that have been written expressly for the students.
According to Herod (2002), authentic learning material and activities are designed to imitate the real-world situations. In line with it, Jacobson, et.al (2009) see the authentic material as a printed material which is used in the classroom in the same way they would be used in real life. In conclusion, authentic materials are the material that can exposed the students to the real language. It can be from many things that we can find around the class. Generally, they are print, video, and audio materials that students encounter in their lives such as ATM receipt, web sites, street signs, coupons, calendars, magazines, newspapers, movies, TV programs, phone massages, radio broadcast, and so on.
As explains by Gebhard (1996), there are four kinds of authentic material such as authentic listening/viewing materials, authentic visual materials, authentic printed materials, and realia. In general, authentic materials help the students bridge the gap between the classroom and the outside world. However, it is in line with the concept of Green School.
Teaching materials are the resources a teacher uses to deliver instruction to the students. It is supproted by Richard (2001) who states that teaching materials are a key component in most language program. It supports and facilitates the teaching and learning process. He adds that whether the teacher uses textbook, institutionally prepared materials or his or her own materials generally serves as the basis for much of the language input learners receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom. Chanda et.al. (2000) add that teaching material enables everyone in a classroom situation to participate effectively. Since teaching material is important in the process of teaching and learning, the use of teaching material is one thing to be considered to be applied so that it can create an effective source of learning during the teaching and learning process.
Nowadays, authentic teaching materials begin to be used by some teachers in high school as an alternative teaching material in supporting and facilitating them in teaching reading for authentic material is considered as more motivating teaching material since it reflects the real
life situation. It is supported by Pang, Muaka et.al (2003) who states that choosing reading materials that draw on students‟ lives, experiences, and interests is a good starting point. It means that teaching material is really important to be considered for the process of teaching and learning.
It is believed that authentic material is considered as good and interesting teaching material to be used. It is also suggested by Silberstein (1994) to use text that are realistic in term of the students‟ reading needs and abilities, and that are authentic. He says that reading passages should be authentic in the sense that they resembles the “real-worlds” texts students will encounter and that they require the same approaches to reading. Students will learn best if they are involved in real-life situation.
Authentic material brings students to real-life and meaningful context Tamo (2009) adds that bringing authentic materials into the classroom can be motivating for the students as it adds a real life element to the student‟s learning experience. In a plain word, authentic material can increase students‟ motivation to learn. Motivation to learn is an important aspect in the process of reaching the goal. It is said by Brown (2001) that it refers to the intensity of one‟s impetus to learn. So, the involvement of students during teaching and learning process and the effectiveness of the process are influenced by students‟ motivation they bring in the classroom.
Here, the definition points out the term authentic materials are designed to prepare students for survival in the real world. One way to simulate the real world in the classroom has been to use authentic
materials to expose students to the language. Teachers bring the authentic materials in the classroom. They used it in genuine way in which those materials are designed to. For example, involve students going to a specific section of newspapers that interests them, whether it is sports or entertainment, and completing a similar assignment. As they progress, they can be asked to copy full sentences to translate (Polio: 2014). Then, Guariento and Morley (p.347) state that exposure will help them to acquire an effective competence and to bridge the gap between the classroom knowledge and their participation in the real world.
From explanations above, it can be said that authentic materials can be used as a bridge to connect the classroom with the real world situation.
Dealing with the real life texts which contain real life information could also motivate students since those texts provide a new experience dealing with the language inside the classroom. In contrast with the non-authentic materials in the classroom, they are not varied and contain artificial language, language which is designed for learning purposes and concentrating in some materials that have to be taught. Moreover, Berardo (2006) gives explanation that students will be somehow leaving in the real life and deal with the real language and encounter varied situation in which different reading purposes are required. By implementing authentic materials in teaching and learning, students can be introduced to what they will need and want to be able to read when travelling, studying abroad, or using the language as it is used outside the classroom.
In summary, authentic materials are text which is not used for teaching purposes. They contain a real language as the native speakers used in real life communication. When they come to the language teaching and learning, they are used in a similar way to their purpose when they are designed for. In the teaching and learning process, they could bridge the gap between the classroom and the real-world application.
According to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach, authentic materials which had been a controversial idea appeared over the past three decades, came into view in language teaching (Mishan, 2005).
CLT put the priority on students enable to communicate using the target language. The communicative philosophy put the priority on the teaching of communication via language, not the teaching of language via communication (Nitecki, 1982). Here, language is merely the means.
Therefore, in teaching reading, it should be focused on the content rather than on a particular language from (Harmer, 2008). It meant that we focused more on the main idea of the text, the general and specific information of the text and the message brought by the text.
In CLT, the reading material should contain a variety of language rather than just one language sentence (Harmer, 2008). Therefore, authentic text is suitable for this approach since it brings a variety of language (Berardo, 2006). On the contrary, the language in non-authentic texts is artificial and unvaried. It concentrates on something that has to be taught. They emphasize on particular tense. It sometimes causes teacher
more focused on teaching structure rather than content. Hence, the use of truly authentic texts is an important means of teaching students to communicate effectively (Skiada, 2017).
However, practically most of the English teachers accustomed to use the artificially constructed reading material (text) since there are many textbooks available and ready to be used for Junior High School. Due to the limitation of time they have, the teacher is lazy to find other supplementary materials that enable the teaching of reading will be more interesting. Actually, in one hand, the course book or textbook benefits teacher by providing material carefully chosen and accompanied by well-conceived questions or other exercises. On the other hand, the typical text in a FL course book is one that help teacher to present or practice specific language items such as vocabulary, structure and the other (Nuttal, 1989).
It causes sometimes the teacher is more concerned with the grammar or form rather than content.
Using constructed artificial materials in the textbook sometimes makes a teacher to give a big portion on teaching grammar. It is reasonable since such kind of artificial texts is usually made under special intention to teach special genre or tenses. Textbooks are held to standardize of topic and cover of pedagogical correctness. On the contrary, trade books generally win hands down over textbooks when it comes to liveliness of text, depth of topic treatment, and interest (Ruddell, 2005). In addition, Neikova stated that the language in an authentic text is varied, whereas in a
non-authentic one, single structure is repeated (Skiada, 2017). This kind of text usually makes the teacher more focused on teaching grammar or tenses. Since they are intended to learn language, the writer usually has the aim to write the language attributes. It sometimes, makes them say nothing (Nuttal, 1989). Moreover according to Berardo, he stated that the artificial nature of the language and structure used, make them very unlike anything that the learner will encounter in the real world and very often they do not reflect how the language is really used. They are useful for teaching structures but are not very good for improving reading skills (Berardo, 2006). Even Baldwin in Ruddell recommends supplementing required textbooks with selections from the many trade books available in all content areas (Ruddell, 2005).
The failure of English teaching becomes the responsibility of many people especially the teacher. In teaching reading, we should consider many aspects essential in reading comprehension. The four vital aspects in reading comprehension are the reader, the text, the context and the strategies (Buehl, 2017). Every aspect has some impacts on reading comprehension. Besides, the teacher needs to recognize individuality and provides activities in the classroom. The role of the teacher is also to extend the students‟ knowledge and skills to ensure their success in the future (Blachowicz & Ogle, 2017).
As for students having low motivation, teachers need to provide materials which appeal to them. According to Mishan authentic texts
impact on affective factors essential to learning, such as motivation, empathy and emotional involvement (Mishan, 2005). Moreover, authentic text is claimed to be intrinsically motivating as well as engaging since it brings currency and challenge Skiada, 2017). Mishan explains that the currency that authentic text contains topics in current, so the students will know what‟s going on in the world (Mishan, 2005). Currencies are dealing with the up to date ness of topic and language. These hopefully can stimulate the students‟ interest the comprehension will be. The challenge that authentic text has according to Mishan (2005) deals with the language and its function which is used in real life context. The effect then, whenever students are able to cope with such kind of real text they become confident. Hopefully it will motivate them for further reading. As motivation increase, the filter will be decreased, causing better comprehension. Based on experimental research of Afna (2015), authentic text was is very useful in teaching reading. It showed comparison of scores 13.76 > 12.48. It is concluded that there was a significant difference in the achievements between the two classes.
An important factor in choosing authentic text is readability (Nuttal, 1989). Berardo explicates it calls for the text should not be too easy or too difficult for the students (Berardo, 2006). The structure of the authentic text we choose should not be too complex, therefore the text will be comprehensible input for the students. However, if this is difficult to find the most appropriate one, we still can utilize the authentic text that
may have difficulty. In this case, we need to give a reasonable task to students. Mishan reasons that it follows that texts can be made accessible to learners not by simplifying these, but by adjusting the demands of the task involving them (Mishan, 2005). The comprehensible authentic text is worthy input in second language acquisition. Mishan states that the argument for the use of authentic texts in language learning may all be reduced to one quintessential point; that their use enhances language acquisition (Mishan, 2005).
The use of authentic materials in the teaching of reading is benefitting students. Since authentic text is an exposure to real language being used in a real context, it is introducing the students how the language is really used. It is in contrast with artificial text which typically uses controlled language learning environment. In real world, students will not encounter the artificial language of the classroom but language how it is really used. The used of authentic material is also recommended by Widdowson. He stated that It has been traditionally supposed that the language presented to learners should be simplified in some way for easy access and acquisition (Widdowson, 1990). Nowadays, there are recommendations that the language presented should be authentic. Berardo stated that using authentic material is good for the students because it enable learners to interact with the real language and content rather than form. Learners feel that they are learning a target language as it is used outside the classroom (Berardo:2006).
Teacher must be careful to choose the text. It must be correlated with typical to the students‟ world (learners‟ authentic). The topic of authentic text must be suitable to the students‟ context. This is, then, in line with contextual teaching and learning (CTL), one of the hot topics in education today which is emphasized on the learning should be meaningful for students. Meaning emerges from the relationship between content and its context (Johnson: 2002). Further she stated that context give meaning to content. It means students are able to make connections, the more meaning content will hold for them. A great part of the teacher‟s job, then, is to provide context. According to Duke et al, they stated that students learn language not in abstract, decontextualized terms but in application, in a context that language is really for. For students, language learning occurs best when the learning context matches the real functional context (Duke, Purcell‐Gates, Hall, & Tower, 2006). In this case, authentic texts should be typical in the students‟ context. Authentic text which is used in real life will helpful in teaching learning. This will help students to connect he language they learned from the authentic text to their context in real life situation. Johnson states that the more students are able to connect their academic lessons to this context, the more meaning they will derive from these lessons (Johnson:2002).
However, besides those strengths of authentic texts mentioned above, there are also negative aspects we need to consider. This may cause teacher reluctant to use authentic texts. The negative aspects of authentic
materials according to Martinez (2002) are they can be too culturally biased that required a good knowledge of cultural background, as well as too many structures being mixed, causing lower level problems when decoding the texts. Moreover, according to Berardo, the biggest problem with authentic texts we face is that if the wrong type of text is chosen, the vocabulary may not be relevant to the learner‟s needs and too many structures can create difficulty (Berardo:2006). This can de-motivate the students rather than motivate them.
Authentic material refers to those taken from real life sources and they are not designed for teaching and learning purposes. The most common sources of authentic materials that can be used in the classroom are newspaper, magazine, songs, literature and materials from the internet.
Wallace (1998) defines authentic texts as “real-life texts, not written for pedagogic processes”. One of the main purposes of using authentic materials in the classroom is to “expose” students to as much real language as possible. Therefore, the students can gain real information and know what is going on in the world around them.
Moreover, an advantage of taking a complete newspaper or magazine into classroom, instead of photocopies of an article, is that students can actually choose what they want to read. They are much more likely to read with enthusiasm if they have made decision about what they want to read.
Authentic materials are often more interesting because they reflect real life phenomena. It is in line with Brown (1999) s‟ statement that the learners are more eager to learn when the language is authentic or meaningful. It is supported by Nuttall (1996) who states that “authentic texts can be motivating because they are proof that the language is used for real life purposes by real people”. Moreover, they have a positive effect on comprehension and learner satisfaction (Berado, 2006). Thus, it can be implied that the use of authentic materials affect the students‟ reading comprehension.
However, authentic materials often contain difficult language and unneeded vocabulary items, which can be unnecessary distraction for learners and teacher. In order to solve the problem the authentic material should be used in accordance with students‟ ability, with suitable tasks being given in which total understanding is not important. In order to overcome the problems created by difficult authentic material texts, one solution needed is to simplify them according to the level of the learners.
According to Richards and Schmidt (2010) authentic texts can be defined as the texts that were not originally developed for pedagogical purposes. Authentic texts are any media that use English for real communication. The word authentic refers to the materials, not to the English. It does not necessarily mean "correct" English or English spoken by first-language speakers.
It is important to know that there is the difference between the authentic texts and the non authentic texts. Tomlinson (1998) states that authentic text is a text which is not written or spoken originally for language teaching process. The non authentic texts are the texts that are written especially for pedagogic purposes. In other words, the texts have been changed, most often simplified to suit the requirements of a foreign language curriculum (Harmer in Neikova, 2005). The language in non-authentic texts is artificial and unvaried, concentrating on something that has to be taught as “false-text indicators” that include:
a. Perfectly formed sentences (all the time).
b. A question using a grammatical structure.
c. Repetition of structures.
Grellet (1998) states that the authenticity of a texts means that there is nothing changed from the original text. It includes the presentation and its lay out has to be original. It includes authentic language features such as broken sentences, hesitation, interruption and interjection (authentic listening materials) or headline vocabulary, exotic fonts and abbreviations (authentic written materials).
Gower (1995) gives reasons of the use of authentic materials in English teaching process:
a. Authentic materials are real materials that the students can find them easily in their daily life. This reason can be a way for the student builds their confidence.
b. Authentic material provides examples of language as it is really used.
c. The real cultural content of many authentic materials can encourage involvement and comparison.
d. Authentic material leads them to authentic task.
e. The use of authentic materials can be so effective to help learner to be independent learners such as making prediction and guesses.