Observing Students’ Response Toward Material Authenticity in Senior High School
Deilly Ismet Perkasa
ABSTRACT
Teaching and learning material is an important aspect to increase the students’ interest, enthusiasm, concentration, and enjoyment in English classroom learning. Since the issue toward material authenticity becomes a debatable issue among scholars and there are still a lot of arguments on how material authenticity is best applied, this study was aimed to find out the senior high-school students’ response toward material authenticity. One research question was asked “How is students’ response toward the material authenticity in the level of Senior High School?” Thirty first-grade students of SMA N 1 Salatiga were selected to be the participants of this study. They were taught using both materials, authentic and non-authentic for 4 times. After that, they were asked to fill in the questionnaire (Peacock, 1997) which showed the students’ responses toward both materials, authentic and non-authentic. Then, the data were analyzed based on two different categories proposed by Peacock (ibid.) which covered: (1) overall class interest & enthusiasm and (2) self-reported interest & enthusiasm. The results of the study indicated that the students’ positive responses to authentic (80.55%) and non-authentic (81.46%) materials did not differ significantly
Key words: Authentic, non-authentic, students’ response, senior high-school
INTRODUCTION
the class so students discuss the report on pollution in the city where learners live. By those definitions, we can see that authentic materials are related to language community and native speakers of English. Senior high school students are still in the process of learning English and it is difficult for them to use English that is already used in certain English communities. When a language is supposed to be used for social purpose in a certain language community –American people for example-, it is not really suitable for non-native students that are still
learning English.
Another definition on authentic material refers to a text that was created to fulfill some social purpose in the language community in which it was produced (Little, Devitt and Singleton, 1989). Actually this idea is similar with what Peacock (1997) proposes before, that the purpose of the authentic materials is for social importance. Newspaper for example, it is made for the sake of information and communication through reading the news. Teacher can take material from newspaper, but of course without the teaching-learning purpose.
We can also see Nunan’s explanation of authentic/ non-authentic materials distinction which consists of five points. Input data can be placed on a continuum from “genuinely
authentic” to non-authentic. That continuum is Genuine: created only for the realm of real
Although some definitions above are likely to show that authentic materials to be a good way in teaching English, not all researchers think that authentic materials are suitable for all learner. Macneil & Mak (2007) suggest that authenticity is best understood as a social construction that has been put into place to achieve a particular aim. It means that the use of material authenticity depends on the goal of the learning process. Some researchers such as Kilickaya (2004) and Kim (2000) claim that authentic materials can be applied on intermediate and advanced level students only, while McNeil (1994) and Miller (2005) believe that all levels of students, even lower levels, are able to use authentic materials.
We will see more on the two points of view toward the use of authentic material. The first belief is that the use of authentic materials in the classroom is beneficial to the learning process (Guarento and Morley, 2001). In addition, according to Berardo (2006) authentic materials have a positive value that makes students highly motivated. The main reason for using authentic materials in the classroom is to make students not only learn in the “safe” area and controlled language learning environment, but also to encounter the language used in the real world. It shows that by using authentic materials, students will be able to apply their knowledge that they get in the class into the real condition outside the class. Clarke (1989) also suggests that the language of the real world is what learners need to be exposed to because that language is uncompromising towards the learner and reflects real-world goals. It is clear that the authentic material is aimed to prepare the students to be able to deal with the real world interaction
Berardo (2006) argues that the language in non-authentic texts is artificial and unvaried, concentrating on something that has to be taught and often containing a series of “false-text indicators” that include: perfectly formed sentences (all the time); a question
know how English is really used in a real-world context and apply their knowledge in the real-world English. Non-authentic materials are actually useful for teaching structures but are not very good for improving reading skills (for the simple fact that they read unnaturally).
On the other hand, authentic materials are often culturally biased and require more contextualization and sensitivity in their use. The advantage of topical materials has a flipside in that materials quickly become outdated (Wardman, 2009). When a text or a material is culturally biased, it will be difficult to be understood by an English learner who comes from different culture. Books or other teaching materials made by an American for example, will have different culture with the students who use those materials in Indonesia. Although it will be useful for the sake of cross-cultural understanding, but how can we guarantee that they will always understand the actual information of the material? Also, when the materials are outdated, their effectiveness will decrease if used in the class for teaching-learning process. When a topic in the society is no longer “hot” anymore, students are likely to be bored with that topic.
Besides, Martinez (2002) argues that too many structures are mixed so lower levels have a hard time decoding the texts. There are many complicated structures which may be different from what the students read in the non-authentic materials in their book. Those complicated structures are not aimed to be used for teaching-learning, but social purpose.
However, the issue of material authenticity is not only about which one is better, but also about how it is best applied to the teaching and learning process. In many school context learners generally are not involved in deciding what material to use, instead it is the teacher who gives and determines the kind of material for them. Students’ opinion is rarely to be considered in the school decision on the teaching method and material, although the ones who need the material are the students. The students are also the ones who can measure which one is better between authentic and non-authentic materials. From that point, I believe it is necessary to conduct the research which is aimed to know the students’ perception toward material authenticity. Then, a research question is raised: What is students’ response toward the material authenticity in the level of Senior High School? This research question is meant to know what the students’ attitude is toward those two materials, authentic and non-authentic materials, given to them. In the future, it is hoped that this research can help the English teacher in Senior High School to understand the learners’ perception toward material
THE STUDY
Context of the study
The research was conducted in SMA N 1 Salatiga, a small town in Central Java, Indonesia, where the researcher collected the data in one class in the grade X. The students were in the academic year of 2011/2012. As a foreign language, English was not actively used in oral communication outside the class. However, English was used as a medium of instruction inside the class.
Participants
The participants of this research were 30 Indonesian students, 11 males and 19 females, from SMA N 1 Salatiga with the age ranged from 15 to 16. The language background of the students was Indonesian, and English was taught as a foreign language. In average, they had been studied English for about 7 years.
Data Collection
A twelve-statement-questionnaire (see Appendix 1) given to the participants was used as the instrument of data collection. As the students’ first language was Indonesian, the
questionnaire was written in the Indonesian language in order to avoid misunderstanding. The questionnaire was adapted from Peacock’s study (1997) on the effect of material authenticity
toward EFL learners. Unlike Peacock’s questionnaire which used three different categories
In regard to the two categories, overall class interest & enthusiasm was meant to find out the students’ attitude toward material authenticity (authentic or non-authentic) in use as
manifested by levels of learner interest, enthusiasm, persistence with the learning task, concentration, and enjoyment during class. In the questionnaire this category was represented in statements 1 until 8. For example, statement number 2 “Saya dapat berkonsentrasi dengan
baik pada materi bahasa Inggris yang disampaikan di kelas” (I can concentrate well on the
English material delivered in the class) dealt with the students’ concentration when being taught using authentic and non-authentic materials. Similarly, statement number 6 “Saya bersemangat belajar bahasa Inggris” (I am enthusiastic with the learning process) asked the
students’ enthusiasm in the use of authentic and non-authentic materials in learning English.
On the other hand, self-reported interest & enthusiasm was used in order to assess the value of the teaching materials (authentic or non-authentic) in regards to the level of meaningfulness, excitement, satisfaction, and variation. In the questionnaire this category was represented in statements 9 until 12. For example, statement number 9 asked: “Materi bahasa Inggris yang disampaikan oleh guru di kelas penting untuk proses belajar saya” (The
material is meaningful for my learning process). Here, the questionnaire asked how the students valued the meaningfulness of authentic as well as non-authentic materials in relation to their learning English. The same thing also occurred in statement number 11: “Saya puas dengan materi bahasa Inggris yang telah disampaikan oleh guru di kelas” (The material is
satisfying) which was meant to know the students’ level of satisfaction toward the use of
authentic and non-authentic materials in their learning. In all twelve statements in the questionnaire, the participants’ responses were set to 4 Likert scales: strongly disagree, disagree, agree, and strongly agree.
understood the statements in the questionnaire, and thus they could supply this research with their truly intended answers. In the administration of the data collection, the participants were taught by student teacher doing teaching practicum there. The reason why I choose the student teacher was to make it easier for me to cooperate with them in facilitating my data collection which required two kinds of material, authentic and non-authentic, every meeting. In every data collection day, I was in the class to administer the questionnaire and examined the students’ attitude when they were given both materials. However, I was not involved in
the teaching and learning process. Before the students were given the questionnaires, I explained about what was meant by authentic and non-authentic materials first. The students filled in one set of questionnaire after they had been taught two kinds of materials, authentic and non-authentic: one questionnaire asking their response toward authentic material and the same questionnaire for non-authentic one.
As the time given and permitted by the school, the administration of data collection was conducted for 4 times, and thus, 8 different students’ responses on both authentic and non-authentic materials were acquired. On the first day teaching, the teacher taught about “describing people”. The material was taken from FTV.com (fashion TV) for the authentic
material and Interchange Textbook for the non-authentic material. The second day teaching was about “describing things”. Here, they were shown some brochures about gadgets, food,
and cosmetics taken from the internet for the authentic materials. For the non-authentic materials, they were shown brochures about trip to Australia taken from the textbook. On the third day teaching, the students were taught “the degree of comparison”. They were given
text entitled “iPhone vs. Android” taken from the internet for the authentic material and
taken from “The Jakarta Post” for the authentic material and pictures of some news sources
taken from the text book for the non-authentic one.
In order to ensure reliable answers from the students, the students filled each set of the questionnaire (authentic and non-authentic) one after the other: first, the students filled the questionnaire for the authentic material after the authentic material was delivered, then they filled the questionnaire for the non-authentic material after the non-authentic one was taught. The questionnaires for both materials were given at the beginning of the teaching so they were not distracted in the middle of the teaching. The collection of the questionnaire was at the end of the class.
Data Analysis
After all the data had been collected, they were counted and compared to see how the participants’ responses were differed over four meetings. In order to simplify the discussion, I
put all the results of the questionnaires into a table. First, the data were divided into 2 categories, i.e. authentic and non-authentic data. Besides that, I also divided the participants’ responses into two: positive and negative responses. The responses were considered positive, when they belonged to strongly agree and agree. On the other hand, the responses were classified into negative answers, when they belonged to strongly disagree and disagree. All of the responses (both positive and negative) were counted in percentage.
Apart from dividing the participants’ responses into two categories, i.e. authentic and
& enthusiasm I discussed the students’ attitude toward material authenticity (authentic or
non-authentic) in use as manifested by levels of learner interest, enthusiasm, activity, persistence with the learning task, concentration, and enjoyment during class. While, in the self-reported interest & enthusiasm I discussed how the students valued teaching materials (authentic or non-authentic) in regards to the level of meaningfulness, excitement, satisfaction, and variation. To enrich the discussion, I also linked the findings with some previous studies as well as some literature review. Finally, based on the overall discussion, conclusions were drawn.
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
To answer the research question “What is students’ response toward the material
authenticity in the level of Senior High School?”, the results of the research showed that the participants had positive attitudes toward both authentic and non-authentic materials. In the first meeting, 79.44% of the participants had positive attitudes toward authentic materials, while 83.33% of them showed the same attitudes toward non-authentic materials. In the second meeting, 82.78% of the students gave positive answers to the authentic materials and 85.56% of them to non-authentic materials. Similarly, in the third meeting, 78.89% of the students showed their positive attitude to the authentic materials, while 75.00% of had the same answer to the non-authentic materials. Finally, in the last meeting, 81.11% of the students had positive answers to the authentic material and 81.94% of them showed positive answers as well to the non-authentic ones.
Based on the students’ responses in all questionnaires, it was found that the students
authentic material was higher than the non-authentic one. However, overall I found that on average positive attitudes toward non-authentic materials (81.46%) did not significantly differ from the authentic ones (80.55%). In other words, the result of the study showed that the students’ attitude toward both materials, authentic and non-authentic, was almost the same and equal.
Table 1. The percentage of the total responses on both materials, authentic and non-authentic materials
Observation day
Authentic Material Non-authentic Material Strongly disagree and disagree Strongly agree and agree Strongly disagree and disagree Strongly agree and agree Meeting 1 Meeting 2 Meeting 3 Meeting 4 20.56% 17.22% 21.11% 18.89% 79.44% 82.78% 78.89% 81.11% 16.67% 14.44% 25.00% 18.06% 83.33% 85.56% 75.00% 81.94%
Average 19.45% 80.55% 18.54% 81.46%
In regards to overall class interest & enthusiasm category, I found that the students gave various responses to both authentic and non-authentic materials. Related to statement number 1, from all questionnaires, the students admitted that they were more actively involved in the learning when they were being taught using non-authentic ones (75.83%) compared to authentic ones (67.50%). In other words, we could say that students’ attitude manifested by the level of activity was higher when they were being taught using non-authentic materials. Similarly on the statement number 2, when being asked about their level of concentration, I found that the students could concentrate more when they were learning English using non-authentic materials (75.83%) than the authentic ones (70.00%). It might indicate that the students’ activity and concentration had a sort of relation. When the students
From these two statements, related to students’ “activity” and “concentration” level,
students gave higher positive attitude to non-authentic materials. Both on statement number 1 and 2 the showed that the score were 75.83%. While, The level of students’ activity and concentration on the authentic ones were not more than 70.00%.
On the other hand, with regard to the level of enjoyment (statement number 3) in using authentic and non-authentic materials, I found that the students slight enjoyed learning English using authentic materials (90.00%) than non-authentic ones (89.17%). The finding was quite surprising because even though the students were found to be more actively involved when being taught using non-authentic materials, they enjoyed learning English more using authentic ones. It could be assumed that authentic materials made the students happier and gave them more enjoyment than in non-authentic materials when learning English. The finding might also suggest that there was no relationship between students’ active learning and the level of enjoyment toward the materials, though further analysis needed to be carried out.
It was also found that on average, regarding to statement number 4, students paid better attention to the non-authentic materials (80.00%) compared to the authentic ones (76.67%). It means that the non-authentic materials was more interesting for the students, it attracted students’ attention more than in the authentic ones. In line with this, Kienbaum (1986) argued that a material had to relate to or be able to awaken the students' interest. We might think that authentic materials would catch students’ attention more than the
like it. When some questions about that model were asked, only one or two students raised their hand. However, when a reading passage about Hip-hop Style was given, they read it carefully. More than 5 students raised their hand when the questions about the reading were asked. At the end of the lesson, I asked some of them which material that they prefer and why was it, they answer they like the non-authentic material because they could not clearly understand the words in the authentic materials’ reading passage. Moreover, they felt that modeling was not really familiar to them. It was different with the non-authentic one, they could easily understand the words in the passage and answer the questions as well. They also more familiar with the hip-hop style topic because they often see it on television and teenage magazine. From that point, it could be inferred that the non-authentic materials had successfully attracted more attention from the students because the level of difficulty was lower and the topic was more familiar to the students than the authentic ones.
Statement number 5 also had a strong relation with the level of difficulty. It was showed that the students preferred to work harder when they were given the non-authentic materials (92.50%) than when they were given the authentic ones (90.83%). When we talked about the students’ hard work in following the lesson, we could review again Peacocks’
theory (1997) of overall class interest and enthusiasm which discussed the students’ attitude toward material authenticity (authentic or non-authentic) in use as manifested by levels of learner interest, enthusiasm, activity, persistence with the learning task, concentration, and enjoyment during class. Here, related to students’ hard work, we focused on the term “persistence with the learning task”. This case might occur because the students thought that
be different from what the students read in the non-authentic materials in their book. Similar with the statement number 4, the evidence was when the students were taught about “describing people”. They found much more difficult words in the reading passage and the
questions. Here, the questions were made by the teacher because the reading passage was taken from a site page which was not intended for teaching and learning process. While, on the non-authentic material, the reading passage and the questions were taken from the book and they were intended to teaching and learning process, so the language was adjusted to the level of the students in Senior High School. It might cause the students to give up the authentic materials and prefer to work and focus to the non-authentic ones.
However, the result of questionnaire number 6 showed that 72.50% students on average felt more enthusiastic when they were being taught using authentic materials compared to when being taught using non-authentic materials (69.16%). Although students gave higher attitude of activity, concentration, and persistence; it looked like that they gave higher enthusiasm to the authentic materials. In line with this, Berardo (2006) states that the students’ lack of enthusiasm could be caused by the language in non-authentic texts which is
artificial and unvaried, concentrating on something that has to be taught and often containing a series of “false-text indicators” that include: perfectly formed sentences (all the time); a
question using a grammatical structure, gets a full answer; repetition of structures; very often does not “read” well. However, in this research some students argued it was not because of the unvaried non-authentic text which made them less enthusiastic but the way the teacher delivered the material. It was proven in the first day teaching when they were taught about “describing people” that they were more enthusiastic because the teacher provided some
“describing things” and “degree of comparisons”. While, on the last day teaching the students
were provided some newspaper (The Jakarta Post) and asked to interviewed their friends and people around their class. From those evidences, it could be inferred that authentic materials could make the students feel more enthusiastic than when they were being taught with non-authentic materials.
The similar thing occurred in statement number 7, that most of the students stated that the authentic material (72.50%) was more challenging or motivating them in learning English than the non-authentic ones (70.83%). Referred to Berardo’s (ibid) statement that non -authentic material was unvaried, it was believed that that thing made the students feel enjoyed and excited/ enthusiastic more with authentic materials. Berardo (ibid) also argues that authentic materials have a positive value that makes students highly motivated.
On the other hand, when being asked about the appropriateness of the materials to the students’ need (statement number 8), the students answered that the non-authentic materials
were slightly more appropriate (96.67%) than the authentic ones (95.83%). Overall, they feel that both materials were appropriate for them, it was proven by the number of the students’
response on both materials were more than 95%.
students showed higher positive attitude toward non-authentic materials in use as manifested by levels of learner interest, enthusiasm, activity, persistence with the learning task, concentration, and enjoyment during class than to the authentic ones.
In regard to self-reported interest & enthusiasm, on average, the students favored authentic materials (82.70%) more than non-authentic ones (81.87%). Although students gave high positive attitude toward both authentic and non-authentic materials, the students’ positive attitude was slightly higher on the authentic ones. We could see in the statement number 9 “Materi bahasa Inggris yang disampaikan oleh guru di kelas penting untuk proses belajar saya” (The material is meaningful for my learning process). It was shown that the students valued the authentic materials more meaningful for their learning (98.33%) than the non-authentic ones (96.67%). It might suggest that the students’ experience when being taught using authentic material would enrich their English related to the real-world application. Clarke (1989) suggests that the language of the real world (authentic) is what learners need to be exposed to because that language is uncompromising towards the learner and reflects real-world goals. When I asked the students which material which was more meaningful to them, they answered that both material were important for them, but the authentic one could give them better simulation of communication in the real world because they found many real things in the authentic material. From that point, in this case, it could be inferred that the students valued authentic materials more meaningful than the non-authentic ones because authentic material was important and meaningful for them to apply in the real world.
number 10 was on the different category with statement number 6. Statement number 10 was included in the self-reported interest & enthusiasm which valued the material in use, while statement number 6 was included in the overall class interest & enthusiasm which was used to know overall students’ attitude toward the authentic and non-authentic materials. Here, we
could see that the students valued the non-authentic materials interesting which has no relation with their excitement. They valued the non-authentic material interesting because could easily understand it. Similar with the evidence in the statement number 4, students found that the reading passages and the questions on the authentic material had a lot of difficult words since they were taken from the internet and the questions were made based on the reading passage by the teacher. In other words, the lower level of difficulty in the non-authentic materials which made them easier to understand could be the reason why the students valued non-authentic material more interesting. Kienbaum (1986) argued that a teacher should choose a material which was appropriate to the students viewed from the quantity, quality and the level of difficulty. Regarding this, the students might value non-authentic materials more interesting, although their attitude showed that they were more enthusiastic when being taught using the authentic ones.
In regards to statement number 11, the students valued the authentic materials as more satisfying (73.33%) than the non-authentic ones (68.33%). It might indicate that the students got what they needed in the authentic material. They were more relieved when being taught using authentic materials. On the other hand, in statement number 12, the students valued the non-authentic materials as more absorbing (78.33%) than the authentic ones (77.50%). It was different from statement number 3 which showed that the students enjoyed the authentic materials more than the non-authentic ones. From this point, it might be indicated that the students’ level of enjoyment and interest was not always related each other. Though, further
attitude to authentic materials in the self-reported interest & enthusiasm category, still, from overall questionnaires the non-authentic materials had higher students’ positive attitude than the authentic ones.
CONCLUSION
This study had a purpose to investigate the students’ responses toward the material
authenticity in the context of Senior High School. The result of the study showed that, from 4 meetings of data collection, the students showed inconsistency in responding the 12 statements in the questionnaire. They sometimes responded with higher positive responses toward one of the materials (authentic or non-authentic) in one day, but responded the other way on the other day. Related to the overall class interest & enthusiasm category, from those 4 meetings, students seemed to give higher level of interest, enthusiasm, activity, persistence with the learning task, concentration, and enjoyment during class to the non-authentic materials. However, in regard to self-reported interest & enthusiasm category, on average they valued the authentic materials slightly higher than the non-authentic ones. They valued authentic materials more meaningful, exciting, satisfying, and absorbing than the non-authentic ones. Though, overall, students had high positive attitudes toward both non-authentic and non-authentic materials. Their attitudes toward non-authentic materials were slightly higher (81.46%) than the authentic ones (80.55%). The differences between those two materials (authentic and non-authentic) were less than 1.00%.
These results indicated that authentic and non-authentic materials had their own benefits and weakness. The kind of material, whether it was authentic or non-authentic, might not really determine the students’ attitude, but the way it was delivered. The other thing was
authentic and non-authentic. Also, the familiarity to the topic was needed to be considered since the evidence showed that it affected the students’ attitude toward the materials.
Having known the students’ attitude toward both materials (authentic and non
-authentic), it was suggested that the teacher could deliver the material, whether it was authentic or non-authentic, which was suitable with the students’ condition. It was also necessary to ask the students about how the teaching which really fulfilled their needs and in accordance with their condition. In the future, English teacher in Senior High School was hoped to understand the learners’ perception toward material authenticity in learning English and able to deliver the material, either authentic or non-authentic, in accordance with the students’ needs.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
and warmest thank is for my lovely family who always support me day by day until this day has come. Without them, I am only a very small piece of dust in a desert. I would also deliver my thanks to my sweetheart Rachma Puspita Wardani who is always by my side whatever my condition. I don’t know how I would be if you are not with me. The last but not least, for my thesis friends and all of 2008’ers, keep the spirit inside your heart to reach your dreams!
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