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Impact of Authentic Material on Foreign Language Teaching and Learning in Bangladesh: An Investigation MA Thesis

Submitted By Mohammad Galib Shahriar ID.:1020791555 Major: Teachign English to the Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) North South University

Supervised By Mahjabeen Hussain Lecturer, Department of English North South University Plot# 15, Block-B Bashundhara R/A, Dhaka-1229

Acknowledgements First and foremost, all praise is due to Allah who gave me the ability to accomplish this work. I would like to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor Mahjabeen Hussain , Lecturer, Department of English, North South University, for her acceptance to be my supervisor, and for providing me with insightful and valuable comments. She had always been there whenever I needed her help and support. I would also like to express special thanks to my maternal uncle Meah Md Yousuf Chowdhury, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Business Administration, Chittagong Cantonment Public College, Chittagong, for inspiring me to get admitted at North South University to do my Masters in TESOL. In addition, my sincere appreciation goes to my friends, including- Anupam Biswas, Nanda Kumar Das and Zia Uddin Khuzima, for their guidance and support throughout the development of this study. Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to all those who contributed, directly or indirectly, to this project. Particularly, I am thankful to the students and teachers who participated in the study. Without them, the study would have been impossible.

Abstract Students in Bangladesh often have difficulties in learning English as a foreign language for lack of appropriate learning materials in the classroom. Too often foreign language teaching texts in our country are designed either too difficult or too easy for students. Without appropriate texts that suit them, learners spend long hours in the classroom accomplishing very little in the long run. Most of them remain weak in reading, writing, listening and speaking in English properly even after receiving higher education. Students‟ performance varies according to the type of materials given to them. A significant amount of research shows that there is something about the type of textbooks/materials that should be looked into and evaluated carefully so that necessary adaptation can be made for effective learning to take place. When learners are introduced to variety of materials, it is necessary to understand what impact they have on the learners. This research, therefore, aims to find out whether there is any impact on performance when students read authentic materials beside the textbooks.

Table of contents Chapter One: Introduction 1.1.

English as a Foreign Language in Bangladesh 1.1.1. Evaluation of English Teaching and Learning in Bangladesh 1.1.2. Introduction of New Textbook

1.2.

Identification of Problem

1.3.

Hypothesis

1.4.

Research Questions

1.5.

Purpose

1.6.

Rationale

1.7.

Significance of the Study

Chapter Two: Literature Review 2.1.

Authenticity

2.2.

Types of Authenticity

2.3.

Authentic Material

2.4.

Background History

2.5.

Examples of Authentic Material

2.6.

The Role of Authentic Material in EFL Teaching and Learning 2.6.1. Arguments in Favor of Authentic Material

2.6.2. Arguments Against the Use of Authentic Materials

Chapter Three: Methodology 3.1.

Data Collection

3.2.

Participants

3.3.

Rationale for Selecting Target Students

3.4.

Experimental Classes

3.5.

Questionnaires

3.6.

Time Management

Chapter Four: Findings 4.1.

Material Planning 4.1.1. Textbook Evaluation 4.1.2. Personal Material

4.2.

Selection of Authentic Material 4.2.1. Materials Used in the Classroom

4.3.

Teaching Grammar Points

4.4.

Evaluation of the Students

Chapter Five: Data Analysis 5.1.

Comparative Study on Two Tests

5.2.

Speaking Skill

5.3.

Analysis of the Questionnaires

Chapter Six: Conclusion 6.1.

Impact of Authentic Materials on the Students

6.2.

Teachers‟ Opinion on the Use of Authentic Material

6.3.

Problems in Introducing Authentic Material

6.4.

Limitations

6.5.

Conclusion

Appendix- I Appendix-II Appendix-III Appendix-VI Appendix-V Appendix-VI Appendix-VII Appendix- VIII Appendix- IX

Chapter one: Introduction

(1.1) English as a Foreign Language in Bangladesh: The popularization of English in this subcontinent was a result of the efforts made by Lord Macaulay (a British Governor General) in the early 19th Century. In fact, Lord Macaulay‟s policy aimed at forming a class who might serve as interpreters between the British and the millions of subjects, a class of persons Indian in Blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in moral and in intellect (Aggarwal, 1983). Precisely speaking, the objectives were designed to serve the interest of the masters, not of the subjects. But those days are gone now. There have been lots of political and socioeconomic changes so far. The partition of Bengal in 1905 and its unification in 1906, the creation of Pakistan in 1947 and finally the birth of Bangladesh in 1971 have all had their impacts on the attitudes and motivation of English learning. In Bangladesh, English has now assumed the status of a foreign language. It is considered as a stair of prosperity, a tool of acquiring knowledge, a means of establishing international relation and a sign of sophistication. Though English in our country is taught as a compulsory subject in schools, colleges and madrashas from the primary to the tertiary level, it is a matter of sorrow that most of our people cannot speak or write English properly- even after

receiving higher education. So we can perceive that there are some problems in the procedure of English language teaching and learning in our country. (1.1.1) Evolution of English Language Teaching and Learning in Bangladesh: English language teaching and learning in this independent nation initially started its journey with Grammar Translation (GT) method. It is to be noted that English language teaching and learning in our educational institutions suffered badly after the Liberation War in 1971, and English lost its previous dominant status, though it was still a compulsory subject from secondary to higher secondary levels. It so happened because of the strong public sentiment in favor of the mother tongue, Bengali. This situation started to develop in course of time. The decision of making English as a compulsory subject from Class-1 to Class- 10 in 1990, its implementation in 1992 and the reintroduction of English in B.A., B.S.S., B.Com., and B. Sc. courses as a compulsory subject of 100 marks after 1993 contributed greatly to establish English as a well-accepted foreign language in our country. Yet, there was no change in the method (i.e. GT) of teaching. It was only in the late 1990s when Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was introduced in this country with a view to increasing the communicative competence of our students. And NCTB is still following this method.

(1.1.2) Introduction of New Textbooks: To come out of the traditional GT method according to the decision of the Ministry of Education, a standard book, namely English for Today, was introduced by NCTB (National Curriculum of Textbook Board) claiming to reflect the communicative principles in 2001. These new English textbooks books from class 6 to 12 were developed by English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP) jointly funded by the government of Bangladesh and Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK Government. The books claim to follow the communicative approach to teaching and learning English in Bangladeshi situations. Our young learners are still guided by those books. Uddin (2008) says that these textbooks at different classes provide learners with a variety of contents, information and activities. And these have been designed and developed for the development of four basic language skills- listening, speaking, reading and writing. Later on, NCTB published English Grammar and Composition (Book-2) from the academic session 2005 for the students of classes 9-10. The rationale behind designing this book is that in a non-English speaking country like Bangladesh where English is taught as a foreign language still prevails a notion that it is

important to know the grammar and structure of a language to become competent in it. This book will enable learners to learn necessary grammatical rules and also to use grammar in context. (1.2) Identification of problem: It is undoubtedly true that the situation of English language teaching and learning in Bangladesh is not so good (EIA, 2009a). It is a very common phenomenon that teachers in our country tenaciously follow the textbooks determined by NCTB in the classrooms. As we know, in any given context, students vary from each other in their attitude, aptitude, motivation and many other aspects. So, if the teachers use textbooks as the only tool for teaching English in the classroom, they carry the risk of depriving many of the students from their actual learning. Some of the negative aspects that such practices have are as follows: 1. The teacher who follows any course book slavishly will inevitably bore himself or herself as well as the students (McRae ,1991, p.23). 2. To go through the course book entirely will surely encourage rote learning at the expense of communicative use of language (McRae, 1991, p. 23). 3. The reading selections in the ESL/EFL course books are often quite short and they often fail to present appropriate and realistic language models. The lack of challenging reading materials could also slow the students‟ language development creating a plateau effect (Kayapinar, 2009).

4. Text-book oriented classes often tend to be teacher-dominated. So, teacherdominated lecture-based pedagogy remain the norm in Bangladeshi school culture where students are in a passive role, limited to memorizing facts and reciting them back to their teacher (Shohel and Howes, 2008). 5. When students are given course books that are similarly designed as their past learning materials, they may sometimes lose their interest and motivation to study. But without any motivation, it is not possible to acquire a second/ foreign language (Masgoret and Gardner , 2003). (1.3) Hypothesis: My hypothesis is that the textbook oriented classes in Bangladesh pose a great impediment in the way of acquiring or learning English as Foreign language efficiently. Such practices often discourage students and keep them away from learning English as a foreign language. Considering English as a subject rather than a language, students often get tempted to study it for scoring good marks in the examinations. As a result, most of our students cannot grow up with a strong base in this particular language and, with their bookish knowledge, can only write and speak incorrect English. I assume that the use of authentic materials in the classrooms besides the textbooks will pave a way for the students to be efficient in listening, reading, writing and speaking in English. (1.4) Research Questions:

I have a particular goal in my research. To reach that goal, I have followed some specific research questions so that I can keep myself within the track and do not end up my research in vain. These questions are as follows: 1. What is authentic material? 2. Does the use of textbooks alone, published by NCTB, help students to develop proficiency in English language? 3. Is there any necessity for other materials apart from the textbooks to teach English to young people? 4. Will the use of authentic materials beside the textbooks in the classrooms contribute to the actual learning of English as a foreign language? 5. What impact does using authentic material have in addition to textbook? (1.5) Purpose: The main purpose of my research is to investigate whether it is possible or not to use some other materials in the Bangladeshi classrooms beside the textbooks in order to make the classes more effective and fruitful. Davis (1997) has suggested that materials other than traditional texts have to be used in the class to expose students to language used in the outside world. With regard to this, I am intensely interested to apply authentic materials on a particular group of students and observe the effect on them. Authentic materials can be defined as a text or non-text that are not specifically designed for language

teaching and contain example of real language in ways that it would be used for communicative needs (Jacobson, Degener, & Purcell-Gates, 2003). Going back to my own school life, I can recall how miserable the subject English was for all of us in a rural school. Our grim-faced teachers would appear before us with a textbook and a cane and force us to memorize the rules, the structures, the vocabularies and, what is more, the language itself. In fact, this is the same scenario in almost every school in our country and that is how our students get deprived of the real language learning experience. So, my intention is to drift a wind of change in the traditional way of English teaching and learning in Bangladesh. And to do this, I have tried my best to use the tool of authentic material. (1.6) Rationale: It is certain that every student in our country wants to learn English; but their learning becomes quite exam-oriented in course of time. That is what creates great obstacle in the way of true learning of English. My support goes to the use of authentic materials in the classroom besides the textbooks, for it will contribute to the actual English learning of our students. A review of the pertinent literature supports the use of authentic material in the EFL classroom. Authentic materials “(a) give the students the opportunity to practice English, (b) help the students gain confidence in their English ability, (c) expose the students to cultural differences and customs, and (d) help the students

develop their ability to find pertinent information quickly” (Kelly, Offner, & Vorland, 2002, p.12). Moreover, authentic materials lower the degree of anxiety when students face new situations in the target language (Moya, 2000). And it is true that authentic materials have a positive effect on increasing students‟ motivation, and make learning more enjoyable (Karpova, 1999). For all the reasons, it goes without saying that authentic materials play an important role in developing the language competence of any student who is learning English as a second/foreign language. (1.7) Significance of the Study: Research in this field is very significant in Bangladesh because very few people have concentrated in this area before. Everybody is concerned about the fact that the inclusion of English as a compulsory subject form the primary to the tertiary level cannot bring about any change in the English language proficiency of our students. Some give blame to the entire education system of Bangladesh for this reason and the others give blame to the methodology/ methodologies that are followed here. It is quite surprising that almost all of them do not focus on the fact that the materials (textbooks) that are used in the classrooms can also be challenged and blamed. My present study will try to dig out the significance of using authentic materials beside the textbooks in the classroom and their impact on the students. I hope that this new sort of study will be able to catch the attention of other researchers, and

more investigation will be held in this particular area very soon. Hence, I think that traditional thought of taking textbooks as the only instruments for teaching and learning English will be changed in the near future.

Chapter Two: Literature Review

(2.1) Authenticity: The word „authenticity‟ is the most frequently used term in language teaching and learning in the recent period. Throughout the history of English language teaching, authenticity is taken as being synonymous with genuineness, realness, truthfulness, validity, reliability, undisputed credibility, and legitimacy of materials or practices (Tatsuki, 2006). However, Mishan(2005) intends to set some criteria for authenticity rather than defining the term and says that authenticity is a factor of (i) provenance and authorship of the text, (ii) original communicative and sociocultural purpose of the text, (iii) original context of the text, (iv) learning activity engendered by the text, and (v) learners‟ perceptions of and attitudes to the text and the activity pertaining to it (p.18). Yet, there are a lot of confusions connected to the idea of "authenticity".

(2.2) Types of Authenticity: Authenticity is not confined to one thing. It may appear at different points and at different stages. Authenticity in language learning can be of different types, for instance, authenticity of text (Guariento & Morley, 2001), authenticity of competence (Canale & Swain, 1980), learner authenticity (Widdowson, 1979), authenticity of classroom (Taylor, 1994) and so on. Here, authenticity of text is related to the selection of language materials, activities and methods used in the classroom establishing a relation with the real world situation. Being authentically competent means that a learner‟s performance should as much as possible correspond to the way native speakers perform. Therefore, learner authenticity refers to the learners‟ positive feelings and reactions towards materials and the pedagogical intentions inherent in them. And lastly, the authentic role of the classroom indicates to the provision of those facilities in which the participants can publicly share their achievements and problems, and get a chance to be involved in the overall process of learning a language together as socially motivated and socially situated activity. So, we can harmonize our opinion with Breen (1985) that all the possible sorts of authenticity within language teaching are in continual interrelationship with one another and hence they all collectively yield opportunity for students to learn a language.

(2.3) Authentic Material: Different researchers and linguists have tried to define authentic material from different perspectives. For instance, Harmer (1991) says that authentic materials (either written or spoken) are items designed for native speakers of English and are not designed for language students per se. Nunan (1989) also concentrates on the issue of purpose and states that authentic is any material which has not been specifically produced for the purpose of language teaching. On the other hand, Morrow (1977) defines authentic text as the language produced by a real speaker or writer for a real audience which was expected to express a real message. Rogers & Medley (1988) moved further and looked at the terms authenticity and authentic as used for describing oral and written language samples that were the reflection of language forms which were used naturally and appropriately based on the cultural and situational context. MacDonald et al. (2006) contend if there is a correspondence between the texts used in the classroom and types of texts used outside the classroom then it is possible to call such texts authentic. In spite of some differences among these definitions by different researchers and linguists, there remains a sort of harmony among them. What is common in these definitions is the exposure to real language and its use in its own community.

(2.4) Background History: It is more than hundred years ago when the concept of authentic material first appeared. But, this concept took longer period of time to be widely known and flourished in the arena of second language/foreign language teaching and learning. Henry Sweet is believed to be one of the first advocates who favored the use of authentic materials in the 1890s and discussed their benefits over traditional ones. According to him, natural texts do justice to every feature of the language while artificial materials include repetition of certain grammatical constructions, certain elements of the vocabulary, certain combinations of words to the almost total exclusion of others which are equally, or perhaps even more essential (Cited in Gilmore, 2004). Later on, as Gilmore (2004) presents, the reappearance of authentic materials dates back to the discussion raised by Chomsky (1965) and Hymes (1972) who remarked that communicative competence does not only comprise of the knowledge of the language but also of the needs for contextualized communication. As a result of their argument, the importance of teaching authentic texts in culturally authentic contexts has been emphasized by communicative approaches during the 1980s (Lin, 2004). This is also mentioned by Guariento and Morley (2001) who asserted the use of authentic materials started from the onset of

communicative movements in which there was an attempt to simulate real world in the classroom. However, many language teachers (Kilickaya, 2004) believe that authenticity has proved its beneficial role in language teaching in course of time and there is no argument regarding this. (2.5) Examples of Authentic Material: The sources of authentic materials (whether spoken or written) are infinite. Some of them are used most frequently and the others are used less. Gebhard (1996) gives many examples of authentic materials EFL/ESL teachers have used. Some of his examples, which may serve as source material for lesson planning, are as follows:

Authentic Material

Listening/ Viewing material

Visual material

Printed material

Realia

SmartArt-1: Classification of Authentic Material

Authentic Listening/viewing Materials: Authentic listening/ viewing materials include TV commercials, quiz shows, cartoons, news clips, comedy

shows, movies, soap operas, professionally audio/taped short stories and novels, radio ads, songs, documentaries, sales pitches and so on.

Authentic Visual Materials: Slides, photographs, paintings, children‟s artwork, stick-figure drawings, wordless street signs, silhouettes, pictures from magazines, ink blots, postcard pictures, wordless picture books, stamps, and Xrays can be some of the examples of authentic visual materials.

Authentic Printed Materials: Authentic printed materials cover a wide range. They can be newspaper articles, movie advertisements, astrology columns, sports reports, obituary columns, advice columns, lyrics to songs, restaurant menus, street signs, cereal boxes, candy wrappers, tourist information brochures, university catalogs, telephone books, maps, TV guides, comic books, greeting cards, grocery coupons, pins with messages, and bus schedules.

Realia: The real-world objects that can be used as authentic materials in EFL teaching and learning are coins and currency, folded paper, wall clocks, phones, masks, dolls, puppets and many others. (2.6) The Role of Authentic Materials in EFL Teaching and Learning: Although the use of authentic materials in the classroom has become a common practice throughout the world during the last 20 years, the issue still remains debatable. There is great difference in opinions regarding the use/application of authentic materials in the FL classroom. There are many who support the use of

authentic materials from the core of their hearts; but there are yet a considerable number of linguists who turn their back to such notion and believe that the use of authentic materials can only bring problems and cannot ensure any betterment for EFL students. (2.6.1) Arguments in favor of authentic materials: The use of authentic materials has acquired mass popularity in the field of language teaching especially in the last two decades for their multifarious advantages. Authentic materials include a wide variety of text types and language styles not easily found in traditional teaching materials (Martinez, 2002).Kelly et al. (2002) state that authentic materials can bring the real world into the classroom and to a considerable point can insert life inside the ESL/EFL class. Guariento & Morley (2001) prefer using authentic materials because extracting real information from a new/different language can be extremely motivating. Chavez (1998), in the same way, agrees that using authentic materials is to the benefit of the students because they are more enjoyable and students find a chance to interact with the language and its use. Oguz and Bahar (2008) see the advantage of authentic materials in the fact that they engage both the learners‟ and teachers‟ attention in the language being taught. In addition, Kim (2000) argues that authentic materials make a major contribution to overcoming certain cultural barriers to language learning.

So, we can sum up the advantages of authentic materials by saying that authentic materials- (i) affect positively on student motivation; (ii) give authentic cultural information; (iii) expose students to real language; (iii) relate things more closely to students‟ needs; (iv) support a more creative approach to teaching. (2.6.2) Arguments against the use of authentic materials: Though many linguists and researchers support the use of authentic materials in the classrooms, there are still a number of scholars who do not see any value of using them. McNeil (1994) says that teachers face challenges regarding access to authentic materials, the expense of purchasing them, and the time required to find an appropriate authentic text and design suitable pedagogical tasks. Such issues often make it impractical for instructors to integrate authentic materials into the curriculum successfully. Therefore, authentic input has long been perceived as too difficult for students to understand. Martinez(2002) mentions that authentic materials may be too culturally biased and difficult to understand outside the language community. Learners may experience extreme frustration when confronted by an authentic text, especially lower level students, as found by McNeil (1994). However, Guariento and Morley (2001) assert that such difficulties can be overcome by designing tasks that require only partial comprehension.

Chapter Three: Methodology (3.1) Data Collection: A descriptive research-design incorporating both qualitative and quantitative instruments was used to accomplish the objectives of my study. The use of both types of instruments provided me a more comprehensive picture for finding appropriate answers to my research questions than could be possible with one data collection method alone. For that reason probably Bryman (1988) argued for the „best of both worlds‟ approach and suggested that qualitative and quantitative approaches should be combined. To give answer to my research questions, I used two sets of questionnairesseparately prepared for both teachers and students. I also used one set of question paper to measure the improvement or vice versa of the target students. These instruments helped me to collect information quantitatively and analyze them statistically. Therefore, I kept observational notes of my experimental classes which later on helped me to extract qualitative information of my students. (3.2) Participants: A group of eight students and eight teachers participated enthusiastically in my research activity and helped me to a great deal to reach my goal. The students who participated in my research are all studying in Landmark College in Nikunja-2 at Dhaka. There were five boys and three girls. It should be

mentioned that I had worked in that school and college for a year from 9 January 2010 to 15 January 2011 (Appendix- 01). Moreover, eight teachers, who are working in different schools at Dhaka and Chittagong, facilitated my research activity by filling up a questionnaire designed for them and also by sharing (oral) some important information and giving advices form their experience and observation. During teacher selection, I have not gone for only those who are working in the city areas. I would have seen only a one-sided scenario if I had done so. In order to bring a long desired successful completion of my research, I visited two schools situated at rural areas and met the English teachers there. BGC Trust School and A. As. Rahat Ali High School are the examples of two such institutions which are located respectively in Chandanish and Patiya (two rual places) at Chittagong. (3.3) Rationale for Selecting Target Students: Because of time constraint and some other limitations, it was not possible to hold a survey on every Bengali medium class, starting from Class-1 to Class-12. For that reason, I decided to hold my experimental study on Class-10 students who had been studying in Bengali medium schools. Some researchers such as Kilickaya (2004) and Kim (2000) claim that authentic materials can be used with intermediate and advanced level students only. But there are many others including Miller (2005) and Bernhardt and Berkemeyer (1988) who believe that all levels of students, even lower levels, are able to manage using authentic materials.

There are some reasons behind selecting the Class 10 students. First of all, these students are quite matured to put their opinions in favor of or against the use of authentic materials. Secondly, all the students have acquired their L1 (Bengali) at this stage. This will provide me with an opportunity to see whether my target students will be able to acquire L2 with the help of authentic materials even after their lateralization. Finally, as the students of the secondary level are given extra care by their respective teachers and schools in order to prepare them for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Exam, I build up my mind with a hope that I will get full support from both the teachers and the institutions during my research activity, for they will wish all the possible developments of their students. (3.4) Experimental Classes: As a part of my research activity, I conducted classes in Landmark College (situated in Nikunja-2 at Dhaka) and applied my own materials(authentic in nature) on a group of Class-10 students. I took ten classes (Appendix- 06) including two tests- each with 40 minutes duration. Those experimental classes provided me an opportunity to observe the attitude of my students towards the use of authentic materials and hence made me capable of coming to a conclusion. On the other hand, the tests helped me to find out the development of my students after the use of authentic materials.

(3.5) Questionnaires: A questionnaire is a powerful evaluation tool of collecting quantitative information in any research. Vaus (1992) reveals that survey is a popular research method for collecting data in the field of English language education research, and that the most common survey technique is the questionnaire. In the present study, two sets of questionnaires were used to elicit information from both students and teachers on different issues like the suitability of present textbooks, the focus on different language skills in the classrooms, the necessity of other materials, the acceptance of authentic materials in Bangladesh etc. The contents of the questionnaires are crucial for the present researcher because they have direct relations to the research questions and objectives. All the questions in both the questionnaires are clear, succinct, and unambiguous (Appendix- 03). Most of the questions in my questionnaires are multiple-choice questions which offer a number of answer options. In fact, closed format questions have many advantages in respect of time, efforts and money. In the closed format questions the answers are restricted; therefore, it is easy to calculate percentages and other statistical data over the whole group or over any subgroup of participants. But I have not been too rigid throughout the questionnaires. At the end of each questionnaire, I kept an option for both students and teachers to share their opinions. Hence, I have tried to extract some qualitative information as well.

(3.6) Time Management: Time management is a very important aspect in any research activity. It enables a researcher to attain his/her goal within an expected time. In my study, I divided my entire activities into four months. I allotted days for each and every activity. It helped me to a great deal to be regular in my activities and not to be distracted from attaining my goal. I allotted 20 days for literature review, 6 days for preparing research proposal, 15 days for material development, 4 days for preparing data collection tool and 30 days visiting schools, collecting information and conducting classes. Therefore, I spent 10 days for data editing and selection, 15 days data analysis & preparing preliminary report, 5 days for preparing corrected report and 5 days for proof reading and binding.

Chapter Four: Findings (4.1) Material Planning: The main intention of my research is to see what impact the use of authentic materials lays on the English language learning of our students when such materials are applied in the Bangladeshi classes. In fact, language learning means the development of four skills- reading, writing, listening and speaking. So I tried

to focus on all these four skills while I had been developing materials (authentic) for my Class-10 students. (4.1.1) Textbook Evaluation: A review of the textbooks (English For Today and English Grammar and Composition), which are provided by NCTB to Class 9-10 students, shows that they do not put equal emphasis on the four skills development of the learners though they are designed to serve the purpose of communicative language teaching. There are twenty-two units in the book English For Today which are again subdivided into one hundred and nineteen lessons. An statistical look on the „Book Map‟ of this textbook gives us a result that out of 119 lessons, it includes reading activities in 109 lessons, writing activities in 111 lessons, listening activities in 21 lessons and speaking activities in 60 lessons. The emphasis of different language skills through different activities is shown in percentage below: Total-119 lessons 100.00% 80.00% 60.00% 40.00% 20.00% 0.00% Series 1

Reading 91.60%

Writing 93.28%

Listening 17.65%

Speaking 50.42%

Chart- 1: Skills of English Language followed in English For Today: For Class 9-10

It is quite interesting that though the book includes very minimal number of listening activities, even then NCTB does not provide any CD along with the book and it cannot be found in the market as well. That means the number of listening activities is zero (0) in the real sense. On the other hand, the other textbook English Grammar and Composition focuses only on grammatical structures and writing skill and neglects other three major skills. (4.1.2)Personal Material: To conduct ten classes in Class-10 at Landmark College, I had to prepare my own materials by integrating different authentic sources. I kept a keen eye while I was preparing the lectures. I tried my best to keep a balance among the four skills so that my students could get a better opportunity to learn English. As I have mentioned in the previous chapter, I took ten classes in total including two tests and I had to prepare materials for eight lectures. I gave emphasis on reading, writing and speaking skills in 7 of my lectures and included listening activities 5 out of my 8 experimental classes. The percentage of given focus on each language skill is as follows:

Total-8 lectures

100.00%

50.00%

0.00% Series 1

Reading 87.50%

Writing 87.50%

Listening 62.50%

Speaking 87.50%

Chart-2: Skills of English language given preference in the experimental classes

Here listening activities are less in comparison to other three skills when they are measured in respect of lectures. But they are equal when the matter of time is concerned because there was a whole class of one hour and forty-five minutes where students were exposed to the movie of Snow White. They watched and listened to that movie for one hour and twenty-five minutes (Appendix- 06). So, four skills are equally given emphasis in my experimental classes. (4.2) Selection of Authentic Materials: The selection and accessing of authentic materials is a very challenging activity. Oguz and Bahar (2008) do not encourage random selection of authentic materials. They mention that when choosing materials there should always “be an aim in using them and chosen materials should meet the objectives of the lesson”. Further, they point out that criteria such as learners‟ age, level, interests, needs, goals, and expectations must always be met.

So during the material selection, I tried to focus more on the following aspects: Needs and interest

Cultural appropiateness Language level Quality of the material Applicability SmartArt-2: Important aspects of authentic materials selection My first and foremost target during the material selection was to meet the students‟ interest as well as their relevant needs. After a brief conversation with my students before taking the classes, I perceived that the students wanted to read the content of the textbooks in a different way. In accordance to their need, I selected some lessons (Lesson-4, Unit-1; Lesson-1, Unit-9; Lesson-3, Unit-9 Lesson-2, Unit-12; Lesson- 5, Unit- 16; Lesson-1, Unit-19;Lesson-2, Unit-20; Lesson- 3, Unit-21) from their first paper textbook and tried to use different real-world sources to make the classes more interesting than ever before. To make my materials culturally appropriate, I had to go through a process of exclusion. There were some texts with the description of kissing or dating or

drinking in the bar or some others which were quite contradictory to our culture and religion. I had to exclude them for the sake of avoiding any cultural shock. Since the authentic materials were not created for the specific purposes of language teaching, most of the time they used bombastic words, lengthy sentences and unnecessary descriptions. In those circumstances, sometimes I had to replace the hard words with easier synonyms, break the long sentences into small ones and avoid the unnecessary descriptions. The newspaper article from The Daily Star on the celebration of Pohela Boishakh (first day of Bengali New Year) and the biography of Mother Teresa (Appendix- 06) can be two of the best examples of this process. Therefore, I found that some of the authentic materials were full of errors, typos, and other mistakes. Thus, in selecting the materials, I had to check the quality of materials as well. But as my students were not kids, I included some of the materials through which I tried to expose them to the use of language in the real world with abrupt beginning, fillers, and grammatical mistakes. I tried to give them an idea of formal and informal English. For instance, the audio of Mother Teresa and the video (movie) of Snow White (Appendix- 06) served that purpose of mine. A text that cannot be exploited for teaching purposes is considered useless in a teaching-learning process (Berardo, 2006). So, I selected my materials in a way so that they could serve the purposes of teaching students some grammar points,

pronunciation and way of speaking. These materials were also expected to develop the four skills the target students. (4.2.1) Materials Used in the Classrooms: Diverse authentic materials have been used in my experimental classes. I preferred a blend of all sorts of materials including listening/ viewing materials, visual materials, printed materials and realia (real-world objects) in order to make the classes more interesting than ever before. The materials that I used in the classroom are shown in a chart below:

Listening/ Viewing Materials

• Audio clips (an speech of Mother Teresa and a recitation of Robert Frost's poem). • Video clips and movie (cartoon of Snow White).

Visual Materials

• Pictures (downloaded from internet or collected from other sourches). • Posters (Poster of Apollo- 11,Jatiyo Shonshod Bhaban)

Printed Materials

• Newspaper and megazine articles (from The Daily Star and Time magazine). • Newspaper advertisement (of Queen Mary University of London) • Curriculum vitae and IELTS application form.

Realia

• Wall clock and table clock

SmartArt-3: List of applied authentic materials

How these materials have been used to conduct classes and teach a group of students can be seen and perceived by going the lesson plans given in Appendix 05. The reason behind integrating different sources during material selection was actually connected to the students‟ motivation. I tried to make my classes as much interesting as possible and hence longed to motivate my students to learn the language with great enthusiasm. (4.3) Teaching Grammar points: My classes at Landmark College were not randomly taken. It was not my intention to use different types of authentic materials just for the sake of using them. There was a plan for every activity. I prepared my materials in a way so that I could teach my students some grammatical aspects without making them conscious of their learning. Regarding grammar, I put entire emphasis on Tense. I tried my best to teach them the most frequently used tense forms including- Present Indefinite Tense, Present Continuous Tense, Present Perfect Tense, Past Indefinite Tense, Past Continuous Tense, Past Perfect Tense and Future Indefinite Tense (Appendix05; Lesson Plans). It was not that the students were only supposed to learn the rules inductively, rather they were made apply their grammatical knowledge in the classrooms through different activities like: pair work, group work or individual activity in both speaking and writing.

(4.4) Evaluation of the Students: One of the most challenging steps in teaching responsibilities is the evaluation of student-progress. Evaluation is universally accepted as an integral part of teaching and learning. It is one of the basic tools for determining what learners learn. To evaluate the progress of my students, however, I followed the traditional method of taking test in an untraditional way. I prepared a question (Appendix-07) in such a way so that it could help me measure the development of the students in three language skills- reading, writing and listening respectively. My question paper was contrary to any traditional one in a sense that it did not show any markings printed on it. I only kept a record of mark distribution in my diary so that I could evaluate my students without letting them know it. That was because I did not want my students to be exam oriented again. I allotted 30 marks for the entire activities- equally distributed (10+10+10) for reading, writing and listening. What I actually did was that I gave them the question in the very first day of my class as a class activity (not as a test) and kept a record of how much each of my students received. Then I started taking classes from the following day with my authentic materials and continued this process up to the ninth class. On the tenth class, therefore, I gave my students the same question paper to answer again. When they did so and submitted their answer-sheets, I personally made a comparative

study between the marks of the former test and the later one. Hereby I tried to determine the impact of the authentic materials on my students. As far as the speaking skill is concerned, I did not set any test for it. I observed my students throughout the ten classes. I kept a record of their attitude towards speaking English and interest towards class participation starting from the very first class to the last class. It helped me to a great deal to measure the progress of my students in their speaking as well.

Chapter Five: Data Analysis

The descriptive and the contextual methods are followed for the data analysis. The two methods are applied in the data analysis of the present study because these methods are inexpensive, time saving and easily understandable. The findings of the present study are shown in tables and column charts, and then narrative description is presented in the text in a quantitative manner. (5.1) Comparative Study on Two Tests: It has already been mentioned in Chapter Three and Chapter Four that two tests were taken of the participant students as a part of research investigation during the experimental classes at Landmark College. A comparative list of marks which the students received in those two tests is shown in the table below:

Students

Marks of First Test R

W

L

A

07

07

05

B

05

06

C

08

D

Total

Marks of

(individual)

Last Test

Total (individual)

R

W

L

19

09

08

07

24

03

15

08

07

07

24

08

07

23

07

08

07

22

05

06

04

15

09

08

08

25

E

07

09

08

24

10

09

10

29

F

08

06

07

21

07

07

08

22

G

06

05

03

14

07

06

07

20

H

03

04

02

09

07

05

07

19

Total marks (of all students)

140

183

Table 4: Comparative study of marks In this table, „R‟ stands for reading skill, „W‟ for writing skill and „L‟ for listening skill. Moreover the actual names of the students have not been disclosed here. Only different alphabets have been used to express their identities. If we look carefully in this table, we will discover that all the students of Class-10 except one performed better in the second test than the previous one. Only the mark of the C has decreased by 01 in the second test who actually got 23 out of 30 in her former one. Some of the students including B, D, and H showed tremendous improvement

in their second test. On the other hand, the other four students improved themselves in the second test in the following way: F by 01 mark, A and E by 05 marks, and G by 06 marks. However, the average improvement of the students after the use authentic materials in consecutive eight classes is shown in a column chart: Total Marks of TwoTests 80.00% 60.00% 40.00% 20.00% 0.00% Series 1

First Test 58.33%

Last Test 76.25%

Chart 4: Percentages of marks in two tests. Here we see that the average of the total marks of all the students in the first test is 58.33% but it has reached to 76.25% in the second test. That means the students have improved up to 17.92% in the second test. It is true that that the students have got some advantages in the second test and there is no doubt about it. They have been given the same question paper twice. So they have not faced the problem that students may face in their first look on a question. Therefore, their previous acquaintance with this question paper has saved their time as well. All these have actually helped them to do better in the second test. Still the percentage of this improvement cannot be more than 5% to 7%. It

means that the other 10% or 12% of the students‟ improvement results from use of authentic materials in the classroom. (5.2) Speaking Skill: I did not set any sort of test to measure the development of the speaking skill of my students. I observed them each day and kept notes of their behavior after each class. Those notes later on helped me determine how much the speaking of the students developed after the experimental classes. Two samples of such notes have been given in Appendix- 08 From the observational notes, it became quite clear that though the students felt shy to communicate with the target language initially, they came out of their shyness in the later classes. Even they started to reduce the use of their mothertongue in the classroom gradually. Though the students improved very less in speaking grammatically correct sentences, their fluency increased considerably in comparison to their initial stage. It was a positive sign that they started to communicate with their friends in English which they had never done before. That is how it is proved that the behavior of the students regarding their use of English during their interaction with their friends and teacher was changed in a positive way. The credit partly goes to the use of authentic materials in the

classrooms and partly to the inspiration that I provided them being a teacher to use English in the classroom. (5.3) Analysis of the Questionnaires: Both the teachers and the students have shown their warm support in favor of the use of authentic materials in the classrooms. There are some reasons behind it. According to most of the students, the activities included in the textbooks are not interesting at all. Their responses towards the textbook activities are as follows: Textbooks are Interesting 80.00% 60.00% 40.00% 20.00% 0.00%

Series 1

yes

No

12.50%

62.50%

To some extent 25%

to a greater extent 0%

Chart 4: Students’ opinion regarding their textbooks Here we see that though 12.50% of the students agree that the textbooks are interesting and 25% of the students believe that their textbooks are interesting to some extent, 62.50% (majority) of the students choose the option „No‟. That means they do not think that their textbooks are interesting. For that reason they go for supporting the use of authentic materials in the classrooms. Unlike the students, though many of the teachers believe that (Questionnaire-4) the textbook activities are interesting, they do not consider that the textbooks provide

equal emphasis on every language skill. Their response regarding this issue can be better perceived by looking at the chart below: Emphasis on Four Language Skills 80% 60% 40% 20% 0%

Series 1

Yes

No

0%

75.00%

To some extent 25.00%

To a greater extent 0%

Chart 5: Teachers’ opinion regarding the emphasis of four language skills in textbooks The teachers have either chosen the option „No‟ or „To some extent‟ while answering this question in the questionnaire (Appendix-3). 75% of them directly say that the textbooks do not put equal emphasis on the four skills of English language and the other 25% say that the emphasis is given only to some extent. This can be a cardinal reason which makes the teachers support the use of authentic materials where proper integration of four language skills is possible. Again, the teachers‟ support goes for the use of authentic materials beside textbooks because they think that the tenacious use of textbook makes the students very much exam oriented. The students assert in the questionnaire that they do not read textbooks for passing the exam or getting good marks but the teachers showed a contradictory opinion. Their remarks are as follows:

Purpose For Reading Textbooks

50%

0% For Forlearning getting English good marks/ For passing For other examination reasons All of these Series 1 25% 50.00% 12.50% 12.50%

Chart 6: Teachers’ opinion on the purpose of students for reading textbooks Here we see that according to 50% of the teachers, students learn English for getting good marks while only 25% of them believe that students read textbook for learning English. So we can come to a conclusion from the questionnaire that though the teachers and students show contradictory opinions in some questions given in the questionnaires, they stand united to assert that authentic materials should be used in the classrooms besides the textbooks.

Chapter Six: Conclusion (6.1)Impact of Authentic Material on the Students: The experimental classes (Appendix- 06) with authentic materials opened up a door for me to read the minds of my students and understand what they really

want, how they prefer to learn English, what really makes them go far away from learning English for communicative purpose and so many others. It is true that the students got bored initially when I started my classes with some different materials which they were not used to seeing in their regular classes. They felt uneasy and uncomfortable in the first class. But magical change took place within very a short time. All of them became enthusiastic and cooperative in the classroom. Even the shyest students came forward to communicate in the target language. Krashen (1982) claims that learners with high motivation, self-confidence, good self-image and low level of anxiety are better equipped for second language acquisition. Most of my students in the questionnaire shared that their textbooks are not interesting at all. They supported (in the questionnaire) the use of authentic materials because such materials were interesting and motivating for them. During the experimental classes, I observed that the students did not feel the stress of learning English for the sake of appearing exam; even they did not feel the stress of completing the syllabus. Since the affective filter of the students was high, they showed rapid improvement during my experimental classes. It has already been proved that the students improved up to 17.92% (Chapter Five) within ten days. The miracle took palace only because they were exposed to the authentic material. The use of authentic materials beside textbooks can certainly

have a positive impact on the development of the language skills of our students as the research has undertaken to discover. It can, I believe, have greater impact on the learnability of students if the exposure to authentic material is lengthened. (6.2)Teachers’ Opinion on the use of Authentic Material: Most of the teachers prefer the use of authentic materials in classroom. They have shown their warm support for it. In fact, all of them wanted to bring a change in the way English is taught and learned in this nation. In the questionnaire, one of the teachers (Appendix- 09) says that to implement different activities given in the textbook, use of authentic materials will be very much effective. He further believes that authentic materials “will create interest among the learners”. Though few teachers expressed their anxiety regarding time and expense required to prepare such materials, all of them showed their interest in the application of authentic materials in classrooms. According to them, it will not be impossible if government takes proper steps to introduce authentic materials at school and college levels in this country. It was quite surprising that the most experienced teacher who is working in a rural school for more than 17 years thinks traditionally and does not support the use of authentic materials. According to him, textbooks alone can improve the language skills of our students if the books are used properly. He says (Appendix- 09) that “the NCTB text books are meant for the proper implementation of CLT in

Bangladesh and these books are self sufficient. So he thinks “if the exercises given in the texts are properly executed in the class by the teachers effectively, there will be no problem for the learners to grasp the language.” (6.3) Problems in Introducing Authentic Materials: There are some problems in the way of implementing authentic materials in a developing country like Bangladesh. I have experienced them during my research. While I was preparing materials for my students, I had the benefit of doing TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at North South University. My coursework at NSU involved me in gaining practical experiences, increase theoretical knowledge, and experiences that helped me enormously in understanding my students and preparing materials accordingly.But teachers throughout Bangladesh who are working at different schools may not get the same benefit of knowledge. Most of them are not well educated and well trained. They are only expert in following the traditional way of teaching English. They know how to prepare students for achieving good marks in the examination. Very few of them are aware of the fact that English can be taught according to the needs of the students, on the basis to their likes and dislikes. Most of them even do not know that English can be taught with other materials apart from textbooks. So they remain textbook-oriented throughout their teaching career.

Lack of Teacher‟ motivation can be another major problem in the proper implementation of authentic material. Going back to my own experience, I find that I had to spend much time outside the classroom- in searching materials, adapting them, arranging them in a way so that four skills were focused properly and doing some other things. A teacher can only take those extra pressures if he/she gets self motivated. Many of the teachers in our country get involved in teaching profession out of their interest towards teaching profession. It hugely injects a sort of negative attitude in the mind of our teachers towards proper teaching. Such negative attitude does not motivate our teacher to be innovative and give some extra effort so that our learners really get benefitted. Last but not least, financial deficiency is an age-old problem in the education sector of Bangladesh. The total expense of my research activities (including the cost of preparing authentic materials) was financed me. I did it for a special purpose, i.e. to complete my thesis successfully. But the practical situation is quite different. Most of the teachers in our country are not properly paid. Sometimes they face hardship to run their family life with their salaries. In this circumstance, we cannot expect them to spend money for preparing additional materials. Though our government provides students textbooks, it does not allot any budget for inspiring teachers to prepare some other materials apart from the textbooks. (6.4) Limitations:

Time and budget are two of them. Since my research had to be completed within a certain period of time as it was required of the programme of the study I had enrolled in, I could not carry out my experimental activities for long. It intended to take classes with authentic materials at different levels of students and see the impact. But the limitation of time and budget obliged me to confine myself to take classes only at secondary level in Landmark College. Because of the limitation of time and budget, therefore, I could not fulfill my actual desire to visit at least 10 schools in both rural and city areas and meet at least 15 English teachers. I had to be satisfied after visiting 5 schools and meeting 8 teachers.

(6.5) Conclusion: The proposal of implementing authentic materials may sound as bizarre as a fairy tale in a poor country like Bangladesh where students do not get spacious rooms to do classes, sufficient benches to sit on, enough textbooks or additional books to read and necessary copies and pens to write. Even most of our students in our country do not get qualified as well as trained teachers who can actually help the learners to remove their phobia related to English and guide them properly to learn it in a better way. But we cannot stop dreaming for a better future. It has already been proved in this study that the implementation of authentic materials in the Bangladeshi classrooms will surely bring a wind of change in the

EFL (English as Foreign Language) teaching and learning in Bangladesh. So I can assert that the time is not so far away when our students will be able to read, write, listen and speak in English efficiently. To make that possible, we need to use authentic materials beside textbooks in the classrooms. Now a caring support from the government can make the revolution happen in English language teaching and learning in the near future.

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