MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY -------- ∞0∞-------- VO HUYEN TRINH THE EFFECTS OF USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS ON LEARNERS’ READING COMPREHENSION AND THEIR ATTITUDES IN TOEIC READING CLASS AT AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTER MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL HO CHI MINH CITY, 2023 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY -------- ∞0∞-------- VO HUYEN TRINH THE EFFECTS OF USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS ON LEARNERS’ READING COMPREHENSION AND THEIR ATTITUDES IN TOEIC READING CLASS AT AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTER Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Major code: 8 14 01 11 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: NGUYEN THUY NGA (Ph. D) HO CHI MINH CITY, 2023 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc KHOA ĐÀO TẠO SAU ĐẠI HỌC GIẤY XÁC NHẬN Tôi tên là: Võ Huyền Trinh Ngày sinh: 29/11/1993 Nơi sinh: Cà Mau Chuyên ngành: Lý luận và Phương pháp giảng dạy Tiếng Anh Mã học viên: 1981401111030 Tôi đồng ý cung cấp toàn văn thông tin luận văn tốt nghiệp hợp lệ về bản quyền cho Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh sẽ kết nối toàn văn thông tin luận văn tốt nghiệp vào hệ thống thông tin khoa học của Sở Khoa học và Công nghệ Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Ký tên Võ Huyền Trinh CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc Ý KIÉN CHO PHÉP BẢO VỆ LUẬN VĂN THẠC sĩ CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN HƯỚNG DẪN Giảng viên hướng dẫn:.71 Học viên thực hiện: .ÍU1 Ý kiến của giáo viên hướng dẫn về việc cho phép học viên.
được bảo vệ luập văn trước Hội đồng: ., Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, ngày.A Người nhận xét STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the thesis entitled “The effects of using authentic materials on learners’ reading comprehension and their attitudes in TOEIC reading class at an English language center” is my work. In addition to the references used in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain materials published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgment in the main text of the thesis. This thesis has not been submitted for the award or any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution.
Ho Chi Minh City, Feb 2023 VO HUYEN TRINH i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to a number of people for their support over the completion of this thesis. I would like to send my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Thuy Nga, who offered expert support and the development of this thesis. Her guidance and support have facilitated the thesis accomplishment.
As a novice researcher, I am fortunate to be supported by her expertise and dedication. She has helped me gain more knowledge and foster me to overcome the difficulties in every step of administering the research. I would like to show my gratitude to all the lecturers in Ho Chi Minh Open University – Post Graduate Faculty and all the staff from the Post-Graduate Department and librarians during the Master course in Ho Chi Minh City Open University. I would like to sincerely thank all my colleagues and students at my workplace for their enthusiastic help and support which gave me the data collection to conduct the research.
I own my thanks to my family, especially my mother, for her encouragement and love that promoted my strength to pursue this advanced program in teaching English. They have always followed my steps in academic efforts and believe in my ability. Therefore, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to my family for their unconditional love and sacrifice. VO HUYEN TRINH ii ABSTRACT Reading comprehension is considered as one of the most important skills in second language learning; in addition, the students studying English at a language center struggle with difficulties in their learning process.
Therefore, this research aims to investigate whether the use of authentic materials (AMs) affected learners’ reading comprehension and their affective and behavioral attitudes towards the use of AMs in TOEIC reading classes. Eighty students from four classes at the English center were selected to participate in the research. A pretest, a posttest, and a questionnaire were used for data collection, which were quantitatively analyzed by SPSS 22. The result of the pretest and posttest showed that the use of authentic materials helped the students enhance their reading comprehension significantly, especially understanding the text and memorizing the content.
The participants in the experimental group gained higher scores after the treatment, understood the texts, and memorized new words in class immediately due to the effectiveness of AMs. In addition, the findings from the questionnaire data demonstrated that the students, in general, had more positive affective attitudes than behavioral attitude towards the use of AMs, remarkably in confidence (belongs to affective attitude) and concentration (belongs to behavioral attitude). The learners felt more confident after learning with AMs and actively reading them outside the classroom. Generally, due to the positive contributions of the AMs brought to the students’ reading comprehension, it is suggested choosing materials for the students’ need and abilities to engage the students.
The research also lists the implications for TOEIC teachers and students as well as the recommendation for further study. iii ABBREVIATION AMs Authentic materials CG Control group EFL English as a foreign language EG Experimental group ESL English as a second language ETS Educational Testing Service IELTS International English Language Testing System L1 First language L2 Second language MCQs Multiple-choice questions RC Reading comprehension SD Standard deviation SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language TOEIC Test of English for International Communication iv Table of Contents STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii LIST OF FIGURES .ix LIST OF TABLES .1 Background of the study.2 Statement of the problems .3 Aims of the study .5 Significance of the study .6 Scope of the study .7 Organization of the thesis. 4 Chapter 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Definitions of AMs .2 Types of AMs .3 Criteria for AMs selection .4 The use of AMs in reading classes .5 Using AMs at different levels .2 The nature of reading comprehension .2 Levels of reading comprehension.4 The description of the reading section in the TOEIC Test .5 The importance of using AMs for TOEIC learners in reading comprehension .9 Summary of Chapter 2 .1 Research site and participants .3 The treatment for Control Group and Experimental Group .4 Data collection instruments .1 Pretest and Posttest .3 Summary of data collection instruments .5 Data collection procedures .6 Reliability and Validity .7 Summary of Chapter 3.
51 Chapter 4 : FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .1 Participants’ demographic information .2 Participants’ TOEIC Reading comprehension test results .1 Students’ reading performance - Pretest result .2 Students’ reading performance – Posttest result .3 Summary of Pretest and Posttest result .1 Participant’s affective attitude toward the use of AMs in reading class .2 Participant’s behavioral attitude toward the use of AMs in reading class .4 Summary of participants’ attitude .2 Discussion of findings .1 The effect of AMs on the learner’s reading comprehension at the English Language Center .2 The learners’ attitudes towards the use of AMs in reading classes .3 Summary of chapter 4 .1 Implication for the TOEIC trainers .2 Implication for learners .3 Limitations of the study .4 Recommendations for further research. 81 APPENDIX 2A: LESSON PLAN FOR CG. 87 APPENDIX 2B: LESSON PLAN FOR EG. 92 APPENDIX 3: DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE LESSON PLAN OF CG AND EG.
101 APPENDIX 4: CURRICULUM FOR CG AND EG. 104 APPENDIX 5: TOEIC SCORE CONVERSION. 107 APPENDIX 6: MATERIAL’S RESOURCES FOR THE TREATMENT OF EG. 108 APPENDIX 7: EXTRACTS OF THE TOEIC TEST.
110 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: An example of the material in the textbook for CG – TOEIC Economy 1000, page 112 .2: An example of the authentic materials for EG from TTP Software Company .3: An example of the text in extra material for CG .4: An example of the text in extra material for EG .5: Summary of Data collection instruments .1: Comparison of mean of pretest and posttest scores. 58 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Summary of research design .2: An extract of lesson plan for CG and EG .3: An extract of curriculum for CG and EG .4: Data collection procedure .2: CG and EG pre-test scores .3: Independent sample T-test of pre-test results .4: CG and EG posttest scores .5: Independent sample T-test of posttest results .6: Paired sample T-test statistics of pretest and posttest .7: Summary of the pre-test and posttest results .8: The learner’s affective attitude toward the use of AMs .9: The learner’s behavioral attitude toward the use of AMs.10: Summary of Participants' Attitude. 65 x Chapter 1 : INTRODUCTION This chapter demonstrates general information of the thesis through these main sections including background of the study, statement of problems, aims of the study, research questions, significance, scope of the study, and organization of the thesis.1 Background of the study Among a wide range of languages around the world, English is considered as one of the most useful languages. It globally connects people through oral and written communication; therefore, learners around the world strive to study English fluently in four skills including reading, listening, speaking, and writing (Taylor, 2019).
Regarding learning English skills, reading is recognized as the prerequisite skill in a long- term English learning process because “reading, perhaps more than any other language skill, provides the foundation for success in language learning and academic learning” (Anderson, 2012, p. Among most international examinations, the reading section is a fundamental part to evaluate and assess learners’ language competence. Hence, as students in college or university, they should acquire a good reading ability to easily handle any references, materials, as well as international examinations (Apsari, 2014). To acquire a moderate ability in learning reading skills, the learners are required to have the ability to comprehend the text so comprehension instruction is a vital part in reading instruction (Grabe, 2009).
However, students typically face various problems in their learning process like reading strategies, comprehension abilities and their interest in learning materials. Accordingly, to enhance the learners’ interest and comprehension ability in reading skills, choosing appropriate materials is also a difficult responsibility for English teachers. Therefore, the present study is to find out the suitable materials in English teaching and learning to apply for the learners in reading 1 classes. The next part will clarify the problems which the students and teachers face in reading learning and teaching.2 Statement of the problems Students from universities or colleges struggle to enhance their reading skills and they are flocking to acquire a certificate of language competence, which are international standardized examinations such as TOEIC, TOEFL, and IELTS to satisfy graduation requirements and recruitment criteria (Nguyen, 2015).
These standardized tests are to examine the student achievement and language use in their real life. However, the majority of English teachers showed that they do not have sufficient time, financial backing, and teaching tools to choose and use authentic materials (AMs) in the classroom (Ozbek, 2016). Ozbek (2016) also stated that these issues happen to the students from university and college, which makes the learners find it difficult to understand clearly an article, a newspaper, a report, or a webpage in real life situations. In Vietnam, the students find it difficult to access authentic reading materials if they do not actively find the materials to read (Dao, 2019).