The effect of authentic materials on 12th grade students' attitudes and motivation in EFL classes

This study was designed to investigate whether authentic materials have a positive impact on developing the attitudes and motivation of 12th grade students in EFL classes. Furthermore, the present study was an attempt to have a closer look at foreign language learners? viewpoints about authentic materials and to examine the changes in their motivation after instructions using authentic materials in the foreign language classroom.This study was conducted over 12 weeks during the 2010 - 2011 fall semester. The participants were 37 twelfth grade students in Bucak Anatolian High School. In order to accomplish the objectives of the study, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. In this experimental study, pre-test ? post-test with a control group design was used. An experimental and a control group participated and two different instruments were employed in this study: attitude scale and student diaries.Authentic materials were evaluated in two respects. First, the attitudinal effect of authentic materials was measured by an attitude scale towards English course developed by Erdem (2007). During the ten week training program, the experimental group received suggested activities and exercises using authentic materials, whereas the control group received the traditional instructional approach using the current course book while focusing on almost the same language items. Both groups were administered the pre-tests at the beginning of the training, and the post-tests at the end of the training in order to analyze the students? attitudes towards English course before and after the implementation of authentic materials.The data collected through the students? pre and post-tests were analyzed using Microsoft Office, Excel 2003 and SPSS 13.00. Descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-test and paired samples t-test were used in the analysis of quantitative data. Based on the quantitative research findings, it can be stated that although pre-test results indicated no significant difference between the means of the experimental and the control group, the means of the experimental group was found to be significantly higher than the control group according to post-test results. According to these results, authentic materials have marked a positive effect on the attitudes of students towards English course.Secondly, the motivational effect of authentic materials was evaluated by the help of qualitative data, by using student diaries on motivation that were collected from experimental group learners at the end of the training. The diaries were analysed by the use of categorization system; commonly mentioned issues by students were put into categories. As seen from the students? diaries, using authentic materials increased the motivation of the students in EFL classes.In addition, with the purpose of determining the viewpoints of the students in terms of the influence of authentic materials on the learners, the students were asked to keep diaries during the training. These diaries indicate that authentic materials make a positive influence on the motivation of learners, such as taking their attention and interest, providing a relaxed learning environment, developing their productive skills and providing high learner participation. The results of the study imply that authentic materials have been shown to be an effective tool on the improvement of attitudes and motivation of EFL learners.