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The effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFL learners
Taught EFL at university level in South Korea for eight years, including a number of years as Head of Studies of the Foreign Language Institute of Yonsei University. He recently completed his PhD at the University of Essex, and is now teaching in the Department of English at the City University of Hong Kong. His current interests include methodology for TEFL, materials evaluation, programme evaluation, learner attitudes, and learner on-task behaviour.
This article describes a classroom research project to investigate whether authentic materials increase the classroom motivation of learners, a claim often made but rarely, if ever, tested. A definition of motivation relevant to teachers was adopted-learner interest, persistence, attention, action, and enjoyment. Two beginner-level EFL classes participated, and both used authentic and artificial materials alternately. Results from two observation sheets and a self-report questionnaire indicate that while on-task behaviour and observed motivation increased significantly when authentic materials were used, self-reported motivation only increased over the last 12 of the 20 days of the study. However, learners also reported authentic materials to be significantly less interesting than artificial materials.
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  Anwei Feng and M. Byram Authenticity in College English Textbooks - an Intercultural Perspective RELC Journal, December 1, 2002; 33(2): 58 - 84. [Abstract] [PDF]
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