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1. “An investigation into whether authentic
materials are truly beneficial to student
motivation in the EFL classroom”
Thomas Michael McKiernan
BA (Hons.) TESOL with English Language and Linguistics
Spring 2013
ML3990 - Dissertation

2. 2
Acknowledgements
For sharing their wealth of knowledge in the field and for their excellent teaching, I would
like to thank the faculty of TESOL at the University of Central Lancashire's School of
Language, Literature and International Studies; particularly Dr Christian Jones for the close
guidance and support he offered to me in the undertaking of this dissertation paper. I would
also like to thank my close family for their continual support in everything I do.
Abstract
The present dissertation paper explores the often made yet under-researched claim that
authentic materials are beneficial to student motivation in ELT. It aims to address the
research gap linking material authenticity and learner motivation. 30 students of B2 level
studying at a British university participated in the study. Their motivation levels when using
authentic materials and inauthentic materials were measured via questionnaire. In comparison
to the use of inauthentic materials, authentic materials were found to be more motivating. A
focus group was carried out which provided possible reasoning as to why such was the case.
Moreover, the study found that Middle-Eastern learners are more motivated by the usage of
authentic materials over inauthentic materials, than Chinese learners.
Notes
Word Count: 7149.
(not including title page, acknowledgements, notes, abstract, reference note or appendices)
This dissertation has been edited since submission.
When referred to in the work of others, the present dissertation should be referenced with the
details below:
McKiernan, T. M. 2013. An investigation into whether authentic materials are truly
beneficial to student motivation in the EFL classroom. Undergraduate Dissertation.
The University of Central Lancashire.

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements........................................................................................................... 2
Abstract............................................................................................................................ 2
Main Aims of Investigation.............................................................................................. 4
Defining Key Terms and Exploring Current Discussions................................................ 5
Introduction ..............................................................................................................................5
Authentic Materials ..................................................................................................................5
Inauthentic Materials................................................................................................................7
Motivation.................................................................................................................................8
Existing Studies of Material-Authenticity and Motivation.......................................................9
Methodology .................................................................................................................. 10
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 10
The Study Sample ................................................................................................................... 10
Procedure................................................................................................................................ 11
Analysis of Data and the Subsequent Findings.............................................................. 12
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 12
The First Research Question ..................................................................................................... 13
The Second Research Question............................................................................................... 17
Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 18
References...................................................................................................................... 20
List of Appendices.......................................................................................................... 24

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“An investigation into whether authentic
materials are truly beneficial to student
motivation in the EFL classroom”
Main Aims of Investigation
The author’s personal interest in the quote below inspired the research at hand:
"(Despite) the large number of untested claims that they increase student motivation...
many EFL teachers certainly have faith in authentic materials as motivators, and we
suggest that testing these subjective impressions will result in better guidance being
available for the selection of teaching materials."
Peacock (1997:144)
The quote states a clear requirement for further research into the claim, one often founded on
subjective impressions, that authentic materials increase student motivation. As such, the
aims of this article are to answer the following research questions:
To teach the same feature of language to a similar group of students, do authentic materials
motivate learners more so than inauthentic materials?
Are students from the Middle East motivated more so by the use of authentic materials, than
students from China?

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Defining Key Terms and Exploring Current Discussions
Introduction
The aim of this section of the project is to introduce and explore key concepts related to the
subsequent investigation It begins here with an overview of why the selection of materials is
important to the EFL teacher. Later, it moves on to give definitions and background
information related to authentic materials, inauthentic materials and motivation. This section
concludes by reviewing the work of Peacock (1997) who conducted a study into 'The effect
of authentic materials on the motivation of EFL learners'.
The EFL teacher needs to evaluate what it is they wish to achieve with classroom materials.
Logically, EFL teachers aim to create English language learners who can communicate
competently with a particular language community, in the target language. Teachers should
use whatever materials necessary to meet their aim (Gilmore 2004). In order to meet their
aim, teachers are often presented with a choice: whether to use authentic classroom materials
or inauthentic classroom materials. The general consensus in ELT has often been that the use
of authentic materials within the classroom benefits the learning process, through increasing
student motivation, and so allows teachers to meet their aim more easily (Guariento and
Morley, 2001).
Peacock (1997) explores the claim that student motivation is often said to be increased
through the use of authentic materials. Whilst vast amounts of literature (Cross, 1984;
Deutsh, 1984; Hill, 1984; Wipf, 1984; Swaffar, 1985; Freeman & Holden, 1986; Keinbaum,
Russell & Welty, 1986;Little, Devitt & Singleton, 1989; Morrison, 1989; Bacon &
Finnemann, 1990; Gonzalez, 1990; King, 1990; Little & Singleton, 1991; McGarry, 1995)
make the claim that authenticity is a major stimulant of student motivation in the EFL
classroom, Peacock (ibid) draws to the reader's attention that this notion the claim is made on
the basis of very little empirical research.
Discussing the claim is made problematic further as within the world of ELT, authentic
materials (and more broadly 'authenticity') have many varying definitions. The terms are
often used with little specificity, creating confusion and a lack of concord in understanding
for those involved in the field (Gilmore, 2007). Investigating authentic materials and the
effect of authenticity to any extent is troublesome if an agreed definition is not found.
Authentic Materials
In relation to authentic materials, the notion of authenticity is highly ambiguous. Widdowson
(1979) discusses the idea, explaining a difference between what he labelled as genuine and
authentic language use. He explains that genuineness is the property which a piece of
language may have, if it was not created for the purpose of language learning. For example, a
newspaper article may be labelled as genuine language use as it is written not for the
purposes of education, but for entertainment and the transfer of information. Widdowson's
(ibid) notion of genuine language seems to be fundamental to the more modern concept of
authentic materials in EFL. On the other hand, he defines authenticity within language use as
a characteristic which can be found in the relationship between the text and the learner's
response to language.

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Van Lier (1996) explores the notion of authenticity relating it to intrinsic motivation through
its interaction with self-actualisation, intrinsic motivation, respect, moral integrity and inter-
personal relations. This closely relates to the notion of task-authenticity; as discussed by
Guariento and Morley (2001), outlined below.
More recently Gilmore (2007) presents us with eight definitions from various linguists, who
each perceive the concept differently. Of the eight definitions that he provides us with, the
two most highly supported are: authentic language is the language produced by a native
speaker/ writer for a real audience to convey a real message (Morrow, 1977; Porter and
Roberts, 1981; Swaffar, 1985; Noonan, 1988/9; Benson and Voller, 1997) and authentic
language is the language produced by native speakers within a particular language
community (Porter and Roberts, 1981; Little Devitt and Singleton, 1989).
In support of the use of authentic materials, Sweet (1899) and Carter (1998) raise the
following extremely valuable points; that if teachers wish to accomplish their task of creating
language learners who can competently communicate in their target language, authentic
materials are essential, as they suitably present every language feature and expose learners to
real discourse, with all of its features. If they are not used in the classroom, learners are left
unfamiliar to these natural language aspects, leaving them unprepared for authentic language
use.
Guariento and Morley (2001) refer to the idea of task authenticity, the degree to which a task
given to students is simulative of a real-world task. They propose that if a text is authentic,
yet the accompanying task is not then the authenticity of the text, which is commonly seen
as a quality of the material becomes invalid; authentic texts must be accompanied with
authentic tasks. Countering this claim, Swaffar (1985) explains that an immediately
inauthentic text can become authentic if it is used with a true communicative objective.
Swain (1985) suggests that well designed pedagogic tasks provide learners with a genuine
purpose for communication, which is very much part of the real world. Breen (1985) extends
this notion explaining that learning a language presents learners with the authentic discussion
task, 'communicating about how best to communicate.' These quotes suggest that language
learning is in itself an authentic task and this is very much the view taken forwards in this
paper. Thus, the notion of task authenticity will not be deemed an important issue in this
piece of research further.
Throughout this paper, language or materials which are labelled as 'authentic' will refer to
'language produced by native speakers, to be perceived by native speakers, inside a particular
language community, for a real, functional purpose (in contrast to an ‘unreal’, classroom
purpose) used within the EFL classroom for a different purpose, demonstrating real language
in an educational environment' (Little, Devitt and Singleton, 1991; Nunan 1988/9; Breen
1985). This definition of authentic materials was selected because in the vast amounts of
literature that have been analysed in the production of this article, this seemed to be the most
commonly used definition in investigative papers. As this investigation analyses the common
perception or belief that authentic materials aid student motivation, then surely the most
common definition of authentic materials should be used, to the benefit of the study’s
validity. This selected definition was also used in the work of Peacock (1997), a study which
this aims to partially replicate. For example, by this definition; when used in the EFL
classroom, an article from an English newspaper such as 'The Guardian' is considered an
authentic material, as it is written for native English speakers, for the functional purpose of

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sharing news information. Also, when used in the EFL classroom to demonstrate language, a
video clip from an English television soap opera such as 'Coronation Street' is considered
authentic, as it is created for native English speakers for the purpose of entertainment.
Inauthentic Materials
Van Lier (1996) demonstrates that language produced within the language classroom is easily
identifiable by the native speaker. He explains that classroom language looks and sounds like
classroom language and thus it presents an element of artificiality to them. He goes on, to
describe classroom language as unnatural when compared to authentic language. It is highly
distinguishable from language use found elsewhere. According to Porter and Roberts (1981),
native English speakers can easily identify inauthentic texts "with little hesitation and
considerable accuracy". Classroom language is often made prominent and presented to
learners through what are defined here as inauthentic materials. These materials are
commonly found in ELT course books and thus textbook materials are commonly labelled
immediately as inauthentic. However, one cannot say that all materials in a course book are
inauthentic as the inclusion of authentic materials is becoming more common in modern
course books, in an attempt to beneficially make the classroom and the language within it less
typical of the classroom, resembling better a more natural, real world setting, (Van Lier,
1996).
However, course books are naturally a source of language specifically created, designed or
selected for learning and thus it could be suggested will never be authentic. Carter (1998,
cited in Cook, 1998) explains that inauthentic materials present a form of English which he
labels ‘textbook English’. This textbook English in inauthentic materials is often the product
of a corpus-base linguistic study, in an attempt to replicate features of authentic language
usage. He like many other linguists highlights that, whilst this attempt to authenticate
inauthentic language takes place - textbook English is still significantly different to authentic
English. Carter (ibid) suggests that inauthentic materials should not be closely bound to
corpus-findings, yet they should be influenced by them. He continues, explaining that
authentic English usage should not be replaced by inauthentic English usage within the
classroom, and vice-versa; both, the usage of authentic materials and inauthentic materials
have a place within the EFL classroom.
O'Neill (1982) presents four advantages to using textbooks. That textbook materials are
generally very well presented and aesthetically pleasing for students. He also suggests that
preparing a class which uses textbook materials requires less of the teacher's time and that the
use of textbooks provides students with easy access to past and future class materials, making
revision and future planning of study easy. The final advantage of textbook materials
presented by O'Neill (ibid) is that they present a wealth of easily adaptable lesson materials.
Sweet (1899) details the drawbacks of inauthentic materials, that the inauthentic language
they present are noticeably artificial: they present the repetition of specific grammatical
structures and vocabulary in an unnatural fashion and do not allow for the inclusion of other
grammatical structures or vocabulary, which might be equally or more important to the
learner. Whilst inauthentic materials can take many forms, written texts, songs, recordings of
spoken discourse, they will always be easily distinguished from authentic materials, at least
by a native speaker, and (Gilmore, 2004). If students are presented to noticeably artificial
language, their motivation to learn may be hindered (Williams, 1983, 1984; Freeman and
Holden, 1986).

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Carter (1998) argues that the learning of this unnatural language presents a simplified and
easier outlook to language use. It presents a language society that is simplified and problem
free; which in turn leads to learners who have not developed the skills to cope with authentic
discourse; compromising learner competency. Supporting this idea further, specifically in the
context of classroom listening activities, Porter and Roberts (1981) explain that the ellipsis of
discourse features in inauthentic listening materials (such as: intonation and pace) can hinder
learner competency outside of the classroom further, due to lack of preparation.
In reference to my selected definition of authentic materials; by definition, inauthentic
materials are naturally the opposite. Morrow (1977) explains that through referring to the
source of the language, discovering its intended purpose and audience, one can classify
language as either authentic or inauthentic. Thus, if language is discovered to be 'produced by
native speakers, to be perceived by non-native language learners, for the purpose of
presenting FL to learners', it is inauthentic. In review of academic literature, this was the most
commonly found practice in defining and labelling inauthentic classroom material. Peacock's
(1997) piece of research, which this investigation aims to partially replicate, also uses a
similar definition of inauthentic materials.
Motivation
Beck (2004) explains that motivation is a broad concept, yet describes it simply; explaining it
is often considered to be the factor which causes us to undertake and perform particular
actions or movements. He suggests that the factors which cause us to act or move how we do,
may be internal or external. To try and explain internal factors, he relates the idea to a
somewhat natural response; such as the desire to eat, caused by the internal natural
occurrence of hunger. To try and explain external motivation, he gives the example of tasty
food being presented to a person and the person's consequential desire to eat the food as a
result of it being made present. Motivation can come from within a person through personal
interest, or be made present within a person because of external forces. Beck (ibid) continues
and discusses the notion of psychological hedonism; the notion that as organisms, humans
perform particular actions or make particular movements to achieve goals, move towards a
desirable outcome and move away from aversive outcomes. What each human may perceive
as a goal, as desirable and as aversive may be unique however to each person.
Dornyei (2001) explains that motivations a complex concept and thus the term is used every
day with various meanings and interpretations. However, he claims that what is fundamental
to each of these slightly differing definitions and interpretations is that motivation "concerns
the direction and magnitude of human behaviour”, regarding the choice to carry out an
action, the level of persistence given to the action, the effort put into the action. Dornyei
(ibid) claims motivation is responsible for why and how people carry out an action.
Peacock's (1997) investigation into authentic materials and motivation uses Crookes and
Schmidt's (1991) definition of motivation which relates specifically to the field of EFL, that
motivation is adopted-learner interest, persistence, attention, action and enjoyment. These
factors (adopted-learner interest, persistence...) may quite easily be related to the theory of
Beck (2004); if a student perceives learning the English language as a desirable goal and thus
is motivated to learn it, they might demonstrate more interest, persistence, attention, action
and enjoyment in doing so; all obviously beneficial features within the classroom setting.

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Crookes and Schmidt's (1991) definition of motivation has been chosen for use within this
research paper as it can be easily related to other theories surrounding motivation. It provides
factors which can be used to measure motivation and is deemed suitable by the researcher for
the purposes of this investigation. It has also been used by Peacock (1997) whose study this
goes on to partially replicate.
Existing Studies of Material-Authenticity and Motivation
Peacock (1997) explains that the effect of authentic materials on motivation is somewhat a
grey area in existing empirical research. Gonzalez (1990) conducted a study into the effect of
authentic materials on learner attitude, motivation and culture and language achievement. Her
study was focussed on four classes, totalling forty-three students of Spanish as a foreign
language. Through self-report questionnaires, she found that the use of authentic materials,
when compared to the use of inauthentic materials, prompted significantly higher
levels of learner motivation.
Peacock's own 1997 article demonstrates his research into the topic. The definitions of
authentic/ inauthentic materials and motivation are the same as those selected for this piece of
research, as discussed above. The sample for Peacock's (1997) study consisted of 31 South
Korean students, studying English at a Korea university EFL institute. Students were aged
between 18 and 25 and their average age was 20. 18 students were male, 13 were female. The
students were of 'beginner' level and most stated that their motivation to learn English was for
future work or study. The types of material used in the classroom were: two poems, television
listings, short articles, some magazine advertisements, an American pop song and an advice
column from a local English-language newspaper. The study was conducted over seven
weeks, during20 classes. He taught each class daily himself one day using authentic
materials, the next day using inauthentic materials.
Peacock(ibid) hypothesised that the use of authentic materials would increase observed levels
of student motivation significantly. He used three methods of data collection, observation,
questionnaire and post-class interviews. The post-class interviews are not discussed in detail
here as I believe that they added little to the study's conclusion. His observation method
required that an observer completed two observation sheets. ‘Observation sheet 1' recorded
whether the students were deemed to be 'on-task’ at various points in the lesson; on the
assumption that if students were deemed to be 'on-task' by the observer, then they were
motivate by the task. Thus, students were either recorded as either on-task or 'off-task' 12
times during each class. ‘Observation sheet 2' required the observer to rate on a scale of 1 to
5 (low to high) student interest, enthusiasm activity, persistence with the learning task,
concentration, and enjoyment during the task; on the assumption that an observer is able to
accurately measure these factors; and that if the students scored highly in these categories,
then their motivation can be said to be high.
His questionnaire method required that students complete a "highly structured, anonymous,
self-report" questionnaire which "aimed to measure levels of motivation generated during
class by the materials in use". It contained seven closed items on a semantic differential scale
of adjectives expressing motivation (e.g. interesting/boring/ enjoyable, etc.
The collected data was processed and concluded that learners were on-task 86% of the time
when using authentic materials, and on-task 78% of the time when using inauthentic
materials. 'Observation sheet 2' found that the observer rated student motivation significantly

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higher when the students used authentic materials, as opposed to inauthentic materials. The
self-report questionnaire found that the use of authentic materials did not provoke any
significant difference in self-reported motivation.
Flaws may be said to exist in the work of Peacock (ibid), as the accuracy of his observation
technique in the measurement of student motivation may not be what it should be. Dornyei
(2007) suggests that gaining an introspective into the mental processes of research subjects
can be done, but requires the active cooperation of the research subject. This active
cooperation was not present in Peacock's (ibid) study and thus his ability to observe the
internal though processes of motivation may be questioned. Peacock (ibid) acknowledges that
his study does not present any overly generalizable results due to his study being of a small
scale and limited to beginner level students from one particular part of the world. He
acknowledges that a huge gap in rese rich surrounding authentic materials and their effect on
student motivation within the EFL classroom is definitely present. This piece of research
intends to go forward and fill part of this research gap.
Methodology
Introduction
After reviewing academic literature surrounding the topics of authentic materials, inauthentic
materials, motivation, and the works of Gonzalez (1990) and Peacock (1997), this paper
continues with this section titled Methodology. This section of the paper explains the
processes and procedures undertaken in the research process.
Due to similarities in research agenda, this piece of research will partly replicate the work of
Peacock (1997) in an attempt to answer the following research questions:
To teach the same feature of language to a similar group of students, do authentic
materials motivate learners more so than inauthentic materials?
Are students from the Middle East motivated more so by the use of authentic
materials, than students from China?
The Study Sample
The study used a sample of 30 learners of English, studying on a foundation program at a
British university. 22 were male and 8 were female. All learners possessed a level 5 IELTS
qualification and were working towards scoring IELTS level 6 following a course book
syllabus, aimed at, in reference to the CEFR for languages, B2 level young adults. The
learners were from the UAE, Qatar, Japan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and China (including the
Hong Kong S.A.R.). The learners were aged between 17 and 31 years and had a mean age of
21 years.

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Procedure
In four different classes spread over four weeks, students were presented with four different
materials, all of which were used to present the students with examples of the present simple
or the present continuous tense woof the materials were video clips, one authentic and one
inauthentic; the other two materials were magazine articles, one authentic and one inauthentic
(visible in appendices 7 and 8). As the research sample are known to respond well to it and to
ensure that conditions in using the materials were similar; the material were used in classed
built around the PPP framework, often used in modern ELT, (Thornbury, 2011).
This investigation aims to measure the effect that material-authenticity had on student
motivation. My selected definition of motivation, 'adopted-learner interest, persistence,
attention, action and enjoyment' (Crooke and Schmidt, 1991) provides me with five
measurable variables which detail motivation. Cohen et al (2007) explain that measurable
variables are fundamental to validity in any piece of research. Due to the somewhat abstract
nature of these variables given in this definition of motivation, it could be said that they are
difficult to measure and evaluate. However, as in Peacock's (1997) study, this study proposes
that the sample had an ability to accurately self-report their interest in the material, the
attention that the material attracted and the enjoyment that the students experienced in
working with it. It disregards persistence and action on the basis that these variables are
difficult to self-evaluate. Peacock's (1997) study did measure these two variables through
observation, yet this study is unable to replicate this part of his work, due to time restriction
and the impracticality of teaching whilst observing. Thus, this piece of research relies on the
principle that if students reported higher levels of interest, attention gained by the material
and enjoyment in working with the material, their motivation with that material can be said to
be higher.
To measure motivation through self-reported interest, attention and enjoyment, students
completed the questionnaire visible in 'Appendix 2 Research Questionnaire #1'. The
questionnaire uses a Likert scale which generates quantitative data to represent the self-rated
motivation, interest and enjoyment generated by the materials. The questionnaire was
designed to be brief, yet to also provide the researcher with sufficient information to analyse.
Dornyei (2003) justifies this decision, explaining that most questionnaires in second language
research have low salience in the opinion of the learners/ research subjects and thus they do
not invoke interest and persistence. As such, questionnaire informants prefer not to take a
long time to complete a questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to be clear and well
set out, based on the comments of Sanchez (1992, cited in Dornyei, 2003) who defines the
importance of questionnaire layout.
The advantage of collecting data in this way include the provision for rapid creation of
statistical data. It is also quick for students to complete and does not require the students to
produce much language, which is useful in this situation where questionnaire respondents are
unable to complete the questionnaire in their first language (Dornyei, 2007).
The disadvantage of collecting data in this way is that qualitative data is not collected; whilst
the researcher is provided with a wealth of statistical data, no humanistic data is easily
obtained. Statistical quantitative data present us with detailing data. It does not provide any
explanation into why this data exists. For this reason, a focus group was conducted with a
select group of students from the sample.

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The aims of the focus group were to gain an insight into the reasoning behind the data
presented by the questionnaire. Dornyei (2007) explains that mixed-methods-research, which
combines quantitative data collection with qualitative data collection in a piece of research,
has a function of development; that the sequential deployment of such data collection allows
for the development of ideas to take place. I.e. the focus group here allows for the
development of the qualitative data generated in the questionnaire.
Every effort to incorporate the important principles of a good focus group, as presented by
Krueger and Casey (2000), was made. These principles ensure that the focus group provided:
carefully selected participants, a good number of student made up of people with similar
traits, a comfortable environment for the group to meet with circular seating, an audio
recording of the group meeting, a well-prepared moderator who establishes a comfortable and
facilitative meeting rapport.
The focus group was audio recorded and later transcribed into Standard English, as can be
seen in 'Appendix 5 -- Focus Group Transcription'. Transcribing the focus group into
Standard English was done to aid the readability of the transcript; it ignored false starts and
inaccuracies in pronunciation made by the conversation participants and grammatical errors
were carefully corrected as to not alter the meaning of what the participants wanted to say.
Due to the time restraints on the researcher, a focus group was conducted as it is a more time-
efficient means of gaining a great amount of rich qualitative data; for example, in comparison
to many interviews, (Dornyei, 2007). Whilst the collection of qualitative data has been
deemed highly beneficial, it came with some downfalls. Amongst others, these included the
sheer amount of data that the session yielded which was laborious to process and provided
the risk that data may be incorrectly interpreted and thus invalid (Dornyei, ibid). This was
minimised by careful review of the transcribed focus group as a whole.
Analysis of Data and the Subsequent Findings
Introduction
The purpose of analysing the collected data is of course to answer the research questions:
To teach the same feature of language to a similar group of students, do authentic
materials motivate learners more so than inauthentic materials?
Are students from the Middle East motivated more so by the use of authentic
materials, than students from China?
This section of the paper is largely structured around these two questions. It begins by
attempting to answer the first research question. A graphical representation of relevant data is
given, alongside a description as to how it was made, followed by an analysis as to what this
data might suggest in response to the research question. Data from the focus group
transcription (visible in Appendix 5) is referred to in response to the first research question,
in an attempt to explain the presented data. The transcription is not referred to in answering
the second research question as the focus group did not generate any data relevant to it.

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The First Research Question
To teach the same feature of language to a similar group of students, do authentic
materials motivate learners more so than inauthentic materials?
The following graph presented as Figure 1 was generated from the tables visible in appendix
6, relating to questionnaire 1 and 3. It compares students' answers to questions 5, 6 and 7, in
these two questionnaires and demonstrates the difference in student self-rated interest,
enjoyment and attention between them; between the use of an authentic video clip and an
inauthentic video clip. Student responses to these questionnaires are plotted on the graph,
labelled Figure 1, as an average score. For example, the average response to question 5 in
questionnaire 1, relating to the use of the authentic video clip was 7.76.
Figure 1 (right) contrasts self-
rated learner interest, enjoyment
and attention when working
with an authentic video clip to
that when working with an
inauthentic video clip. Learner
responses are plotted on the
graph as an average score. For
example, the average level of
self-rated learner interest was
7.76, when working with an
authentic video clip. The figure
demonstrates that students
reported higher levels of self-
rated interest, enjoyment and
attention when using authentic
video clip materials, than when
using inauthentic video clip
materials. On average, learners
reported levels of motivation
20.34% higher when the
authentic material was used in
place of the inauthentic
material.
Figure 2 (right) contrasts self-
rated learner interest, enjoyment
and attention when working
with an authentic magazine
article and an inauthentic
magazine article. Learner
responses are plotted as an
average score. For example, the
average level of self-rated
learner enjoyment was 6.56,
when working with the
authentic magazine article.
6.56
7.43 7.66
7.76
8.17 8.13
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
learner interest learner enjoyment learner attention
Figure 1: Self-rated Learner Interest,
Enjoyment and Attention with Video Clips
Inauthentic Authentic
6.56
7.43
7.66
6.50 6.66 6.83
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
learner interest learner enjoyment learner attention
Figure 2: Self-rated Learner Interest,
Enjoyment and Attention with Magazine
Articles
Inauthentic Authentic

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The figure demonstrates that students reported higher levels of self-rated interest, enjoyment
and attention when using authentic magazine materials, than when using inauthentic
magazine materials. On average, learners reported levels of motivation 66.18% higher when
the authentic material was used in place of the inauthentic material.
From the two data sets, it could be concluded in a direct response to the first research
question that when teaching a group of students consisting of Middle Eastern, Chinese and
Japanese students, authentic materials are more motivating than inauthentic materials.
The validity of this data has been tested using the SPSS program designed by IBM (IBM,
2013). Information used to present the above Figures 1 and 2 was processed by the program
with an independent sample T-test. This compared the responses between classes 1 and 2 and
found that student responses in the two classes, to the four questionnaires were similar.
Figure 3 and 4 below demonstrate this; for example, the mean score given by class 1 in
response to questionnaire 1 was 23.7333, whilst the mean score given by class 2 in response
to the same questionnaire was 24.400. This suggests similarities between the two classes
which makeup the research sample, similarities in the experience which both classes had with
the various material, and that their thoughts regarding them were similar.
Figure 3 – SPSS Analysis of Questionnaires 1 and 3 Separated by Class
Group Statistics
Group N mean Std. Deviation
Std. Error
Mean
Q1 ttlmot
1 15 23.7333 4.55861 1.17703
2 15 24.4 2.41424 0.62335
Q3 ttlmot
1 15 19.8 2.21037 0.57071
2 15 20.3 1.26491 0.3266
Figure 4 – SPSS Analysis of Questionnaires 2 and 4 Separated by Class
Group Statistics
Group N mean Std. Deviation
Std. Error
Mean
Q2 ttlmot
1 15 20.6000 3.01899 0.77950
2 15 22.7333 3.80726 0.98303
Q4 ttlmot
1 15 14.1333 3.06749 0.79202
2 15 12.0667 4.00832 1.02494
The same piece of software was used to conduct two further T-tests on the mean scores of
motivation given in questionnaires 1 and 3, and 2 and 4. It found that the mean score
measuring motivation in questionnaire 1 was 24.0667 whilst in questionnaire 3 it was
20.0000. The significance of this data was p = 0.000 which demonstrates a high level of
significance in the data. This suggests that the data was not created by chance and allows the

15. 15
data to make strong suggestions about the effect of materials authenticity on student
motivation.
Figure 5 – SPSS Analysis of Questionnaires 1 and 2
One Sample Statistics
Group N mean Std. Deviation
Std. Error
Mean
Q1 ttlmot 30 24.0667 3.60013 0.65729
Q3 ttlmot 30 20 1.78113 0.32519
Figure 6 - SPSS Analysis of Questionnaires 1 & 3
One-Sample Test
t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference
95% Confidence Interval of the
Difference
Lower Upper
Q1 ttlmot 36.615 29 0 24.06667 22.7224 25.411
Q3 ttlmot 61.503 29 0 20 19.3349 20.6651
Figure 7 – SPSS Analysis of Questionnaires 2 and 4
One Sample Statistics
Group N mean Std. Deviation
Std. Error
Mean
Q2 ttlmot 30 21.6667 3.54608 0.64742
Q4 ttlmot 30 13.1 3.66107 0.66842
Figure 8 - SPSS Analysis of Questionnaires 2 & 4
One-Sample Test
t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference
95% Confidence Interval of the
Difference
Lower Upper
Q1 ttlmot 33.466 29 0 21.66667 20.3425 22.9908
Q3 ttlmot 19.599 29 0 13.1 11.7329 14.4671
The focus group transcription (Appendix 5) provides us with possible explanations as to why
the group in general found authentic materials more motivating. Student 14 interestingly says
“we don’t live in a textbook, we live in the UK” (line 138). This suggests that he is aware of
the difference in language present in textbooks and the real environment that is the UK; the

16. 16
student seems to be aware of Carter's (1998) point, that the language of real life is not as
simple as textbooks suggest.
Student 17 says that "(through using the authentic video material) you start to know how the
English people talk (line 74). Student 4 says that "(the authentic video material allows us to)
learn the accents (of English people)” (line 78). Later, on line 128, she also explains that with
inauthentic materials, "you’re just learning that one thing... you don’t get everything". These
quotes suggest that students are aware of and value the paralinguistic features of language,
which Carter (1998) specifies the importance of in developing communicative competent
language users. It could be suggested that using materials which contain these feature
increases student motivation.
Students 4 and 5 valued the authentic video clip material as it was "based on real life" (lines
254-260) and that the people presented in the clip were not acting. This suggests that the
feeling of making contact with the real world and the language of it is more motivating for
the learners, in-line with the opinions of Hill (1984) and Peacock (1997).
On lines 259, 261 and 272 of the transcript, Student 17 explains that he is aware of the
differences in spoken language presented in textbooks and that which is actually spoken by
native speakers in the UK. He expresses a desire to speak like "normal people", by which we
can infer he wishes to speak the language of a native speaker and not that of a textbook. This
could suggest that Student 17 is aware of a difference between standard and spoken English
grammar. This quote could support Gilmore’s (2011) claim that authentic material which
provides students with a model of real-life spoken grammar can increase learner motivation
due to learners’ intrinsic motivation to speak English like a native. Whilst students seem to
suggest that inauthentic materials are clearer in presenting the target language (lines 113 and
131-134), what seems to be more important is that the language presented through
inauthentic materials "(is often) not like a proper conversation” (line 124). Thus, inauthentic
materials seem to remove students from the real-world environment and can as a result
decrease learner motivation, in line with Gilmore (2012).
There were nine instances in the transcript in which learners evidenced an association
between inauthentic materials and boredom:
“It was really boring”
“You won’t remember anything when it’s boring so you don’t really learn anything”
“No it’s boring”
“Because ‘the people who made it’ made it for education (so) it looks very boring”
“I don’t really remember it now because it was boring”
What is interesting is that not once do the learners label the study's authentic materials
‘boring’. Evidence on lines 89, 156 and 168 seems to suggest that in the opinion of the
students, the notion of boredom is related to memory, and that the notion of memory is
fundamental to learning. As learner interest is fundamental to motivation (Crookes and
Schmidt, 1991) and that motivation aids effective learning (Dornyei, 1996), it could be
proposed based on this study’s findings relating to boredom that inauthentic materials do not
facilitate effective learning in the EFL classroom.
O'Neill (1982) claims that textbook materials are often more aesthetically pleasing and thus
more motivating for students to work with than their authentic counterparts. In this study, it

17. 17
was found that this did not seem to be the case. Students 4 and 17, on lines 232 and 235,
recall how the authentic magazine article was more understandable than the inauthentic
magazine article because it was more graphically satisfying.
Students also suggest that in their opinion; the use of technology can aid student motivation
in the EFL classroom (lines 303 and 304).
After answering the first research question, through the presentation of questionnaire and
focus group data, the paper moves on, answering the second research question below.
The Second Research Question
Are students from the Middle East motivated more so by the use of authentic
materials, than students from China?
The following graph, presented as Figure 7 (overleaf), was generated from the tables visible
in Appendix 6 relating to questionnaires 1, 2, 3 and 4. The figure compares students' answers
to questions 5, 6 and 7, in all of the questionnaires. In these graphs, to create data which will
address the research question detailed above, students have been grouped by their nationality.
Thus, the graph clearly shows two distinct populations, the responses of Chinese students,
and the responses of Middle-Eastern students. The term Middle-Eastern has been used in
reference to the world region, as defined by Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (2013). Thus,
the response of sample students from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Jordan have been
combined to form this group. Data from the single Japanese learner of the sample was not
used in the creation of Figure 7.
The figure illustrates that the Middle-Eastern students on average reported levels of
motivation 17% higher than the Chinese students when working with the authentic video clip,
and levels of motivation 10% higher when working with the authentic magazine article. In
contrast, the Chinese students reported levels of motivation 7% higher when working with
the inauthentic materials video clip material, and 17% higher when working with the
authentic magazine article. Information in Figure 3 demonstrates that for both demographics,
authentic materials, whether a video clip or a magazine article, were more motivating for the
learners than the inauthentic materials. Further, the data might suggest that Middle-Eastern
students are better motivated by video clip materials than magazine article materials
regardless of authenticity than their Chinese counterparts; whereas Chinese learners are more
motivated by magazine article material regardless of authenticity than their Middle-Eastern
counterparts. In response to this article’s second research question, the data does suggest that
authentic materials motivate Middle-Eastern students more so than Chinese students.

18. 18
Conclusion
The inspiration for this paper came from the 1997 work of Peacock, which is one of the few
papers which identifies and tests the widely untested, yet often made claim in ELT that
authentic materials increase student motivation in the language classroom. His work into the
effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFL learners identified a research gap. This
paper set out to fill this gap somewhat. In the process of doing this, the paper has outlined the
importance that materials selection has to the EFL teacher. It has explored the notions of
authentic, inauthentic materials and motivation in reference to academic literature within the
field. Review of academic literature around the relevant topics lead to the development of the
7.1 7 7.1
6.4
8.1 8.1
6.2 6.1 6.1
3.9
4.8
5.8
8
8.4
8.6
6.4
7.1
7.5
6.4
6.8
7.1
3.2
4.2
4.9
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
interest enjoyment attention interest enjoyment attention interest enjoyment attention interest enjoyment attention
Authentic Inauthentic Authentic Inauthentic
Video Clip Magazine Article
Figure 7: Contrasting Chinese and Middle-Eastern Students' Self-rated Learner
Interest, Enjoyment and Attention
Chinese Middle-Eastern

19. 19
research questions, identified at the start of this document and referred to throughout. A
methodology for the research was created. This formed the structure and outlined the
procedures that would be undertaken in research. It permitted the effective development and
undertaking of several questionnaires and a focus group with a distinct sample of students.
The sample consisted of 30 learners of EFL, studying at a British university on a foundation
program of study to prepare for later undergraduate level study. The sample was made up of
22 males and 8 females; aged between 17 and 31 with an average age of 21. The learners all
possessed a level 5 IELTS qualification (IELTS, 2013). The questionnaire data was collected
and analysed. It was processed by SPSS statistical software (IBM, 2013) and found to make a
significant claim, that the learners were more motivated by authentic materials than
inauthentic materials. Analysis of the data collected from the focus group supplemented the
questionnaire data and suggested reasons why the data within it might exist in reference to
academic theories.
Of course, there is still a huge research gap present. Peacock's (1997) work has looked at the
effect of materials authenticity on South Korean students' motivation. Gonzalez (1990) has
completed a similar study with a sample of students studying Spanish. This study has looked
at the effect of motivation on Middle Eastern and Chinese students. There are still many
profiles of learner that have not been researched into, and so the effect that materials
authenticity would have on their motivation is not known. It would be interesting to see on a
broader scale if student age, level of ability, nationality, purpose for learning English or
gender had an effect on student motivation as a result of materials authenticity. The general
statement that, authentic materials are more motivating than inauthentic materials, whilst
often used in literature and made prominent in the ELT industry, should be made with great
caution. All learners are different and the English language teachers should meet the
individual needs of their students, (Gower, 1995). However, it is plausible that when teaching
a group of students with a similar profile to that of this study, teachers should consider the
use of authentic materials to increase the motivation of students.
At the moment, in the language college from which the study sample originates, it is my
belief that authentic materials are not being used as often as they could be. Teachers at the
college often report of students who seem to maintain low levels of motivation and who have
little interest in classroom materials. As it is plausible that the sample of this study is
representative of the majority of students at the college, this research suggests that the
students of the college are more motivated by the use of authentic materials. As such, the
increased usage of authentic materials in classes at the college could be of a great benefit to
learning and the student experience. I speculate that teachers of EFL at the college currently
do not use authentic materials often, as they do not currently have the time to collect
authentic materials and produce accompanying materials as creating a lesson around
authentic materials is much more time consuming than simply opening a textbook and using
inauthentic materials, using pre-selected texts and ready-to-use accompanying exercises. One
might suggest that a collection of authentic materials and accompanying class tasks/ activities
could be developed and later shared and used by the teachers of the college. This would result
in teachers having instant access to pre-prepared authentic materials, the use of which this
research suggests would increase student motivation in the college.
Chinese students at the college seem to find magazine articles more motivating than its
Middle-Eastern students did; whilst Middle-Eastern students seemed to find video materials
more motivating than the Chinese students did. Therefore, it could be suggested that when
teachers are presented with a choice in material, either a video material or a magazine

20. 20
material, the nationality of the student should be considered when selecting the material,
ensuring that students receive a type of material most motivating for them. At the language
college where this study took place, this would be particularly useful as the majority of
students are Middle-Eastern or Chinese.
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List of Appendices
Appendices for this paper follow on the next 26 pages. They are all numbered as given in the
table below:
Appendix Number Title of Appendix
Appendix 1 Student Consent to Participate in Research
Appendix 2 Research Questionnaire 1
Appendix 3 Research Questionnaire 2
Appendix 4 Focus Group Guidance and Prompts
Appendix 5 Focus Group Transcription
Appendix 6 Tables
Appendix 7 Authentic Magazine Article
Appendix 8 Inauthentic Magazine Article