This preliminary study sets out to examine the extent to which authentic materials affect Japanese university students＇ classroom motivation, seeking an effective way to teach mixed-level language classes at universi...This preliminary study sets out to examine the extent to which authentic materials affect Japanese university students＇ classroom motivation, seeking an effective way to teach mixed-level language classes at universities. The motivation questionnaires consisting of eight motivation items as quantitative data and journal entries and learners＇ comments in semi- structured interviews as qualitative data were collected and analyzed. The results of null hypothesis tests on the questionnaires indicate that authentic materials had a significantly more positive effect on freshmen＇s self-reported motivation than artificial textbook materials, but not on second-year and fourth-year students＇. The study also explores the relationship between enjoyableness and meaningfulness of teaching materials to seek the most effective way of using authentic materials, and discusses the effects of other possible factors such as activities and topics： The conclusion suggests that appropriate use of authentic materials, especially enjoyable ones, can be helpful for university teachers of relatively larger classes of freshmen with mixed proficiency levels to raise their L2 motivation. The challenges of conducting this research and suggestions about future studies are also discussed.展开更多
文摘This preliminary study sets out to examine the extent to which authentic materials affect Japanese university students＇ classroom motivation, seeking an effective way to teach mixed-level language classes at universities. The motivation questionnaires consisting of eight motivation items as quantitative data and journal entries and learners＇ comments in semi- structured interviews as qualitative data were collected and analyzed. The results of null hypothesis tests on the questionnaires indicate that authentic materials had a significantly more positive effect on freshmen＇s self-reported motivation than artificial textbook materials, but not on second-year and fourth-year students＇. The study also explores the relationship between enjoyableness and meaningfulness of teaching materials to seek the most effective way of using authentic materials, and discusses the effects of other possible factors such as activities and topics： The conclusion suggests that appropriate use of authentic materials, especially enjoyable ones, can be helpful for university teachers of relatively larger classes of freshmen with mixed proficiency levels to raise their L2 motivation. The challenges of conducting this research and suggestions about future studies are also discussed.
