Revista Nebrija de Lingüística Aplicada a la Enseńanz= a de Lenguas ISSN 1699-6569<= o:p>

Vol. 17 Núm.= 35 (2023) = doi: 10.26378/rnlael1= 735536

Recibido:24/= 06/2023 / Aprobado: 10/11/2023

Publi= cado bajo licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento Sin Obra Derivada 4.0 Internacional<= /span>

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The use of authentic material= s in an English for Specific Purposes university class

El uso de materiales auténticos en una clase universitaria de inglés con fines específicos

Lucía Sánchez Bejerano

Universidad Europea del Atlántico

lucia.sanchez@uneatlantico.es

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ABSTRACT

The present article shows a didactic application based on the use of authentic materials and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in a university class. The designed proposal was applied throughout a period of fifteen weeks in an English as a foreign language subject, equivalent to a B1.2 level according= to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). This lesson plan was applied in a group class of forty students belonging to two differ= ent bachelor’s degrees: Psychology, and Sports Science and Physical Activity.

Keywords: ESP, authentic materials, higher education, English as a foreign language, reading.=

RESUMEN

El presente artículo muestra una aplicación didáctica basada en el uso de materiales auténticos y de inglés para fines específicos en un aula univers= itaria. Para ello, se diseńó una propuesta que fue aplicada a lo largo de quince semanas en la asignatura de Inglés Instrumental II equivalente a un nivel B= 1.2 de acuerdo con el Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para las Lenguas. El gr= upo meta al que estuvo dirigida esta propuesta consistió en una muestra de cuar= enta estudiantes pertenecientes a los grados de Psicología, y Ciencias de la Actividad Física y el Deporte.

Palabras clave: inglés para fines específicos, materiales auténticos, educación universitaria, inglés instrumental, lectura.

1. INTRODUCTION

The extended use of coursebooks in the scope of English as a Foreign Language teaching makes it easier for teacher= s to plan lessons and to organise content. Very frequently, coursebooks include a wide set of activities in order to cover the fou= r main skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking, especially when they are designed to prepare students for language certifications. However, most of these activities might be considered disposable since they lack interest for students, especially adults who are studying at university and require more specialised content. Moreover, coursebook texts tend to be decontextualised from an original source and, unfortunately, they are just an excuse to prac= tice the corresponding grammar and range of vocabulary. Thus, teachers may offer “valid frameworks” (Ball, 2016: 25) so that students can engage with content and, therefore, learn better. Among these valid frameworks, there is an increasing use of authentic materials at university. Dania and Adha (2021: = 149) define authentic materials as “every resource that can be used for pedagogi= cal purposes while it is actually not designed to be used in language classroom= .” Therefore, teachers work with real texts (newspapers, books, magazines) rat= her than regular adapted content (coursebooks, workbooks or graded readers).

Regarding this tendency of using authe= ntic materials in contemplation of engaging students into reading, we establish = the following research question:

· = Do university students engage with the use of auth= entic materials to work the syllabus and ESP?

F= rom this query, the present article addresses the matter by proposing a main objective:

· = ; To design a proposal on the use of authentic mater= ials for working on reading skills, observing students’ participation after its application.

T= his main objective was broken down into smaller goals which allowed for an easi= er approach to the main target. They are the following:

· = &nb= sp; To approach students with a questionnaire in order to know their use of authentic texts for read= ing in English.

· = &nb= sp; To design and apply a didactic proposal of fifteen weeks (February-May 2022) based on the use of authentic materials.

· = &nb= sp; To gather information about students’ participatio= n in the use of authentic materials for working on reading skills.

The relevance of this matter is based,= not only on the extended amount of research on the topic, but also on the premi= se that it is English teachers' duty to enrich lessons so that students can ma= ke the most of them. Moreover, as Ahmanpanah and M= ohseni (2017: 69) consider, “humanizing language learning materials helps language teachers to design activities that are linked to learners’ lives and experiences.” Thus, the more motivation, the better and more significant the learning is.

Regarding the context, this piece of w= ork is set at the European University of the Atlantic (Uneatlántico), in Santander= . Most of the degrees at the university share some common subjects of English as a Foreign Language in their syllabus: Inglés I, II, III, and IV, depending on the degree. At the Uneatlántico, students from English as a Foreign Language study vocabulary which is related to their fi= eld of study, that is to say, they study English for Specific Purposes. Therefore, this was the main aspect which fostered the s= tudy of authentic materials, as a form of studying ESP at the university. In the= Uneatlántico each semester there are three sessions of ESP, out of thirty in the academic programme. The rest of the sessions are designed so that students from the = same level follow the same coursebook.

There is also some interest in study f= rom the researcher’s experience as an English teacher at the Uneatlántico. Three session= s per semester are not enough to make students get used to specialised content. Besides, the materials used in these three sessions are not always authentic materials, but adaptations from other ESP coursebooks. Therefore, and follo= wing Ahmanpanah and Mohseni’s (2017) indications, it= is considered that a wider contact with the specific topics from the degrees is required.

2. SOURCES DESCRIPTION

2.1. English for Specific Purposes and authentic materials

According to Palt= ridge and Starfield (2014: 3), ESP consists of English learning “where the goal of the learners is to use English in a particular domain.” This means that students will be studying a specific type of vocabulary or topics, motivate= d by their necessities. Furthermore, ESP students tend to be adults (Paltridge & Starfield, 2014), which makes it even= more logical to be taught at university, where specialisation is required. What = is more, ESP does not only focus on future academic necessities, but also on occupational ones too (Anthony, 2018). The way of accomplishing these deman= ds is designing specific materials which cover them. Nonetheless, if the focus= is to provide students with the tools for their future development in a real English-speaking environment, prepackaged materials might not be sufficient= .

Authentic materials may supply the lac= k of naturalness in coursebooks as the latter include adapted resources which are not extracted from real situations. Swe (2017: 234) states that authentic materials can be “anything written in the target language and used unedited= in the classroom.” Therefore, they can be designed by native English speakers = or non-native speakers. By using real texts written in English, students can b= uild a bridge between their classroom and the real world, which will enable them= to see a practical use of the language. As for the type of materials that can = be offered, Mishan (2005) proposes using cultural products such as literature,= the broadcast media, newspapers, advertising, song and music, film, and ICT. Abdulhussein (2014: 334) even adds some more such as “pictures, charts, diagrams, advertisements, realia.” Mukundan et al. (2016) stress the use of= a wide variety of sources to suit as much diversion in liking as possible. Besides, these authors (Mukundan et al., 2016: 67) state that another crite= rion for choosing authentic materials is using a “familiar and comfortable” topi= c. This way the text can be easily related to previous knowledge, which will h= elp the student understand the text better, as information can be easily inferr= ed (Kintsch & Van Dijk, 1978).

However, not every content that is bei= ng written without academic purposes is suitable for being used in a classroom. Therefore, teachers must follow some criteria to select the adequate texts. McGrath (2016) establishes some key aspects to bear in mind when selecting authentic texts for the classroom:

Relevance (to syllabus, to learners’ needs), intrinsic interest of topic/theme, cultural appropriateness, lingui= stic demands, cognitive demands, logistic considerations: e.g., length, legibili= ty/ audibility, quality (as a model of use or as a representative token of a text-type, exploitability) (McGrath 2016: 102)

2.2. Authentic materials into context<= o:p>

In the investigation carried out at the Kazakh Ablai Khan University of International Relations and World Languages= (Yaleyubayeva, 2017), learners obtained better scores = at their tests with the use of authentic materials. Students could learn langu= age in a faster way as well as using it comfortably because “they had practiced= a real language used beyond the classroom” (Yaleyubayeya= , 2017: 8). Some other studies have implemented the use of authentic material= s in a particular skill, such as reading. Blaker and Ellsworth (2020) designed a programme to replace graded readers for extensive reading at Konan Universi= ty, Japan, so that students would engage more with their readings. Authors (Bal= ker & Ellsworth, 2020: 336) finally concluded that they had “yielded positi= ve attitudes.” Similarly, a study carried out by Nurazimi= and Hidayat (2021) in a Senior High School, in Indonesia, showed that stude= nts had an increase in motivation after using authentic materials for reading comprehension. However, this research by Nurazimi and Hidayat (2021) was carried out in a high school rather than at a university. Thus, its results are interesting to look at, but it is necessary to develo= p a further reading on studies which have more similarities with the present research.

As it was established before, the main objective includes getting to know student’s use and interest in the authen= tic materials through the application of a questionnaire. Thus, the following studies contain a review on the current literature which had a similar goal= so that a reliable questionnaire can be found. For this review, recent studies= , no older than ten years, have been considered.

Firstly, Abdulhussein’s work (2014) consists in a study from the University of Misan and the University of Imam Al Saqeq, in Iraq. One o= f its main objectives was “investigating EFL Iraqi college teachers’ attitudes to= ward using authentic materials in their reading classes in = Misan Governorate” (Abdulhussein, 2014: 331). For this, a questionnaire was creat= ed. It consisted of a 36 statements tool which asked the degree of agreement wi= th a five Likert scale. The author tested its reliability through the administra= tion of the tool in two moments to the same sample. Both a Pearson correlation coefficient test and an Alpha Cronbach Formula proved that the results were= not significantly different. As for the validity, a group of experts accepted i= t as well. As for the results in the investigation, the study showed positive attitudes on the use of authentic materials. Moreover, the questionnaire ma= y be used in a similar study. Nonetheless, it is necessary to mention that the t= ool was validated for a particular group only.

Ishaq and Khan (2016) developed another study at the University of Balochistan in Pakis= tan where one of the main investigation questions was “what are the perceptions= of government boys’ and girls’ college students towards the use of the authent= ic material in EFL classroom?” (Ishaq & Khan, 2016: 85). In this case, they also used a Likert scale to assess only four items. The test was validated = as well, and the results showed positive attitudes on the use of authentic materials as well. However, on this occasion, the questionnaire was not published. Thus, this investigation’s tool is dismissed for the present dissertation.

In Anh and Yen’s (2017) investigation = at the Can Tho Medical College in Vietnam, the focus was to research about students’ perception in the use of authentic materials when learning medical English terminology. In this case, a validated questionnaire of twenty-nine statements was created. Students had to select a degree of agreement throug= h a five Likert scale. The findings of this study were various: there was a positive awareness on the use of the authentic materials. However, students found it difficult to distinguish which materials were authentic. In the st= udy the use of realia is also recommended. Since this questionnaire is focused = only on medical authentic materials, it is not useful for the present research either.

Within the Spanish context, it has been extremely difficult to find literature about the use of authentic materials= at university. However, there are multiple studies which support the design of didactic units based on realia or cultural elements. For instance, the one developed by Álvarez Gil (2018), in which teachers are encouraged to include authentic materials so that students engage culturally with the language on= a deeper level.

In another study at the Al Ilyas Vocational High School in Indonesia, conducted by Fitriana et al. (2019: 8), there was a similar objective which aimed “to describe students' responses toward the use of the authentic materials.” In their results, they obtained that the students showed more interest in their reading after having used authentic materials. Nonetheless, when analysing the questionnaire, it was observed that there were many grammatical inconsistencies. Thus, this questionnaire was not considered to be part of the present work either.

Finally, more recent research conducte= d at the University of Nobi Sad, in Serbia by Prošić-S= antovac and Popović (2021: 139), had the intention “to gain insight into stude= nts’ attitudes towards the use of authentic and nonauthentic materials in English language teaching including their perception of the stakeholders’ agency in= the process.” Findings showed that students thought the authentic materials were not of their interest. They felt more reassured with the use of textbooks. = The questionnaire used in this occasion was designed in Serbian, and, therefore, not applicable to another study which was not developed in that language.

3. MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY=

Firstly, the researcher approached students with the purpose of understanding their use of authentic materials= and interests in reading. This was carried out using an adaptation of AbdulHussein’s (2014) questionnaire (see table 3 in appendix 1), also used = in a very similar study. Therefore, and considering that the questionnaire had b= een validated and it was reliable, it seemed adequate to use it in this study as well. Nonetheless, this questionnaire was validated by that particular group. Thus, a new validation was needed.

Afterwards, and taking into considerat= ion these results, a selection of texts from authentic sources was made and app= lied throughout a period of fifteen weeks. This selection followed the criteria proposed by McGrath (2016).

The cognitive demands the text requires were controlled through Bloom’s (Krathwohl, 2002: 214) taxonomy order of thinking skills. This structure divides activities in low order thinking sk= ills on the one side: remembering, understanding, and applying. On the other han= d, high order thinking skills which are more difficult tasks: analysing, evaluating, and creating.

Finally, the researcher gathers studen= ts’ participation in the use of authentic materials through an active observati= on during the lessons.

Sample of study<= /p>

T= he population under study, n=3D31, consists of a heterogeneous group of second= year students from the degrees in Psychology and Sports Science -CAFYD- who are enrolled in In= glés II. The total number of students enrolled in the course is forty. However, = only thirty-one come to class regularly. Thus, they are the only ones who carry = out the project. As for the other nine students remaining, three of them take t= he subject for the second time and their timetables are incompatible. Three ot= her students do not come to class regularly as they already have a B2 level certificate, so they are exempted from attending. The other three do not at= tend to the subject regularly. The selection criteria for the application of the didactic approach were the following ones:

●Students that conform an Inglés II subject.

●Students to whom there is dire= ct contact so that the didactic proposal can be applied personally.

I= nglés = II is equivalent, in terms of level according to the Common European Framework= of Languages (Council of Europe, 2020) to a B1.2. The students must have compl= eted a course in In= glés I beforehand, which makes them familiar with a B1.1-B1.2 level.<= /span>

4. INITIAL RESULTS

From the questionnaire (AbdulHussein, 2014), we obtained some results which helped develop the text selection so = that it accomplished students’ interests and necessities.

A total of thirty-one students participated in the questionnaire, fifteen females and sixteen males, fifte= en from Psychology, sixteen from Sports Science. In order = to know if this sample is a representative one, an equation presented in Aguilar-Barojas (2005: 336) has been applied. From that equation, we conclu= de that only thirteen out of forty students are needed so that the sample can = be considered representative. Therefore, n=3D31 is a representative one. Even = though this might seem a small population for the sample, groups which study Engli= sh as a Foreign Language at this level -B2.1- had at the time a maximum of for= ty students per class at the Uneatlántico. Moreover, this didactic application is designed ad hoc for this specific group, so it must accomplish its necessit= ies.

As was anticipated before, another typ= e of analysis was required to validate the use of the adapted questionnaire in t= his specific group. For this, a statistical analysis checks Cronbach’s alpha, w= hich determines the reliability of a test’s items (Taber, 2018). The result, as shown in table 1, proves that the test is reliable since a result over 0.7 = is an acceptable one according to Taber (2018: 1279).

Cro= bach’s alpha	No. Of elements
.715	10

Table 1. Cronbach’s alpha to prove tes= t’s reliability

Once the questionnaire has been valida= ted, results are examined so as to accomplish the objectives of the research.

4.1. Students’ reading habits

From students’ opinions towards readin= g in English, the most repeated answers –mode – for the first questions are the following ones shown in table 2.

Question	Mode
1. Reading English is important.	Often
2. I like to read in English.=	Sometimes
3. Reading helps me to improve my language proficiency.	Always
4 I usually do not read in English unless I have to.	Often

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T= able 2. Students’ opinions towards reading in English=

From these results, we can suppose that students would appreciate some extra help in reading since the majority agr= ee that reading in English always helps them improve their proficiency in the language. Moreover, they support the fact that reading in English is import= ant.

From students’ reading habits regarding the types of texts, the modes were the ones presented in figure 1. Thus, th= ey were more used to reading short stories, Internet materials, and newspapers than other types of texts. It would be advisable then to keep using the for= mats students are familiarised since they would probably find them more attracti= ve and interesting. As it can be seen, figure 1 is represented in a scale of numbers which correspond to qualitative assessment. In this scale, 1 means never, 2 means rarely, 3 means sometimes, 4 means often, and, finally, 5 me= ans always.

F= igure 1. Graphic distribution of students’ reading habits regarding the types of texts

4.2. Students’ preferences<= /span>

From the questionnaire, it can be obta= ined that students prefer the use of TV or radio programmes -as it is indicated = in the results obtained in figure 2- since most of them said they would always prefer working with those materials. There are some materials such as short stories, magazines, newspapers or cassettes, and videos which they would li= ke to use often. It is also relevant = to consider the rest of elements students seem not to like that much. As for t= he materials they would like to use sometimes, they outlined books and brochur= es, whereas for the materials they rarely want to use, students highlighted nov= els. Finally, the materials that students never want to study in a class are poe= ms. Equally to figure 1, figure 2 is represented in a scale of numbers which correspond to qualitative assessment. In this scale, 1 means never, 2 means rarely, 3 means sometimes, 4 means often, and, finally, 5 means always.

F= igure 2. Students’ preferences

Once the most popular materials were identified, we could discard the use of the TV or radio programmes for this proposal, although it is useful as a practice of oral skills in the regular lessons. Similarly, we could discard the use of cassettes. In fact, nowadays many modern resources such as audios from podcasts or radio programmes are used. They were discarded as well since they do not work on reading skills. Thus, the materials in this didactic proposal were majorly those extracted = from short stories, magazines, newspapers, and internet materials. In a less frequent use, brochures could be read in class. This is a surprising result because even though students do not seem to use brochures, they would like = to use them. Nonetheless, books were also dismissed as there was not enough time within the syllabus to read full books.

4.3. Text selection and application for the didactical approach

The texts were selected according to McGrath (2016), who established that a text should be analysed according to= its relevance to syllabus or to learners, the intrinsic interest of the topic or the theme, cultural appropriateness, linguistic and cognitive demands, and, finally, logistic considerations such as length, legibility, audibility, and quality. Here we present the analysis of two of these texts.

4.3.1 Text 4

This is a combination of a piece of ne= ws and a voucher which talk about an offer launched by a gym, in order to be as fit as a delivery rider, as well as getting a free takeaway meal. The news is relevant to the syllabus and to students as they cover topics of ESP from both Sports Science and Psychology students’ sylla= bus, such as training types and rewarding systems. The intrinsic interest of this topic is related to the degree of similarity with the university degree of = the students. Moreover, takeaway meals are a popular resource among young population, especially during the pandemic caused by the COVID-19. These te= xts are related to an offer launched in a gym in Manchester, United Kingdom. Therefore, the relation to an English-speaking country is considered appropriate culturally. Linguistically, the text requires to know some spec= ific vocabulary about types of workouts and feelings related to exercise and food reward. The tenses used in the text are very varied. Nonetheless, students include the use of the future perfect in their syllabus. The difficulty of = this text resides in the use of a wide range of new vocabulary. Moreover, the le= ngth of the texts is longer than the previous ones used in other sessions. The o= rder of thinking skills which are considered within the cognitive demands corres= pond to remember, understand, apply, analyse, and evaluate. As for the logistic considerations, the length of these texts is like the ones worked in the students’ coursebook (Edwards & Naunton, 2019), which are between three hundred-four hundred words.

4.3.2 Text 5

This is an article from an online heal= th magazine which shows an interview to an NBA basketball player, speaking of = the relevance of mental health in sports. Concerning its relevance, the text co= vers topics of ESP from both Sports Science and Psychology students’ syllabus, s= uch as mental health in men and in sportive people. The intrinsic interest of t= his topic is related to the degree of similarity with the university degree of = the students. Regarding the cultural appropriateness of this text, it has been = extracted from an American magazine. Overall, it is considered of cultural appropriat= e. Moreover, the interview is made to a basketball player from an American lea= gue –NBA. The way this African American is speaking is considered of cultural interest as it shows a different register from the usual one found in the coursebooks. Linguistically, the text shows some characteristic features fr= om vernacular black English and an informal register such as “they don’t hurt”= , “hella important” (Dukoff,= 2021). This can be a challenge to students as it may be the first time, they encou= nter such structures. In this occasion, the cognitive demands included correspon= d to a low order of thinking skills which are remembering and understanding. Finally, considering the logistic features of the text, the length is similar to the ones worked in the students’ coursebook (Edwards and Naunton, 2019), which are between three hundred-four hundred words.

4.3.3. Application

For the application, the same structure was used in every lesson. The activity lasted between fifteen and thirty minutes every time it was done. Students were presented with the topic to be discussed in the form of a pre-reading activity. They did this activity in pairs or groups of three to foster motivation and increase confidence in themselves. This pre-reading activity helped activate previous knowledge ab= out the content and recalling vocabulary that was going to be read later. After that, students were given the text and asked to answer a few questions about its content. The type of questions was open-ended or multiple-choice questi= ons. Finally, students were asked about the content of the text so that they cou= ld provide their opinion freely.

So that materials were attractive, they were presented in PowerPoint presentations where a link to the original sou= rce was provided. That way, students could go straight to the origin and enjoy = the different text-types.

5. FINAL RESULTS

From the application of the didactic proposal, there were many appreciations that could be observed. From the teacher’s perspective, this application was successful as all the activities led to later discussions and debates in English. Moreover, part of the voca= bulary within the syllabus was practised in a more natural environment than a mere= gap filling exercise from a worksheet.

Concerning the texts presented previou= sly, the teacher’s observations are the following ones:

· = 4th text: Twenty-eight students attended the class. There was a lot of participation, especially from the Sports Science studen= ts. Thus, fifteen out of twenty-eight students were highly motivated to participate. The rest were also participative but not as much. They all agr= eed that cycling was a great training, but they did not like the fact that peop= le would associate exercise with takeaway food. Psychology students thought th= at the type of offer in a long-term period would be more prejudicial than bene= ficial for the gym. They ended up discussing which the best takeaway restaurants in Santander were.

· = 5th text: Twenty-nine students attended the lesson. Male students admitted that they had been told not to cry because it was a girl’s thing. They also stated that sometimes it was hard for them to speak-out, especially those from the Sports Science degree as the majority = were men and they were expected to be tough. A good work atmosphere could be appreciated. Psychology students commented that this is a fact they would l= ike to change, and they consider that social awareness is essential. Thus, in general they enjoyed the text and thought it was useful in order to make students conscious of the topic.

In comparison with the coursebook readings, there were other observations worthy to mention. There were three other reading sessions which used the coursebook materials. The methodology followed was a similar one: the session would start with a pre-reading acti= vity in order to activate previous knowledge about the topic, then an individual reading, and finally, some reading comprehension activities. These activities were multiple choice or gap filling exercises. Some students participated in the activities but not all of them formed gro= ups to work on the texts. Some students got distracted and ended up looking at their phones instead of the coursebook. It could be seen that multiple choi= ce questions were discouraging some students to keep participating as they were failing some answers. In general, students seemed not to enjoy printed materials from the book as much as they enjoyed reading from the authentic materials’ PowerPoint presentations.

6. CONCLUSIONS

Regarding the main objective –to desig= n a proposal on the use of authentic materials for working on reading skills, observing students’ participation after its application- it is relevant to say that t= he didactical proposal was successfully designed and applied. Moreover, becaus= e of the direct contact with the study sample, it was possible to observe studen= ts and take note of their participation and thoughts. Concerning this, it would also be interesting to gather students’ perception towards the materials in= a more structured way, such as a questionnaire.

To accomplish the first specific objec= tive -to approach students with a questionnaire in order to<= /span> know their use of authentic texts for reading in English- it is necessary to point out that students stated they would like to use novels or short stori= es. However, because of the already established syllabus it is impossible to fit all the contents within the subject hours. It could be interesting to inclu= de a book or short story reading activity within the continuous evaluation tasks. This cannot be done at the Uneatlantico, since = all the English as a foreign language subjects must follow the academic guideli= ne which is established by a coordinator.

Furthermore, having a look at the seco= nd specific objective -to design and apply a didactic proposal of 15 weeks (February-May) based on the use of authentic materials- students wanted to = use magazines, newspapers, Internet materials and -in a less frequency- brochur= es. All of them were used in the didactic proposal. Thus, it can be considered = that this proposal was designed according to the previous investigation to detect students’ necessities and interests. Something relevant to mention is that, despite videos being discarded at the beginning of the didactic implementat= ion, a clip (Squad3o3, 2022) was used in a pre-reading activity during the third session to comment on the hacking collective Anonymous and its declaration = of cyber war against Russia. Its use was appreciated by students who, after watching, showed great interest in keeping reading different tweets and commenting on the topic proposed. Thus, it might be relevant to consider the mixture of skills during the teaching practice (speaking and listening for example); firstly, because it seems more natural to use different skills altogether rather than separately, and secondly, because students seem to e= njoy it more. Even though the major focus is on just one skill, a combination of several abilities could be adding some more appealing to reading. This may partially contribute to improving reading habits. Furthermore, this lesson = plan is also designed so that it covers some content which corresponds to the syllabus’ English for Specific Purposes. In her study at Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic, Ellederova (2= 021) shows how students would rather use complete materials which worked on seve= ral skills altogether during the same session. Thus, ESP, especially the one designed with the use of authentic materials, should be integrating several skills and not just one so that learning would be developed in a more natur= al context.

From the third specific objective -to gather information about students’ participation in the use of authentic materials for working on reading skills- it was possible to obtain diverse appreciations. In terms of making use of the language, it was very convenient

that students felt comfortable reading= the texts. What is more, they even made the effort to keep searching for extra information on several occasions. Moreover, the use of different and contro= versial topics, such as Ukraine and Russia’s war or mental health in men, brought i= nto the classroom a different atmosphere. This enabled students and teachers to bond on a deeper level making students feel confident about expressing their opinions freely.

This research had some limitations whi= ch are necessary to mention. Concerning the time frame, this didactic applicat= ion was applied within the second academic semester at the Uneatlantico. It would have been interesting to apply this didactic unit throughout the entire academic year and gather students’ opinions afterwards. Basing all t= he English subjects on this methodology, students would benefit from the use of authentic materials and the lecturer could have a more solid idea on studen= ts’ perceptions towards its utilisation in the clas= sroom. That is because, although students have been asked about reading preference= s, it is difficult for the teacher to know this proposed material fulfils lear= ning expectations.

Another limitation was the access to students. Even though this didactic approach was applied in a settled group class, attendance to regular lessons is an issue which may affect a didactic proposal since it is not the same as planning an activity for 40 students t= han for 20. Thus, every educational proposal should have a back-up plan in case= an activity has to be adapted at the moment.

It should also be mentioned that this proposal was applied to a small population. An analysis which could be carr= ied out to a larger sample might throw more significant results. Thus, consider= ing that the major task of design has been carried out, it would be interesting= to apply it in every group of the subject, which altogether correspond to three hundred and twenty-nine students in total. Nonetheless, this would imply involving more teachers and resources.

The major limitation in this type of proposal is the access to tangible authentic materials. Therefore, as a solution, online varied materials were used at all time= s. Nonetheless, the use of realia in the classroom could be a major improvemen= t in the use of authentic materials.

For future applications and future teaching of English as a foreign language and English for Specific Purposes, which may have a good impact on students' performance in English, is the us= e of authentic materials in other skills which are not just reading. Thus, a language tandem partner with English speakers or using a wider range of authentic materials in the lesson plan should be considered.

In conclusion, this article has conclu= ded with interesting results which contributed to the personal and professional development of the researcher. It is not always that a teacher can reflect = upon the materials they are using in a classroom nor students’ opinions. Moreove= r, in a syllabus where everything is already settled, and students are used to working in a certain style, it seems risky to introduce new methodologies. Thus, for the

researcher the present dissertation has been a challenge which, hopefully, means the beginning of a more conscious = way of transmitting the English language at university.

REFERENCES

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APPENDIX<= /o:p>

Give your opinion on reading in Engl= ish.	always	often	sometimes	rarely	never
1. Reading English is important.
2. I like to read in English.=
3. Reading helps me to improve my language proficiency.
4 I usually do not read in English unless I have to.

I would like to use the following materials in class.	always	often	sometimes	rarely	never
27. Short stories.
28. Books.
29. Poems.
30. Magazines.
31. Brochures.
32. Newspapers.
33. Novels.
34. Internet materials.
35. TV or radio programs.
36. Cassettes and videos.

How often do you consume the followi= ng resources in English?	always	often	sometimes	rarely	never
27. Short stories.
28. Books.
29. Poems.
30. Magazines.
31. Brochures.
32. Newspapers.
33. Novels.
34. Internet materials.
35. TV or radio programs.
36. Cassettes and videos.

Table 3. Adapted questionnaire (Abdulhuss= ein, 2014, pp. 339-340)