Use of Authentic Texts in L2 Teaching in Finland : A Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

This thesis inquires into the use of authentic target language texts in second and foreign language classrooms in Finland. The aim of this thesis is to examine what types of authentic texts teachers in Finnish primary and secondary schools use and how often they use them. The study also delves into how teachers perceive the use of authentic texts outside coursebooks and textbooks considering practical issues and how they view the texts’ effects on their students’ language learning. The use of authentic texts is studied from the teachers’ perspective through a concurrent combination of a questionnaire with 154 responses and eight semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The questionnaire data were mostly analyzed quantitatively utilizing descriptive statistics. Open-ended questions and interview data were analyzed employing data-driven qualitative content analysis. To measure the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach’s alpha of each Likert scale question was calculated in IBM SPSS Statistics. The vast majority of second and foreign language teachers in Finnish primary and secondary school reported using authentic texts outside coursebooks and textbooks in their teaching. The results show that teachers use several types of authentic texts, the most common ones being websites, songs and vlogs or videos, which teachers reported using often. The majority of teachers supported the use of authentic texts in second and foreign language classrooms and believed that they enrich classroom input. Authentic texts were seen to be beneficial to all of the students’ four basic language skills, but receptive skills more than productive and written rather than oral. The results of the study imply that teachers believe students should be exposed to authentic texts at all levels of proficiency and that they have positive perceptions on the use of authentic texts in second and foreign language classrooms, although not entirely without difficulty. To facilitate the use of authentic texts in second and foreign language classrooms, teachers could be provided with resources and training on how to effectively find, evaluate and incorporate authentic texts into their teaching. Furthermore, the results of the current study encourage materials developers to include authentic texts in teaching materials at all levels of proficiency. Future research could tap into the learner perspective and experiment the use of authentic texts with pedagogical interventions. Such research could provide useful information for teachers, teacher trainers and materials developers alike.