Teachers’ Beliefs of Authentic Materials for Teaching Reading in Indonesian EFL Classrooms

Abstract

It is believed that authentic reading materials can link students to contextual use of English, as they can improve students’ communicative and cultural competences. Related to point, this is very important to highlight the investigation on teachers’ beliefs about authentic reading materials as it is reflected through the teachers’ expectation and how they manifest them in classroom practices. This is a case study of four teachers who teach English at public senior high school in Samarinda, East Kalimantan. The study explores the beliefs of these teachers about authentic reading materials in their classroom practices. The data were taken from a semi structured interview, classroom observation, and teachers’ written documents. The study revealed that there were three themes of teachers’ beliefs emerged, (1) types of authentic reading materials, (2) skills to be improved after reading, and (3) teachers’ challenges of using authentic reading materials for the classroom-bases. It is noted that teachers did self-adjustment when manifesting their beliefs in classroom activities. In addition, Teachers needs self-management when utilizing authentic materials.