1. The Effect of Using Authentic English Cultural Content Materials on the Secondary Schools Students’ Achievement in Jordan
- Author
-
Ahmad Bataineh
- Subjects
secondary school ,achievement ,authentic content ,authentic English ,socio-cultural ,effect ,Philosophy. Psychology. Religion - Abstract
This study deals with the impact of using authentic socio – cultural elements on the performance of EFL learners. Unfortunately, few studies have been conducted in Jordan concerning this issue though the interest in it has been for a long time at world – wide level. As a result, the researcher intends to carry out an investigation of this to find out the effect of including such aspects on the performance of the Jordanian EFL learners. For the sake of carrying out the present study and fulfilling its aims, the following hypothesis is proposed: 'Foreign language learners of English in Jordan face difficulties in handling language effectively when they are put in real life situations based on the authintic culture of the foreign language". A number of procedures have been adopted to achieve this aim and to confirm the supposed hypothesis: a- assessing the effect of such content on students' performance by administering a battery of tests. b- preparing written and oral achievement tests loaded with unauthentic socio- cultural elements, and other tests loaded with authentic socio- cultural elements of the target language in order to measure their over all ability to act effectively in the target language. The raw scores of the examinees can be invested to emphasize the workability of the view that language and its socio- cultural content are inseparable. After treating the raw scores statistically, the researcher has found that the total average of all skills shows a significant difference in performance. All these findings confirm the hypotheses which read, "Foreign language learners in Jordan face difficulties in handling language effectively when they are put in situations based on the authentic culture of the language". This could be an indirect suggestion for textbooks writers to take such integration into consideration the time they sit to decide the content of foreign language syllabi, in the sense that it should by purposefully chosen.
- Published
- 2011