English Teachers’ Perception toward The Use of Authentic Materials in Teaching English at School

This research investigated the English teachers’ perception toward the use of authentic materials in teaching English at school. It aimed at analyzing the evolved information regarding the use of authentic materials in teaching English at school, to investigate why the English teachers use authententic materials in teaching English, and to find out significant information on any challenges of using authentic materials in teaching English. This research employed a qualitative research approach in which its data were qualitatively collected through interview and observation process. This research was conducted at SMAN 1 Tapaktuan, and three English teachers of the school were chosen as participants who participated in the process of collecting data via semi-structured interview and classroom observation by taking field notes. This research found that the English teachers showed positive perceptions and awareness toward the use of authentic materials in teaching English. All of them had used authentic materials in their teaching. The reasons they used authentic materials were due to the materials are real materials, interesting materials, and enjoyable materials that could increase students’ interest, motivation, and enthusiast in learning English. Besides, the majority of the teachers found some challenges in using authentic materials such as the lack of students’ vocabularies mastery, technical problems, a lot of time consuming of using authentic materials, and the lack of teacher’s IT skills in finding any types and sources of authentic materials.