THE EFFECT OF AUTHENTIC MATERIALS ON STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS AND PERCEPTION: THE CASE OF ARBA MINCH UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY SCHOOL GRADE 10 STUDENTS

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of authentic materials on students' speaking skills and perceptions of Arba Minch university community school grade 10 students. The study used quasi-experimental design to investigate the effects on intact groups. The participants of the study were 60 students who were enrolled in December 2020. Among them, 30 students were in an experimental group, and the rest 30 students were in a control group. Tests and questionnaires were used as a data collection instrument. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. The result of the study showed that although there was no significant difference between experimental and control group results in terms of sub skills of speaking before treatments, the experimental group demonstrated significantly higher results than control groups after treatment. Similarly, the result also showed that after treatment, experimental group has shown a significant change on their perceptions of learning speaking skills. Finally, that study concluded that authentic materials have a positive effect on students' speaking skills and their perce