Authentic materials in classroom: A case study on students of faculty of social sciences – Kuwait University

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of authentic materials on the motivation of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Kuwait University. The target population is male and female students of two intermediate levels at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Kuwait University. All students received both artificial and authentic materials. Data from two observation sheets as well as self-report questionnaires showed that on-task behavior and observed motivation increased when authentic materials were used, but selfreported motivation increased for all classes only in the last two to three weeks of the experiment. On the other hand, students believe that artificial materials are more enjoyable than authentic materials. The result of this experiment generally found that artificial materials are more interesting than authentic materials.