Using Authentic Material to Develop Students' Critical Reading Ability

摘要

Having a critical reading ability is crucial for students to survive the modern societies. Especially now with the massive development of technologies and internet, we can easily access information produced elsewhere in the world. However, it makes us faced with a new challenge. The information we found on the internet can be incomplete, unnecessary, and written by unknown person. Therefore, teachers need to help students to be a critical reader. Critical reading primarily requires a reader to employ critical thinking skills, which is accepted as the skill of 21th century, while reading a text. One of a way to teach critical reading is by using authentic materials. Authentic material can help students gain real information and know what is going on in the world around them. However, authentic material also has its own complexity. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the problem teachers usually faced when using authentic material in the classroom. This study was conducted as descriptive qualitative research. The subjects were three English teachers in Medan and the instruments was an interview guide. The results highlight a number of implications and recommendations for future research.