Impact of Locally Written Authentic Material in the Teaching of Reading for First-Year Students

This study aimed at examining the effects of locally written authentic reading materials (LARM) on first-year students at a university in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on their reading comprehension. Thirty-seven first-year students of two English classes took part in the survey. To collect data, a questionnaire adapted from Nuket Gunduz, Deniz Ozcan, Huseyin Uzunboylu (2017) and open-ended questions were delivered to the students at the end of the course. The results revealed that this type of authentic material had positive effects on this group of students. In addition, the findings suggested that traditional textbooks should be supplemented with this type of authentic material. Locally written authentic reading materials in this paper were defined as newspapers and magazines written by local authors, not by native English speakers. This study concluded that this type of authentic material would make positive contributions to the learning of English in higher education in Vietnamese context.