Browsing by Author "Aho, Maria"

The aim of this thesis was to explore the rate at which teachers are currently using authentic material to teach Italian as a foreign language to Finnish pupils and what are the effects of authentic material on pupils’ progress both in oral and written skills. The results were recorded solely from the point of view of the teachers seeing as the method of the study was the sending of a questionnaire to Italian teachers who teach Italian as a foreign language to Finnish students. The responses were then collected, analysed and drawn conclusions from. The questionnaire yielded both quantitative results in which the types of authentic material were used and how often were recorded. Additionally a % of teachers who believed that authentic material should become a staple in the foreign language teaching curriculum was also recorded. On top of this, the questionnaire gave qualitative insight into the attitudes that teachers show towards the usage and results of authentic material during teaching and learning Italian as a foreign language. Before the thesis tackled the research part of the study it also gave a literary review on the background of language teaching in order to explain the origins and reasons for emergence of authentic materials in language teaching. It is important to note that the research paper was executed during the pandemic and material, which could be found was limited due to restrictions. Also the research was conducted differently to the original plan, also due to restrictions. Instead of focusing not the specific results that pupils obtain from different sources of authentic materials it had to be limited to existing teaching methods, which were analysed through a sent out questionnaire as previously stated.