The effectiveness of Authentic Materials For Reading Comprehension of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Students

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of using authentic materials on ESP students in reading comprehension. The participants of this study were the second semester students. Purposive sampling technique was used in this study. The participants were divided into two groups, the experimental was 30 students and the control group was 30 students. This study used quasi-experimental research. The instrument used in collecting data was multiple choice test. The total items of the test were 20 items. The finding shows that a mean score of 29.87 on the pre-test and 52.07 on the post-test reading through authentic materials can help students become more proficient readers, particularly in areas such as identifying primary ideas, supporting details, factual interactions, topic-related vocabulary, pronouncing references, and word meaning recognition. It shows that the hypothesis alternative (ha) was accepted. As conclusion that using authentic materials has positive effect of the students’ reading comprehension of English for specific purposes (ESP) class at UKI Paulus Makassar.


INTRODUCTION
The majority of people recognize English as an international language (Sujarwo,et al., 2023;Sukmawati, et al., 2023).It is one of the most helpful languages for people to converse with people in other nations worldwide (Jubhari et al., 2022).The 126|Page growth of the nation and its citizens depends on the teaching and study of English (Hayikaleng, 2019).When compared to other curricular courses (Sukmawati, Syam et al., 2023), English is one of the hardest.The four language skills-listening, speaking, reading, and writing-are used during the teaching and learning process.Reading comprehension is one of the most important abilities employed by second language learners.Because Indonesian students are uninterested in learning English, teaching English is a difficult undertaking (Febriati et al., 2022;Sarmila, et al., 2023).To get better results in the learning process, students must read a lot and comprehend the reading material.Writing ability and vocabulary can both be enhanced by reading comprehension.Nuttall (2018) identifies four components of reading comprehension that students should master: identifying the main idea, locating specific information (scanning), drawing conclusions, and deciphering the meaning of words or detail information that present challenges for the student.These elements are thought to present challenges for the pupils in terms of understanding the text (Rahmawati, 2023).Reading is more than just matching together letters, words, and sentences correctly so that you may build your understanding of what you read from word to phrase to sentence.In order to forecast what will happen next in the text and how a new, unknown piece of information will relate to what they already know (Sujarwo et al., 2022), readers employ their own schemas (Sasabone, & Pongpalilu, 2022).Learning reading skills is an important element in English because it can determine a person's ability to understand and master English language practices (Maruf & Anjely, 2020).As a skill, the procedures or stages of the skill must be passed sequentially and structured so that progress in learning is in accordance with the correct stages (Macwan, 2015).Learning a language is not instantaneous and can be mastered and understood correctly because it requires continuous practice until it is correct and precise (Cahyaningsih, & Mujiyanto, 2019).Because the reader integrates knowledge from the printed page to what they already know, reading is an interactive activity.Because it necessitates the simultaneous use of multiple skills, reading is also interactive (Mara & Mohamad, 2021).However, the teaching of ESP (English for Specific Purposes), another component of English Language Teaching (ELT), is in high demand due to a number of causes, including the progressive globalization of the economy (Sasabone et al., 2021;Amaliah et al., 2022).It has been believed that English language teaching (ELT) encompasses a distinct activity called English for Specific Purposes (ESP) instruction (Fitria, 2019).The dynamics of English in higher education can be gauged by looking at two things at least: studying English for Academic Purposes (EAP), which is based on scientific disciplines or study programs, and studying English for Occupation (EOP), which is oriented towards professional or occupational interests.As previously indicated, both are integrated into English for Specific Purposes (ESP), one of the most popular academic learning methodologies in higher education for learning English (Luo & Garner, 2017).
ESP is focused on training.English is meant to be used in certain contexts, selection of appropriate content is easier (but not 'easy' in itself) (Sofyan, 2016).Also International businesses increasingly require a bi-or multi-lingual workforce, with English as one of the working languages.The demands of vocational training for employment have necessitated ESP teaching in universities world-wide, including programs across English-medium institutions (Luo & Garner, 2017).However, accounting students' English competence should be enhanced, notably in terms of vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension (Navarro et al., 2015).
The English language teaching process at Universitas Kristen Paulus Makassar is expected to be communicative and functional, and English teachers and lecturers are expected to instill reading comprehension in English as a foreign language in accounting students.This is evident from the above-mentioned research results regarding English teaching and learning.Students studying accounting should be able to speak and understand English so they may get work in Indonesia and around the world.Using authentic materials helps students, which appears to be a wonderful way to help them get better at reading (Mara & Mohamad, 2021).Students who are exposed to authentic materials are more likely to be interested in reading and to engage in it with greater enthusiasm (Berardo, 2021).Realistic resources, like textbooks, are useful in schools for motivating pupils to read in accordance with their needs and requirements.These include peer-to-peer learning, a lack of support and encouragement from their familial environment, and a lack of interest in the language itself.As a result, students are unable to acquire the English language primarily by reading.
On authentic tasks and content, authentic learning is predicated.Authentic tasks are those that are engaging, dynamic, relevant to everyday life, and studentcentered (Guo, 2012).The real substance that is used for these jobs has the same characteristics (Boyaci & Güner, 2018).With the help of authentic materials, students can be scaffolded from reading assignments in the classroom to texts (Sukmawati, 2020), they will come across and abilities they will require outside of the classroom (Srinivas Rao, 2019).For instructional environments that might not have an abundance of teaching materials, authentic items-such as old receipts, tickets, brochures, and notes that are lying around most people's homes or classroomsare also helpful (Gavell, 2021).The broader context of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) must be considered while evaluating accounting students, as all ESP fields of work share crucial traits such as needs analysis, syllabus design, course design, and material selection and development.Similar to previous ESP variations, Accounting English emphasizes particular reading kinds in particular contexts and uses a particular language corpus.It was noted, nonetheless, that the combination of general and specialized information in accounting English sets it apart from other ESP variants.
128|Page It is agreed that the most primary account of ESP is that any decision made in designing language teaching programs should hinge on the learners' needs for learning English.Related to this, the word -specific‖ in ESP has different interpretation along with the development of this area for accounting students of Universitas Kristen Paulus Makassar.

METHOD
The experimental quantitative research method is used in this study.Two distinct groups-the experimental group, which included 26 students, and the control group, which also included students-were studied in the experimental investigation (Mills, Geoffrey E.;Gay, 2019).The experimental group used authentic materials, while the control group used non-authentic items.The research design is shown.
Purposive sampling was used in this study since the subject matter is thought to be too large for a single investigation (Creswell, 2021).In this instance, the research sample consisted of 52 students.As a result, the researcher separated the students into two groups: the experimental group (26 students) and the control group (26 students).
A multiple-choice test was employed as the instrument in this study to collect data.News was obtained from various magazines were utilized as legitimate materials in the media that served as the source of the data.The test comprised of twenty items, with four options (a, b, c, and d) for each item.The test of validity and reliability were established in order to validate the study instrument.Before they were utilized to obtain reliable data for a study, these two requirements had to be met by a test.A measurement of validity is one that demonstrates a high degree of capacity (Leavy, 2017).The validity of the test is being answered by 52 students in the second semester at Universitas Kristen Paulus Makassar.The researcher employed the correlation product moment from the significant group to assess the test's validity.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION
The result of the test focused mainly on the students' individual score; it indicated the ability of each student in reading comprehension of English as Specific Purposes (ESP) by using authentic materials in accounting study program UKIP Pauluas Makassar.Students took the reading comprehension exam both before and after the empirical procedure.The results of the reading comprehension pre-test showed that there was no statistically significant difference (p>.05) between the students in the experiment and control groups.The reading comprehension post-test scores of the students in the experiment and control groups were compared using a t-test to see if there was a significant difference.The results are shown in Table 1.Displays the findings of an independent samples t-test on the reading comprehension posttest scores of students in the control and experiment groups.Based on table above, it can be seen that the t value was -7.558 with a significance value of t (sig) 0,000 < 0.05 then, this shows that there is a significant difference.In other words, accept the alternative hypothesis ( ) and reject the null hypothesis ) to test.Based on these results, it can be claimed that English language materials using authentic materials had a positive impact on the students' development of reading comprehension abilities.Based on table above show that the experimental group in students perform better in terms of reading comprehension.They had a mean score of 29.87 on the pre-test and 52.07 on the post-test.By achieving an average score of 52.07 on the post-test reflecting their reading comprehension achievement, they might surpass their pretest score.There were other factors that had a substantial impact on the post-test score improvement.First of all, since they have never experienced it before, the use of real text in the treatment may be intriguing.Some of the students in the experimental group lack motivation, much like the students in the control group, but if the learning process improves, their motivation may rise or at least hold steady.Esp students can prevent becoming bored.Second, the qualities of real texts help to raise student engagement, which is crucial for learning.
The mean score of the students in the experimental and control groups is found to differ significantly.The null hypothesis, which read, "There is a significant difference in achievement between students who are taught using authentic texts and those who are taught using non-authentic texts," was thus rejected as a result of the experimental group's gain score.Stated otherwise, the study's hypothesis is supported.This indicates that teaching reading using authentic texts was much more successful than teaching with non-authentic texts, particularly when it came to increasing students' reading comprehension of narrative and descriptive texts.Some results of study found that It has been shown that using authentic materials to teach reading comprehension increases students' proficiency in this area (Islam & Santoso, 2018).Reviews have been conducted, and the majority of researchers in earlier studies assert that authentic materials positively impact pupils' reading proficiency.To ensure that their students will be proficient readers in the future, English teachers should always be aware of what their pupils need to read (Islam & Santoso, 2018).Using English authentic reading materials had a substantial impact on the eighth grade students' reading comprehension achievement at SMA N 1 Tanjung Balai (Rahmawati, 2023).
In line with the other study conveyed that using real materials is one technique to improve comprehension in reading among pupils.To get students to focus on the English lesson, teachers should employ a different pedagogy when teaching the language.Vocabulary is necessary for reading comprehension in order to comprehend the reading text, and using real materials in the classroom helps, as the schema theory explains (Hayikaleng, 2019).
In the context of teaching English in Indonesia both at secondary and tertiary school levels, particularly for non-English department students, ESP approach has been commonly applied.This is in accordance with the Government policy on Education that emphasizes the goal of teaching English at tertiary school level, especially for non-English department students, is to improve their ability to use English for academic and professional purposes, especially for reading their textbooks in their academic work.This implies that in the English language 131|Page instruction, reading skill has been given the greatest prominence for helping students to learn effectively in their field of study university students of accounting of UKI Paulus Makassar.The current study, which examined the efficacy of utilizing real texts to teach reading comprehension, discovered that using real texts that were descriptive and recounted increased students' reading comprehension, as seen by the increase in their score.As a result, the research's conclusions close a gap in the understanding of authentic texts and lend credence to other broad discoveries about the effectiveness of authentic assessments.The aforementioned researchers' findings, in turn, shed light on potential explanations for the effectiveness of authentic texts in the current study.

CONCLUSION
It is clear from the study problem and the data analysis results that students who are taught by using authentic materials have significantly greater reading comprehension scores than students who are taught with non-authentic texts.
Additionally, reading through authentic materials can help students become more proficient readers, particularly in areas such as identifying primary ideas, supporting details, factual interactions, topic-related vocabulary, pronouncing references, and word meaning recognition.The selection of articles is restricted to descriptive and narrative texts that correspond with the task proficiency of students studying English for Specific Purposes (ESP).Students can also practice scanning and skimming by using real texts.
As recommendation for further researchers to conduct the other research by using the other kinds of authentic materials, using larger sample and different research location.