In-service and pre-service English teachers' challenges in selecting authentic material

The notion of incorporating Authentic Material in the teaching and learning process has become more popular among educators in recent years. This type of material provides many advantages. Nonetheless, it also provides drawbacks. One of them is that some Indonesian English teachers face challenges in finding and selecting authentic material that fits their students and teaching context. This research has the purpose of looking into the differences in the challenges faced by in-service English teachers and pre-service English teachers in selecting authentic material and investigating the strategies to cope with such challenges. A qualitative study was used to answer the proposed research questions. This study interviewed four in-service English teachers of MTsN 2 Kota Kediri and four pre-service English teachers of the English Education Department UINSA. The finding reported that there is a different result between in-service and pre-service English teachers. In-service English teachers faced no challenge in selecting Authentic Material, while pre-service English teachers faced understanding the students and identifying suitable Authentic Material/suitable part of Authentic Material to achieve lesson outcomes and students’ needs as their challenges. To cope with such challenges, the English teacher also has some strategies to do. Furthermore, it may be inferred from the finding that the distinction happened due to the teachers’ experiences. Nevertheless, every teacher also has strategies to fix the challenge that they face.