The selected authentic material is a scientific article about the life cycle of butterflies.

It was entitled Butterfly Life Cycle and was hosted by a website with the name of
ButterflyLife.org. It is chosen to focus on the teaching of simple and compound sentences.
The authentic material which has been chosen is fit for the Year 3 students with
intermediate level of proficiency. It is compactible to be used in the teaching and learning
session as it follows the content standard of the English Language in KSSR. The chosen
material also can be utilized in the Year 3 classroom as it is related to the Unit 6 (Pets
World) of Year 3 Malaysia Primary School textbook.
The article of Butterfly Life Cycle was chosen for several reasons. Firstly, it is
because the topic is related to the experience of the students. It is acknowledged that
students learn better when the things been taught in the blackboard can be seen and
sensed through their experience. According to Hansen (2000), the best knowledge is
created through the transformation of experience. Thus, by relating the lesson to the
students daily lives, they will get prior foundation in order to get along with the lesson
progress. Apart from that, the article was also selected as a teaching material as it can
attract the students interest through the use of something new. Everyone knows the
appearance of butterflies, but does everyone know about their life cycle? This question can
increase the curiosity and eagerness of the students in a glance. Thus, it will help to engage
the students actively in the lesson and help the teachers to reach the lesson objective. On
the other hand, the content load of the article is not too heavy, thus made it reasonable to be
used in the classroom. The article only talks about one subject matter, made it easy for the
students to get the idea out of it.
Alas, there are some weaknesses which can be seen in the authentic article of
Butterfly Life Cycle. It is known that the article is a scientific built material. Thus, a big
number of science terms have been used such as oviparous, imago, embryo, molt, and
pupate. The usage of these terms will make it hard for the pupils to get the clue on what the
text is all about. Besides, the author of the article also tends to use passive voice rather than
action voice.

For a Year 3 student with intermediate level of proficiency, it would be

impossible for him or her to comprehend this type of sentences. Robinson (2002) once said,
The passive voice is not to be used to add zip to a sentence. Use the active voice, it zips.
The quotation perfectly describes how passive brings difficulty to the readers in
understanding the text. On the other hand, the article was also written in a complex and long
sentence. It has dispersed from the focus of the teaching which is constructing simple and
compound sentences. Plus, by implying the usage of complex sentences, students will get
demotivated as they cannot process the information out of the text. According to Tomlinson

(1998), a good teaching material will help students feel at ease by looking friendly. However,
the complex and long sentences in the article chosen do not correspond with the
characteristic stated by Tomlinson.
Nothing is perfect. In order to suit to the focus of the lesson, three methods of
adaptation which are adding, deleting or omitting, and simplifying have been implied to the
authentic material. At the first place, a graphic organizer is added to give the students an
early picture of what is going to be learnt before proceeding to the next step. The graphic
organizer with arrows shows the life cycle of butterflies from the earliest stage to the last
stage. This will help the students to have a better understanding. Besides, as the authentic
article is too complex, some of the sentences are omitted to ease the students in
comprehending the text. But, the information and contents are not affected as the omitted
parts only encompassed of irrelevant sentences.

Plus, in order to grab the students

interest, the pictures in the original article are replaced with the more attractive ones. The
new pictures will help the students to get a clearer imagination of the life cycle of butterflies.
Apart from that, the article is also simplified to ease the students. Some of the sentences are
rewritten in shorter length and the number of complex sentences is reduced. Adaptation to
the article was also done by introducing the new vocabularies which the students are not
familiar with. However, the number of them is controlled. Last but not least, the sentences
were also reconstructed from the passive voice to the active voice. This was done to let the
text is easier to be understood.
`

To conclude, the usage of authentic materials such as articles, posters, and recipes

in teaching writing can give the students an opportunity to practice and improve their
language skills. Besides, authentic materials can also be a new medium in strengthening the
communication skills of the learners.

REFERENCES
Brian Tomlinson (1998). Materials development for language learning and teaching. [ONLINE]
Available at: http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk/servlet/file/store7/item6925339/version1/Materials
%2520development%2520for%2520language%2520learning.pdf.
[Last Accessed 1st August 2014].
Hansen, R.E, (2000). The Role of Experience in Learning. Giving Meaning and Authenticity to the
Learning Process in Schools. 11 (2), pp.24
Tom Robinson (2002). 13 Tips For Writing Essay.
[ONLINE] Available at: http://www.uleth.ca/artsci/religious-studies/13-tips-writing-essays. [Last
Accessed 30th July 2014].