A Study of Authentic Material Developed for an English Training Program in a Workplace Context

Abstract

Addressing authentic material development on learners’ learning process for the workplace context is a beneficial resource for adult learners. This study examined the developing of authentic material for an English training program designed for a workplace context. The participants were a group of engineers from different departments, 20 participants joined in Phase I and 7 participants joined in Phase II. The workplace is an international manufacturer of scroll compressors for air conditioning and refrigeration systems in Rayong, Thailand. As this is a training and development research, the researcher took the role of a program, material designer as well as a trainer. The ADDIE model was used as a training program development framework in two phases to seek confirmation and reliability of the program. Developing different types of authentic training material to address the needs and the contextualization was extracted as the core study in this research article. The study used a meticulous process for selecting articles, work topics, YouTube clips or TED Talks that represented authentic audio-visual material applicable to the work content and target skills which were favorable material enhancing the learners’ learning process cognitively and affectively.