The use of authentic materials has been strongly debated because of its complexity in vocabulary and structures
especially for lower-level learners. But Baleghizadeh’s study (2010) showed that the concerns could be
overcome by adequate assistance. The experimental study involved 90 Iranian students in three groups:
simplified text, unsimplified text, and unsimplified texts using an interactive approach with teacher’s facilitation.
The findings demonstrate that reading with a negotiation process in which students could ask questions about
difficult words and text significantly outperformed the other groups, even the group that read simplified texts.
The opportunity to interact with the teacher was proven to be more effective than linguistic simplicity alone.
Baleghizadeh’s study justified the incorporation of authentic reading materials as long as it was accompanied by
the teachers’ facilitation because the argument of linguistic complexity interfering with comprehension can be
easily resolved by teachers’ facilitation and students’ interaction with teachers. Krashen (1982) also weighs in
that the contextualized clues can assist students in comprehending the text and provide extra linguistic
information. Students will pick up word usage, collocation, and syntax while reading. Purcell-Gates, Duke, &
Martineau (2007) discovered positive effects from their large longitudinal study with 420 students receiving
different degrees of authenticity in literary texts and activities that were carefully monitored. They concluded
that more significant growth occurred in the members of the group that utilized texts with greater authenticity
than occurred in the group whose texts had less authenticity. After practicing teaching with authentic materials
for more than a decade, C. Kelly, L. Kelly, Offner, and Vorland (2002) ascertain that real-life materials energize
the class and create positive feelings about learning. They complement classroom teaching well. The positive
feelings can increase students’ interest and intrinsic motivation for learning.