Professional Documents
Culture Documents
III. Sources
for Authentic Materials: (Miller, 2003) Newspapers and Magazines. Radio. Television/ Video. Internet.
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texts:
Learner authenticity means that the learner must discover the conventions of communication in the target language which will enable him or her to gradually come to interpret meaning within the text in ways which are likely to be shared with fluent users of the language. 3. Authenticity of tasks conductive to language learning:
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3 Task authenticity reflects the purpose to which language input is put. It means that the chosen tasks should involve the learners not only in authentic communication with texts and others in the classroom, but also in learning and the purpose of learning. 4. Authenticity of the actual social situation of the language
classroom:
The authenticity of the classroom is a special social event and environment wherein people share a primary communicative purpose that is learning. The authentic role of the language classroom is the provision of those conditions in which the participants can publicly share the problems, achievements and overall process of learning a language together as a social activity. VI. How can speaking and writing activities be authentic? Hedge (2000) indicates that speaking and writing can be authentic if they reflect the relevant criteria for task design discussed earlier, and also mirror the real world purposes and situations in which and for which language is used. Examples of such tasks are: A note to a neighbor apologizing for a noisy party. A letter of complaint about a product to the manufacturer. VII. Arguments for & against the Use of Authentic Materials: Arguments for Using Authentic Materials: Authentic materials have a positive effect on learner motivation. They provide authentic cultural information. They provide exposure to real language. They relate more closely to learners ' needs and interests. They support a more creative approach to teaching. They provide a wide variety of text types, language styles not easily found in conventional teaching materials. Unlike traditional teaching materials, authentic materials are continuously updated. They have a positive effect on comprehension and learner satisfaction. (Kilickaya, 2004; Mcknight, 1995; Wong, Kwok, & Choi, 1995; Berado, 2006) Arguments against Using Authentic Materials: Authentic materials often contain difficult language, unneeded vocabulary items and complex language structures, which causes a burden for the teacher in lower-level classes and demotivate low level students. Authentic materials may be too culturally biased. Many structures are mixed in such materials; causing lower levels have a hard time decoding the texts. The use of authentic materials is time consuming for the teachers.
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Authentic materials may not expose students to comprehensible input at the earliest stages of acquisition. (Guariento & Morley, 2001; Martinez, 2002; Kim, 2000)
VIII. What Can Be Done to Overcome the Difficulties we Face in Integrating Authentic Materials in the Language Classroom? Simplification of the texts. Design tasks for partial comprehension. (Berardo, 2006; Guariento & Morley, 2001) IX. Authenticity in the Saudi Context:
Mrs. May (a supervisor of the English department at a private school in Riyadh) I wish that authentic materials can be used in our schools since they connect the students with the real language. However, I suspect that the students can handle such materials because of their low English level. I think that we first need some improvements in our foreign language teaching plans, and then we can think of such an excellent technique. References: Adams, T. (1995). What Makes Materials Authentic? (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 391389). Bacon, S., & Finneman, M. (1990). A study of attitudes, motives, and strategies of university foreign language students and their disposition to authentic oral and written input. Modern Language Journal, 74(4), 459-73. Baird, K., & Redmond, M, (Eds.). (2004). The use of authentic materials in the K-12 french program. Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University, Department of Education. Berardo, S. (2006). The use of authentic materials in the teaching of reading. The Reading Matrix, 6 (2), 60-69. Breen, M. (1985). Authenticity in the language classroom. Applied Linguistics 6, 60-70. Guariento, W., & Morley. (2001). Text and task authenticity in the EFL classroom. ELT Journal, 55 (4), 347 - 353. Hedge, T. (2000). Teaching and Learning in the language Classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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5 Jacobson, E., Degener, S., & Purcell-Gates, V. (2003). Creating Authentic Materials and Activities for the Adult Literacy Classroom: a handbook for Practitioners. NCSALL. Kilickaya. F. (2004). Authentic materials and cultural content in EFL classrooms. The Internet TESL Journal, 10 (7). Retrieved November 1, 2006 from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kilickaya-AutenticMaterial.html Kim, D. (2000). A qualitative approach to the authenticity in the foreign language classroom: a study of university students learning English in Korea. Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education, 5 (1), 189-205. Lee, W. (1995). Authenticity revisited: text authenticity and learner authenticity. ELT Journal, 49 (4), 323-328. Macdonald, M., Badger, R., & White, G. (2000). The real thing?: authenticity and academic listening. English for Specific Purposes, 19, 253-267. Martinez, A. (2002). Authentic materials: An overview. Karen's Linguistic Issues. Retrieved October 25, 2006 from http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/authenticmaterials.html Mcknight, A. (1995). Pragmatics and TESOL: Using Authentic Language Data. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the MELTA International Conferencein Innovations in Approaches to the Teaching and Learning of English, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. McNeill, A. (1994). What Makes Authentic Materials Different? The Case of English Language Materials for Educational Television. Papers presented at the Annual International Language in Education Conference, Hong Kong. Miller, L. (2003). Developing listening skills with authentic materials. ESL Magazine, 6 (1), 16-19. Miller, M. (2005). Improving aural comprehension skills in EFL, using authentic materials: an experiment with university students in Nigata, Japan. Unpublished masters thesis, University of Surrey, Australia. Taylor, D. (1994). Inauthentic authenticity or authentic inauthenticity? TESL-EJ, 1(2). Retrieved November 1, 2006 from http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESLEJ/ej02/a.1.html Wong, V., Kwok, P., & Choi, N. (1995). The use of authentic materials at tertiary level. EFL Journal, 49 (4). 318-322.
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Enas I. Al-Musallam