Authenticity in ELT
Practical ideas for
developing students’
oral skills
Sixth National Deans’ Forum on the
Teaching of English Majors
Changchun
Sue Kay
Authenticity
A classroom text is authentic if it was originally
written for a non-classroom audience.
The notion of authenticity was originally
introduced to distinguish between artificially
simplified texts and unmodified ‘real’ texts.
However there has been a backlash against the
authenticity movement. The fact that classroom
interactions are artificial (by the standards of non-classroom
contexts) may actually be based on good sense.
Learning a language requires that the content of instruction
should be modified in ways that make it
more accessible to learners.
Scott Thornbury, An A-Z of ELT
This talk
Authentic material
Choosing engaging content.
Adapting texts so that they are accessible
and useful as language input.
Authentic interaction
Creating conditions for students to use
natural language in meaningful contexts.
Authentic tasks
Speaking activities that encourage students
to talk about things they are likely to talk about
outside the classroom.
Authentic material
Choosing engaging content.
Adapting texts so that they are accessible
and useful as language input.
Engaging content
“The truth of the matter is that about
___% of teaching is making the
students feel interested in the material.
Then the other ___% has to do with
your methods.”
Noam Chomsky
Engaging content
“The truth of the matter is that about
99% of teaching is making the
students feel interested in the material.
Then the other 1% has to do with
your methods.”
Noam Chomsky
Engaging content
New Inside Out Beginner
Engaging content
MAN :Time 6 minutes. Spends $35
WOMAN :Time 3 hours 26 minutes. Spends $890
New Inside Out Elementary
Engaging content
New Inside Out Elementary
Engaging content
New Inside Out Intermediate
Engaging content
New Inside Out Upper Intermediate
Why authentic texts?
Interest-raising.
Motivating.
Show language as it is really used
in all its richness and complexity.
Prepare students for the real world.
Increases the chances of eliciting genuine
responses.
Choosing an authentic text
1
Is it interesting?
If the interest of students is not engaged,
the learning process is unlikely to get off
the ground at all.
Professor H.G. Widdowson 2003
Choosing an authentic text
2 Is there anything in this text that my
students can relate to their own lives?
We believe our job as teachers is to concentrate on
how our students speak and write. This can be achieved
when what they speak and write about is part of
their life experience. It is much more difficult to achieve
when the topic of the lesson is alien
to students – something they have
never considered before.
New Inside Out Teacher’s book
Choosing an authentic text
3 Can they learn something about
the language?
BUT
Texts written merely to include examples of a given
grammatical structure are often boring to read and
unconvincing as discourse.
SO
A solution is to base reading texts on authentic modern
sources and where necessary, edit and grade them to make
them challenging without being impossible.
Adapting an authentic text
A principled approach to choosing and
adapting authentic texts.
We might say that in the context
of the classroom, appropriate language
is language that learners can appropriate.
Professor H.G. Widdowson, 2003
Choosing an authentic text
The Guggenheim museum, Bilbao, Spain
Adapting an authentic text
ORIGINAL TEXT
If, as a native of Bilbao, you had happened to see a balding, middle-aged American in trainers
and sweatpants jogging past the Jesuit university along the banks of the Nervion
early one morning in April 1991, you might, quite reasonably, have shrugged your Basque
shoulders and said to yourself, “Crazy Yankee”. And you would have been half right.
We will never quantify exactly what jogging has done for western civilisation, but one thing is
certain. If Thomas Krens, the newly appointed director of the Solomon R Guggenheim
Foundation, had not gone jogging that April morning six years ago, his brainchild
the Bilbao Guggenheim – a titanium-clad, post-modern, space-age museum that has the
world’s architectural community in a tizzy of excitement – would almost certainly never have
been built.
In years to come this will no doubt seem a quite extraordinary thought. From the moment you
leave Bilbao airport and wind past the desolation of contemporary highway construction,
through the green hills of northern Spain towards the ochre-brown 19th-century jumble of
Bilbao, the barely completed museum can be glimpsed in the distance, a shiny, modern toy,
half Martian space-craft, half Californian Bacofoil fantasy, surrounded by hideous urban sprawl.
What on earth, you might not unreasonably ask, possessed the Guggenheim Museum to come
to a place like Bilbao?
The answer goes something like this.
Adapting an authentic text
ADAPTED TEXT
If, as a native of Bilbao, you had happened to see a balding, middle-aged American in trainers
and sweatpants jogging past the Jesuit university along the banks of the Nervion
early one morning in April 1991, you might, quite reasonably, have shrugged your Basque
shoulders and said to yourself, “Crazy Yankee”. And you would have been half right.
We will never quantify exactly what jogging has done for western civilisation, but one thing is
certain. If Thomas Krens, the newly appointed director of the Solomon R Guggenheim
Foundation, had not gone jogging that April morning six years ago, his brainchild
the Bilbao Guggenheim – a titanium-clad, post-modern, space-age museum that has the
world’s architectural community in a tizzy of excitement – would almost certainly never have
been built.
In years to come this will no doubt seem a quite extraordinary thought. From the moment you
leave Bilbao airport and wind past the desolation of contemporary highway construction,
through the green hills of northern Spain towards the ochre-brown 19th-century jumble of
Bilbao, the barely completed museum can be glimpsed in the distance, a shiny, modern toy,
half Martian space-craft, half Californian Bacofoil fantasy, surrounded by hideous urban sprawl.
What on earth, you might not unreasonably ask, possessed the Guggenheim Museum to come
to a place like Bilbao?
The answer goes something like this.
Adapting an authentic text
ADAPTED TEXT
If Thomas Krens, the newly appointed director of the
Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation, had not gone
jogging one April morning in 1991, his brainchild the
Bilbao Guggenheim – a metallic, post-modern, spaceage museum – would almost certainly never have been
built.
From the moment you leave Bilbao airport and
wind through the green hills of northern Spain towards
the ochre-brown 19th-century city of Bilbao, the museum
can be glimpsed in the distance, like a shiny, modern toy,
surrounded by hideous urban sprawl. What on earth
possessed the Guggenheim Museum to come to a place
like Bilbao? The answer goes something like this.
90% high frequency words
Authentic interaction
Creating conditions for students to use
natural language in meaningful contexts.
Authentic interaction
A-Z of ELT, Scott Thornbury
Finally, the term authentic has been used to characterize
a quality of classroom interaction – one which reflects the
structures of real talk as opposed to traditional classroom
talk. Advocates of this kind of authenticity reject
conventional exchanges of the type :
Teacher Have I a nose on my face?
Student Yes you have.
Teacher Good.
Authentic interaction
1
Replace the underlined words and phrases in the
sentences a-g with words and phrases from the article.
a)
To get from the airport to Bilbao you meander through the green hills of northern
Spain.
As you approach Bilbao, the Guggenheim is just visible in the distance.
In some parts of the city you can find examples of nasty, unplanned development.
Recently some famous architects were paid to design important new buildings.
The semi-derelict waterfront zone is the perfect place for a big new building.
The Guggenheim is impossible to miss in Bilbao. It can be seen from everywhere.
The Bilbao Guggenheim is an incredible art museum and deserves a visit.
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
2
Work with your partner. Adapt each sentence to describe your
own city or a city you know well.
Authentic interaction
4 Work with your partner. Decide which is the best and which is the worst
restaurant in your area. Give reasons for your choices.
Authentic interaction
1
Look at the following statements about Emma Bunton’s childhood.
Are they true or false?
a) Emma’s mother was a better cook than her father.
b) Her family used to enjoy eating new things.
c) She went to Spain when she was about six.
d) Her mother still cooks peas for her.
e) She often went to restaurants with her family.
f) In restaurants Emma and her brother would always
have one plate between them.
g) Her father often made shepherd’s pie.
h) Her family would eat around a table every night.
i) She would have lunch at her grandmother’s house on Sundays.
j) She eats whatever she wants these days.
2
Rewrite the sentences in Exercise 2 in the first person. Change the information
so that the sentences are true for you. Compare with your partner.
a) My mother was a better cook than my father.
Authentic interaction
3
Which descriptions could you use to describe people you know?
Tell your partner.
Authentic interaction
Vocabulary
1Complete the statements with the words below:
dating
dreams
love
propose
relationships
sight
split up
a)I don’t believe in love at first __________ .
b)Online _________ is the best way to find a new partner.
c)A man should _________ to a woman. It isn’t natural for a woman to ask a man
to marry her.
d)A marriage is more likely to succeed if both partners have had ________ before
getting married.
e)People don’t usually marry the man or woman of their ________.
f)Couples soon _________ and go their separate ways if they don’t have anything
in common.
2
Work with a partner. Which statements in Exercise 1 do you agree with?
Relate them to a
partner
Relate the
sentences
to yourself
Re-write the
statements so that
they are true for
you?
Ask your partner
the questions.
Getting a
personal
response
Relate them to
people you
know
Which
descriptions
could you use
to describe
people you
know?
Relate them to your
environment
Give your opinion
Is it the same or different in your
home / school / city / country?
Do you agree with
the statements?
Authentic interaction ...
… is when students engage in activities on a
personal level rather than just ‘going through
the motions’.
It is the need to get meanings across and the pleasure
experienced when this is achieved that motivates
second language acquisition.
Rod Ellis,1997
Authentic tasks
Speaking activities that encourage students
to talk about things they are likely to talk about
outside the classroom.
Authentic tasks : anecdotes
ANECDOTE “A story that you tell people about something
interesting or funny that has happened to you.”
Authentic tasks : anecdotes
PREPARATION AND PLANNING
Think about the last time you had a delicious meal. You’re going to tell
your partner about it.
Think about WHAT to say and HOW to say it.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
When did you have the meal?
What was the occasion?
Where did you have the meal?
How many people were there?
Who did you sit next to?
What did you eat?
How long did you stay round the table?
Did you have a good time?
Anecdote task cycle
1. Choose global topics that everybody can relate to
2. Allow sufficient preparation time
a) to enable students to access their ‘memory bank’
b) to think about the language they will need
3. Monitor students and give feedback
4. Provide opportunities for students to listen to a
proficient speaker doing the same anecdote
5. Give students the chance to repeat the same
anecdote with a new partner
Anecdote tasks
Think about your favourite school subject.
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What was your favourite subject at school?
Why did you particularly like this subject?
What was the teacher’s name?
What did she or he look like?
Why were his or her lessons special?
How many hours did you have a week?
Did you learn anything which is useful to you today?
Giovanni’s anecdote
Take 1
Giovanni speaks to Ahmed about
his favourite subject at school.
Take 2
Giovanni repeats the anecdote
with a new partner, Tomo.
Anecdote tasks - repetition
Take 1
Because the teacher… the name was… the name it was called Maria,
Maria… was very beautiful woman.
Take 2
I think it was my favourite subject because the teacher was very beautiful.
Take 1
The classroom is very very funny because all student want to speak and
there are a lot of discussion… no?
Take 2
We had a lot of fun in the class and all the people argue about a lot
of things… no?
Take 1
er…
Take 2
It’s good also because in my class twenty women and four boys… nice
Take 1
268 words in 3 minutes 13 seconds
Take 2
315 words in 2 minutes 27 seconds
Anecdote tasks - repetition
“…getting the learners to repeat the task is a way of
producing more grammatically complex language.
Having done the activity once – as a kind of
rehearsal – learners now have more spare
attention to devote to the form of their output.”
Thornbury, S. (2001) Uncovering Grammar, Macmillan
Authentic tasks
Anecdote topics in New Inside Out Upper Intermediate:
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A person who made a big impression on you.
Somebody’s home you have stayed in.
Your most treasured possession.
A challenge you have faced.
A wedding you have been to.
Your favorite restaurant.
A childhood family holiday.
The most positive (or negative) person you know.
Your favourite historic place.
A blockbuster film you have seen.
Your favourite room.
Authentic
The best role students can play in
the classroom is themselves.
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It focuses on the topic they know most about
It helps facilitate positive group dynamics
It brings humour into the classroom
It adds an element of surprise
It makes language learning memorable
It mirrors ‘real’ language use outside the
classroom