國立瑞芳高工九十三學年度英語科專題報告
查獻瑞
Authenticity in the Language Classroom:
The Implication in Vocational Schools
In Breen’s article “Authenticity in the Language Classroom” he mentioned
about the exactness of authenticity.
And it is truly a crucial issue in terms of
language learning, for example, using authentic material.
questions for consideration. What is an authentic text?
For what authentic purposes?
The author raised four
For whom is it authentic?
In which particular social situation of the classroom?
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the current language teaching in
vocational high schools really fits for the needs of vocational high school students.
Therefore, it is necessary to answer the above four questions in order to unfold the
result.
The first two questions to answer are what an authentic text is and for whom it
is authentic. The text here means the input data, such as textbooks, supplementary
materials, and so on. The current input data in most general vocational high schools
are no more than a textbook, a workbook, and a grammar reference book.
The input
data are, unfortunately, not authentic. They are edited by a sequence of difficulty or
behavioral objectives.
Because the input data are not taught in terms of the needs of
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students, students learn the language in an unnatural context.
For example, topics
like “Jane Goodall, the Circus, and White Lies” in Long Teng textbook for vocational
high schools are not common in our culture; thus, the language use can’t be extended
outside the classroom.
It’s hard for students to use the sentences in “Jane Goodall”
to communicate with other people or exchange opinions.
The language teaching does not take the needs of the students into consideration,
too.
For whom it is authentic?
What kind of language do vocational high school
students really need to acquire?
To answer the questions, let’s see a real case first.
A mechanic teacher came to visit me asking why my students didn’t know the English
translation of 齒輪 and 軸承. He was so shocked that none of the students could
speak out those English equivalents.
He questioned me for not covering those terms.
I could not help but wonder for whom the classroom teaching is authentic. Who
needs to know those words?
I totally agree that students majoring in mechanics
should definitely know the words like “gear, and bearing.”
But I didn’t teach those
words to my students because it contradicted to the general objective of schools in
Taiwan, that is, what we expected to teach is mostly for the purpose of
cognitive/academic language proficiency (CALP) rather than for that of basic
interpersonal communicative skills (BICS). So based on the premise, the language
teaching is often involving the usage in which learners often use in classroom
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exercises and tests. This is probably the best explanation of the general failure of
providing the authentic text for the needs of learners.
Third question is what authentic purposes for. There are two types of purposes;
one is for authentic communication task and the other is for authentic language
learning task. The former focuses on the learners using language as a tool to convey
information.
Students learn to respond according to various situations. The latter,
in the contrary, focuses on the forms in which most students would seldom face in the
“real world.”
Again, this phenomenon is similar to that of the distinction between
CALP and BICS mentioned in the previous paragraph.
If the phenomenon, to be
more specific, the examination leads the instruction, continues, the authentic purposes
will always be authentic language learning task.
For students who want to take the
entrance exam, the authenticity is how to get higher grades.
The last question is how to be authentic to the actual social situation of the
classroom.
In fact, a classroom is like a social context where students meet the
purposes of learning something.
classroom.
Learning is the major and social function of a
Therefore, the most socially authentic role in the classroom situation is
to provide the opportunity for public and interpersonal sharing of language learning,
the problems the learners encounter, and the solution of those difficulties. So, let’s
examine the social situation of the vocational high school classroom.
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Take my
classroom for example, the teacher gave lectures based on the textbooks and students
rarely had the opportunities to do the bilateral communication between them and the
teacher, not to mention the multi-lateral communication among peers.
inauthentic situation of the classroom.
It is, then, an
The language classroom should exploit the
advantage of social function by expecting and encouraging learners to share their own
learning process and experience. Only by doing this way, the learners can acquire
the real communicative ability.
Back to the beginning, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether the
current language teaching in vocational high schools really fits for the needs of
vocational high school students.
The answer is obviously NO.
Due to certain
realistic limitations, I would like to offer the alternative proposals compensating the
deficit of the current phenomena among vocational high schools. The first proposal
is to provide as many sources of the input data as possible, which can help the
learners to develop an authentic interpretation.
For example, English song can be a
useful tool to help students to build up the sense of real language usage.
The themes
of English songs cover from love, social problems, self-reflection, to memories of
something.
Although some lyrics are not exactly accurate, they are authentic
because that’s the way the native speakers use.
Drama is another powerful tool, too.
Nothing is more authentic for the learners than actually act out the traits the character
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requests for. The news broadcast is good but teachers should pay more attention on
students’ proficiency level.
If they are not advanced learners, it is suggested that
teachers provides Chinese report first and then present the English version.
In this
way, students can benefit from connecting what they know to what they do not know
by applying the strategy like guessing.
Other material like scripts of movies or TV
series will also do.
Second proposal is related to the belief of teachers. Teachers should bear the
concept in mind that genuine communication and the social function of sharing
learning process as well as experience can really help the learners to learn and to learn
more in an efficient way.
Finally, it is crucial important to build the appropriate classroom in which the
authentic role should be emphasized.
It should provide the social situation for the
learners to immerse in it and the friendly environment for the learners to express,
communicate, negotiate, exchange, and share what they desire to freely.
In conclusion, the definition of authenticity varies according to the differences
of texts, learners, purposes, and social situation of the classroom.
The challenge is to
find out what is suitable for the above four factors. Pay special attention on the gap
between the teachers and the learners.
same points of view.
It is not necessarily that the two share the
Therefore, the best way to decide what is real authentic for
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learners is through the strategy of trial-and-error. By exchanging opinion among
peers and getting feedbacks from students, it is no longer impossible to meet the real
authenticity of language teaching in vocational high schools.
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