Columns 
| 47 - Authentic responses to authentic materials |
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In this column Rose Senior explains why certain teaching techniques and class management strategies are effective, and identifies specific issues that can assist all language teachers in improving the quality of their teaching. In Issue 37 of ETp, I wrote about authentic communication in language classrooms, suggesting that students need to be given the opportunity to communicate authentically in the target language. I’d now like to talk a bit more about the topic of authenticity in relation to materials. Most of us are familiar with the term authentic materials: reading or listening materials that haven’t been designed specifically for classroom use, but which we can use to spice up our lessons and make them more interesting and immediate. Authentic materials include a wide range of text types, including menus, maps, timetables, tourist brochures, information sheets, sets of instructions, recipes, advertisements, movie guides, newspaper and magazine articles – the list goes on and on. Authentic materials also include materials that students can listen to or view: pop songs, items from the TV or radio news and so on. Whenever we bring authentic materials to class, we need to have a clear pedagogic goal in mind: what precisely we want our students to learn from these materials. Our choice of activity will depend on what we’ve been teaching previously and what we think will be most appropriate for these particular students at this particular time. Next, we need to design a specific task so that our students focus on the materials in appropriate ways. ● For a language focus, we might have them underline all the verbs that a cookery writer has used in a recipe. ● For a vocabulary focus, we might have them find all the adjectives that have been used in a glossy holiday brochure advertising an exotic destination. ● To practise scanning skills, we might have them find out from a movie page when and where particular movies are showing. ● To develop interactive skills, we might have students engage in restaurant roleplays, discussing the dishes on authentic menus and then ordering from a student ‘waitperson’. It’s important that we have a clear learning focus for the authentic materials that we bring to our classes. However, we mustn’t forget that authentic materials come from the real world, and the real world is where genuine engagement happens. When we give out authentic materials, we sometimes notice students engaging with them in ways we hadn’t anticipated. Students may be genuinely interested in the information provided, and want either to comment on, or learn more about, something that’s caught their eye. They may want to point out the places they’ve been on a local map, say that they’ve already seen a particular movie, or have genuine questions they want to ask about a product in a particular advertisement. Authentic responses also come in the form of students engaging with the materials on a personal level. If we want students to see if they can ‘hear’ certain words of a song, we may ask them to listen to a tape and fill in the gaps on the transcript. Students can find it frustrating if we focus on testing their listening skills, when they want to listen to and respond to the overall feel of song. Better, then, to play the song right through first, invite students to share their thoughts and feelings, and then move on to the prescribed task. Often we can’t anticipate how students are going to respond to the content of the authentic materials we take to class. One advantage of taking whole newspapers to class, rather than articles that we’ve cut out and photocopied, is that students can choose what they want to read. If we give them the generic task of selecting an article and devising a set of questions on it for someone else to answer, we can be quite surprised by the articles they choose. Someone might go straight to the financial pages, someone else to sport, and someone else to horoscopes. It’s difficult to predict what subject matter will inspire students to communicate authentically with others. It’s sometimes tempting to ignore the genuine engagement students have with the materials and press on with what we’ve planned to do. However, when we sense such engagement, it’s worth deviating from our lesson plan for a moment or two, showing an interest in what the students are saying and perhaps allowing them to share something of interest with the whole class. By the same token, it’s important not to remain off-task for too long. There’s a difference between responding to the communicative value of what students are saying, and allowing ourselves to be side-tracked. So remember, authentic communication involves communicating information that’s personally meaningful – and it doesn’t necessarily happen just because we’re using authentic materials. In our rush to have our students engage in learning tasks, we may sometimes forget to let them engage with authentic materials in authentic ways. When we give out authentic materials in class, we should give our students a little time to enjoy their novelty value, and respond to them in genuine ways. We should also show that we are interested in, and value, their individual responses. Once we’ve done this, we usually find our students ready and willing to engage in the activities we’ve planned for them. |
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