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STT_01_AuthenticMaterials_Handout_v5.docx 1

Native

Real

Self

Classroom

Task

Social

Assessment

Culture

Using and Adapting Authentic Materials to Help Motivate Students Richard Pinner – rpinner@sophia.ac.jp www.uniliterate.com

Course description: This course offers an insight into how best to select and adapt authentic materials to use with students as a way of exposing them to other cultures and ways of thinking. It has been shown that authentic materials are more motivating for students (Peacock, 1997) and thus the class will feature practical demonstrations of ways in which authentic materials can be used to help motivate students.

In the class, participants will look at, observe and demonstrate tasks which utilise authentic materials and participants will also have the chance to a adapt materials and design their own tasks in a hands-on workshop.

Defining Authenticity

Alex Gilmore (2007) identifies eight ‘inter-related’ meanings

from the literature:

1. “the language produced by native speakers for native speakers

in a particular language community

2. the language produced by a real speaker/writer for a real audience, conveying a real message

3. the qualities bestowed on a text by the receiver, in that it is not seen as something already in a

text itself, but is how the reader/listener perceives it)

4. the interaction between students and teachers and is a ‘personal process of engagement’

5. the types of task chosen

6. the social situation of the classroom

7. the relevance something has to assessment

8. culture, and the ability to behave or think like a target language group in order to be validated by

them”

Adapted fromGilmore (2007, p. 98)

Which of these definitions do you find the most convincing?

The Authenticity Continuum In order to incorporate the majority of the speakers of English into the concept of authenticity whilst also allowing for such important factors as motivation, autonomy and identity, authenticity might best be considered not as a binary set of absolutes, or even as a grey area with two extremes on either side, but as a continuum with both social and contextual dimensions. The horizontal axis represents the social dimension of authenticity, at one end the learner or individual and their needs, linguistic ability and motivation to learn, at the other the target language use community. This might be an L1 country such as the USA or UK, or it might be the international community where English is used as a tool for communication in multilingual contexts, or it could even be a workplace where English will be needed in order to interact with colleagues. The vertical dimension of the continuum is meant to represent the context of language use. The continuum presents the two contexts which are likely to be most relevant to language learning; the classroom and the real world where the communication takes place. (Pinner, 2012)

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Inner circle

Outer circle

Expanding circle

authentic

text / materials

output / production

tasks

language in use

Useful Definition of Authenticity for Teaching In this training workshop we will use Tomlinson and Masuhara (2010, p. 400) definition which states

that authentic materials are ‘designed not to transmit declarative knowledge1 about the target

language but rather to provide an experience of the

language in use.’

Domains of Authenticity

Authentic Tasks Put a number (1 – 3) next to each of these examples to decide

which you think is the most authentic task.

Example A: The teacher brings an English language

newspaper to class and has students read the text

and underline every instance of the present perfect

aspect or passive tense, and then asks them to copy each sentence out into their notebooks.

Example B: The teacher uses an ‘inauthentic’ text from a published course book which was

contrived specifically to practise reported speech and then discusses other ways in which the

speakers from the text could have said the same thing in a different way.

Example C: The teacher asks students to use the internet to research about their favourite

celebrity or hero and then create a short presentation in English to the rest of the class about

that person.

Authenticity and Motivation

World Englishes and Authenticity It is no longer possible to say that something is authentic just because it comes from an American or

British newspaper, and it is also no longer possible to say something is not authentic for the same reasons.

As David Graddol says, “The future status of English will be

determined less by the number and economic power of its native

speakers than by the trends in the use of English as a second

language” (2003, p. 157)

Do you agree with the idea of World Englishes?

Could you utilise World Englishes in your classes?

How do you think your students would respond to this?

1 宣言的知識

Kachru (1985)

Authenticity MotivationThe relationship between student and

teacher motivation can be “either

positively or negatively synergistic”

(Deci, Kasser, & Ryan, 1997, p. 68)

Graddol (2007)

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Dealing with Difficulty Authentic materials are more motivating – why? Perhaps because of culture and relevance

to the class. Perhaps because they are more engaging and feel ‘real’.

Authentic materials are more difficult – why? Because the language in the texts has not been

modified for our learners. These texts are not intended for learners. So, are they only

suitable for advanced students? No, we can either adapt them or prepare our learners for

them.

How can we overcome the difficulty problem? Teach our learners coping strategies, such as

the ‘panacea method’.

Context is the key to meaning. Remove the difficult words. Treat them like a jigsaw

puzzle. Ignore any words you cannot understand. Only focus on what words you

understand. Try other words to see if the sentence makes sense. When you find a

piece that fits, move on.

Other strategies Provide a vocabulary glossary

Provide a straight translation

Give the students plenty of time but engage them in the process of unlocking meaning.

Make them work to understand the text as this will help them learn new words better..

Selecting Materials Choosing appropriate materials – what factors should you consider?

Age of your learners

Language ability of learners vs. difficulty of text (use Flesch-Kinkaid to evaluate)

Engagement / relevance of materials to the learners (and teacher)

Sensitive issues which may be inappropriate

Questions to help you select materials

Do I (the teacher) find this content stimulating?

Will my learners find this interesting?

Is it suitable for my learners (difficulty, age)?

How does it fit in with the other work we are doing in class?

Will this be useful to them? (assessment, future goal

Adapting Materials Frieda Mishan (2005) advocates the consideration of 3 Cs – Culture, Currency and Challenge. Here is

another simple model for adapting/using authentic materials. Can you add any criteria to this

model?

Comprehension Form Focused (vocabulary and grammar). This should be dealt with in as interactive a way as possible – eg. Students could simply match up the numbers 1 -6 with a – e or they could check the words in a dictionary and teach them to their partners.

Engagement Once the main ideas of the materials are clear and students have been given time to prepare and understand, have them interact in a personal (authentic) way with the text/material. Eg. Asking opinions, debating, responding etc.

Reflection The students should be given a chance to reflect on the skills/language that they have used and the purpose this has in their own learning. In other words, Autonomy training.

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Some Useful Resources Name Link Description

Teachers’ Pet http://www.teachers-pet.org/ Amazingly useful MS Word add-in which gives you a special toolbar for making worksheets.

MS Word – Readability Statistics

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/display-readability-statistics-HP005189601.aspx

Copy and paste text here and check how easy it should be for your learners.

D-Volver Movie Maker www.dvolver.com/moviemaker/ Have students make movies around a special theme or grammar point

Google Maps http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/ Use maps to practise directions, using relative clauses to indicate people or you could have them plan a bank robbery using future tenses! So many options here.

Online Exchange Programs

See mailing lists Organise a virtual exchange to immerse your students in other cultures and learn about something new while using English

WebQuests http://www.world-english.org/webquests.htm and http://webquest.org/index.php

They come in all shapes and sizes or make your own!

BBC Learning English www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/

BBC news especially for EFL learners. Lessons and articles include MP3 files and vocabulary glossaries.

Children’s BBC www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/ BBC news especially for kids

NHK http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/index.html Audio files and Japan centred news in English

Onestopenglish www.onestopenglish.com A huge source of downloadable lesson plans and discussion forums

Onestopclil www.onestopenglish.com/clil - see also www.CLILJapan.org

Worksheets and discussion for Content and Language Integrated Learning

British Council www.teachingenglish.org.uk Lesson plans from the British Council. Great resources and great for learning British culture.

TED.com www.ted.com Utterly brilliant site for video listening lessons, all with subtitles but quite high level.

Today program http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/default.stm High level but very topical and with downloadable podcast audio

IATEFL / TESOL mailing lists

http://ltsig.org.uk/discussion-list.html or

http://calico.org/calico-l/calico-l-

info.html. are two examples

Great for finding exchange partners

Guardian lessons www.onestopenglish.com/skills/news-lessons/monthly-topical-news-lessons/

These are ready to go and have a choice of 3 levels.

Short Stories for Kids http://freestoriesforkids.com/short-stories A nice site for simple short stories with morals

Adapting from Literature

www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/britlit/landlady as an example. Email me for more information

Nice literature lesson plan as an example

Japan Times www.japantimes.co.jp/ Great for high level news about Japan

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Multimedia Resources and Authenticity Because of Information Communication Technology, there is an almost unlimited source of

authentic materials available at our fingertips. Students can gain access to samples of the target

language in seconds, but not all the content is suitable or even good quality. The key is to know how

to find what you need for your class and to help students to assess the quality of the

sources they find.

Virtual Learning Environments Does your school have a VLE? Moodle is free and easy to set-up and can provide a great

online resource for students and teachers to interact.

Online Cultural Exchanges Although easy to set up these are perhaps the most authentic type of online

material because they are generated by real interactions with real people.

Contact a school in another country using an online forum and set up a place

online where students can chat and share messages. Facebook is a good way

to do this, or else create your own blog using WordPress or some other

online site. You can find virtual exchange partners by posting a message on

an online mailing list such as the IATEFL Learning Technologies Special

Interest Group2 or CALICO mailing list3.

R.A.F.T. These are Remote Access Field Trips. If you have any twin schools in other cities or countries, or have

colleagues in other institutions around the world, they can all mingle and collaborate online. A RAFT

might involve a week long project of making videos and posting them on an online forum or blog,

then responding to comments about where to go next for example. You could create a very

advanced and engaging sequence of lessons where classes collaborate with students across the

world. (Pinner, 2011)4

©opyright issues!

Educational institutions have special permissions regarding copyright issues.

Information in English and Japanese is available at http://www.cric.or.jp/

If you are not sure, include the source and you should be fine!

Displaying films and playing music are ok because you are not re-selling or charging money

like a cinema or concert.

To add references to each page easily, paste the source reference in

the footer of the document.

2 http://ltsig.org.uk/ 3 https://calico.org/ 4 This was taken from an article I wrote for English Teaching Professional magazine http://sophia.academia.edu/RichardPinner

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References

Chambers, G. N. (1999). Motivating language learners: Multilingual Matters.

Cheng, L., & Watanabe, Y. (2004). Washback in language testing: Research contexts and methods: Routledge.

Deci, E. L., Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1997). Self-determined teaching: Opportunities and obstacles. In J. L. Bess (Ed.), Teaching well and liking it: Motivating faculty to teach effectively (pp. 57-71). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Gilmore, A. (2007). Authentic materials and authenticity in foreign language learning. Language Teaching, 40(02), 97-118. doi: doi:10.1017/S0261444807004144

Graddol, D. (2003). The decline of the native speaker. Translation today: trends and perspectives. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 152-167.

Graddol, D. (2007). Changing English ([Rev. ed.]. ed.). Abingdon: Routledge.

Kachru, B. B. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: the English language in the outer circle. In R. Quirk, H. G. Widdowson & Y. Cantù (Eds.), English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mishan, F. (2005). Designing authenticity into language learning materials. Bristol: Intellect Books.

Peacock, M. (1997). The effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFL learners. ELT Journal, 51(2), 144-156. doi: 10.1093/elt/51.2.144

Pinner, R. S. (2011). Making the most of moodle. English teaching professional(73), 64-66.

Pinner, R. S. (2012). Examining Authenticity and Motivation from an International Perspective. JACET ESP Annual Report, 14, 26 -35.

Tomlinson, B., & Masuhara, H. (2010). Research for materials development in language learning : evidence for best practice. London: Continuum.

Further Reading

Jenkins, (2006) ‘Current Perspectives on Teaching World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca’ Tesol Quarterly 40(1) (pp. 157 – 181)

Richards, J.C. (2001). Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Seargeant, P (2009) The Idea of English in Japan: Ideology and the Evolution of a Global Language. Bristol: Multilingual Matters

Sharma, P. and Barrett, B. (2007) Blended Learning: using technology in and beyond the language classroom. Thailand: MacMillan Education

Watanabe, Yoshinori., Ikeda, Makoto., & Izumi., Shinichi Eds. (2012) CLIL: New Challenges in Foreign Language Education. Volume 2, Tokyo: Sophia University Press.

Summary You can download the slides and additional resources at

www.uniliterate.com • Please email me! rpinner@sophia.ac.jp • Please also checkout www.cliljapan.com Thanks for your attention and ‘keep it real!’