Diseño de Materiales - Week 10 - Working with Authentic Materials

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 10 of the course Diseño de Materiales. In this class we will talk about the concept of task authenticity and we will discuss some practical strategies to create your own authentic listenings and explore a framework for designing class activities with them. 

Today's Goals:

• Deliver an elevator pitch regarding the topics explored in your Moxie.
• Explore the concept of task authenticity and propose task ideas for sample texts.
• Create a semi-structured interview recording and propose an activity sequence for students to follow.
• Clarify instructions regarding the didactic materials file and presentation.

Guiding Questions:

• What is task authenticity and why is it important?
• What are the benefits and challenges of using semi-structured interviews as a material design technique?

Task 1: Moxie Elevator Pitch

This week you submitted your Moxie papers. Let's take a moment to share the highlights with your partners by completing this elevator pitch. You will have 5 minutes to prepare your pitch and 90 seconds to deliver it. Click your link below and begin outlining what you will say. 

• Student 1: CLICK HERE
• Student 2: CLICK HERE
• Student 3: CLICK HERE
• Student 4: CLICK HERE
• Student 5: CLICK HERE
• Student 6: CLICK HERE
• Student 7: CLICK HERE
• Student 8: CLICK HERE

Task 2: Task Authenticity

Penny Ur in her book "A Course in Language Teaching" makes a very important point about authenticity in reading and listening. If we are using authentic texts, we should also consider whether we are asking our students to carry out authentic tasks! Reading the following extracts. After each one, summarize what you read and tell your partners what you think about it. 

• Authenticity of Text and Task: "With less proficient learners, we usually use simplified texts in order to make the appropriate in level for our learners; and tasks also may not represent any kind of real-life reading purpose. This is because such materials on the whole are more effective at earlier stages of learning; indeed, the use of ‘authentic’ texts with less proficient learners is often frustrating and counter-productive."

• "However, ultimately we want our learners to be able to cope with the same kinds of reading that are encountered by native speakers of the target language. As they become more advanced, therefore, it would seem sensible to start basing their reading practice on a wide variety of authentic (or near-authentic) texts, and on tasks that represent the kinds of things a reader would do with them in real life rather than on conventional comprehension exercises. Answering multiple choice questions on a poem, for example, or filling in words missing from a letter would seem a fairly irrelevant response to these types of discourse: discussing the interpretation of the poem or writing an answer to the letter would be more appropriate. Obviously completely authentic performance cannot always be provided for – we are not going to turn out classroom into a kitchen, for example, in order to respond authentically to a recipe! – but we can, and should make some attempt to select tasks that approximate to those we might do in real life." 

• Beyond Understanding: Our aims in (real-life) reading usually go beyond mere understanding. We may wish to understand something in order to learn from it (in a course of study, for example), in order to find out how to act (instructions, directions), in order to express an opinion about it (a letter requesting advice), or for many other purposes. Other pieces of writing, into which the writer has invested thought and care (literature, for example) demand a personal response from the reader to the ideas in the text, such as interpretation, application to other contexts, criticism or evaluation. Advanced reading activities should therefore see the understanding of a text only as a preliminary step on the way to further learning or other personal purposes. 

• Combining Skills: Tasks that are based on more complex thinking are likely to involve a more complex process. Also, in general, more advanced language work of any kind tends to involve longer, multi-stage activities, in order to explore to the full the opportunities to engage with the language in different ways. It is therefore very likely that activity before, during and after the reading itself will entail extended speaking, listening and writing. 

CLICK HERE to view a collection of authentic texts. What authentic tasks could you have your students do with them?

Task 3: Creating Your Own "Authentic" Materials

It can be extremely difficult to find an authentic video or audio file about the topic of the lesson that perfectly fits your students' needs, interests, proficiency level. You can save yourself the trouble by creating your own by using the technique of semi-structured interviews. 

• Readiness Tasks: Questions to put students in the right frame of mind to experience the audio.

• What was the last snack you ate?
• Why do you like that snack?

• Experience Tasks: Questions or tasks for students to do while they listen to help them connect with the audio and process what they are hearing.

• CLICK HERE to access the Jamboard.

• Personal Response Tasks: Questions to elicit a personal response from students after they hear the audio. These are not comprehension questions. Instead, they should be focused on eliciting students' thoughts and feelings about what they just heard.

• What do you think about the combinations the speakers mentioned? 
• Do any of them sound good to you?
• Have you tried any of the combinations mentioned by the speakers?

• Extension Tasks: Production activities that are inspired by the content of the audio. These can be discussions, debates, role-plays, writing prompts, etc. 

• Task 1: Tell your partners about your own weird food combination. 

• What is the combination?
• Why do you like it?
• How did you discover this combination?

• Task 2: Role-Play - Imagine you work for a fast food restaurant or snack food company. Create a marketing plan for a unique new combination that will catch people's attention, build their curiosity, and make them want to try it. Create your sales pitch and be ready to share with the group.

• Language Tasks: Bring students' attention to specific features of the audio by playing segments or showing quotes to help them make discoveries about the language or reinforce some linguistic aspect (grammar, vocab, pronunciation, etc.). Here are some sample quotes from the text you heard. What are some possible language tasks you could do with them?

• "I guess I just came up with it myself.
• "I've heard it's really good for hangovers."
• "He would drizzle honey all over the scrambled eggs."

• "You were telling us earlier about something weird your brother used to do." 
• "Yeah my brother used to eat this disgusting thing. He would make... or my mom would make scrambled eggs and he would drizzle honey all over the scrambled eggs." 

• "I'll start off with a food combination that I've always liked since I was a kid. 
• "I've been doing that for a long time. 

Task 4: Creating Your Own Interview

Now it's your turn to try out this technique. Click your group link below and follow the instructions to record a 60 second semi-structured interview.

• Group 1: CLICK HERE
• Group 2: CLICK HERE
• Group 3: CLICK HERE