Diseño de Materiales - Week 9 - Introduction to Authentic Materials

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 9 of the course Diseño de Materiales. In this class we will discuss some key concepts from Chapter 6 in McGrath regarding the definition and features of authentic materials. We will also discuss the benefits and challenges of incorporating these kinds of materials in EFL lessons and we'll analyze a demo activity sequence to illustrate some principles of effective use of authentic materials.

Today's Goals:

• Define the concept of authentic materials.
• Discuss the benefits and challenges of incorporating authentic materials in our EFL classes.
• Participate in a demo lesson sequence using authentic materials and analyze it to identify the presence or absence of McGrath's principles of authentic materials use.

Guiding Questions:

• What are the features of authentic materials?
• What are the benefits and challenges of using authentic texts and tasks?

 

Warm Up: Say 3 Things

In this short warm up activity you will need to say three items in a given category: 

• one you like
• one you dislike
• one you have no strong feelings about 

Then you classmates will guess which one is which.

Click to see the full size image.

Task 1: Video Analysis

Watch the following video with your partners and then discuss the questions below it. When you finish, move on to Task 2.

• How authentic is this text? Why?
• What language is used in it?
• How authentic is the language use? Why?
• How challenging would this text be for your learners?
• What is your definition of "authenticity" when it comes to teaching materials and texts?

Task 2: Reasons for Using Authentic Texts

Read four quotes from teachers about their reasons for using texts in their language classes. For each one, summarize the teacher's view in your own words. Then discuss the questions at the end.

• Quote 1: I want students to have a model (for instance, examples of a new structure or a particular kind of letter) so that they'll feel more confident about attempting new things in the language. The principle of listen/read first and then speak/write seems a basic one to me.

• Quote 2: Students will only learn to understand native speakers of the language if they're exposed to plenty of samples of authenic language different voices, etc.

• Quote 3: Sometimes my students have difficulty talking or writing about topics because they lack imagination or inspiration. I find that if I give them a listening or reading text first, that often helps to get the ideas flowing.

• Quote 4: I see texts as linguistic quarries (tajos). My main concern in working with texts - real texts, that is, not texts specially written for language learners - is to draw attention to points of language which are either of interest in themselves (specific structures, lexical items, cultural allusions) or provide a starting point for consideration of related language features. A lot of what I do is in the area of vocabulary. The general idea is to enrich their vocabularies and extend their linguistic repertoirs. We dig at the text together; they then decide what they want to take from it. For the kind of students I teach, upper-intermediate and advanced, this seems to work pretty well. 

• Discuss: Which of the teachers seem most concerned that texts should be authentic?

• Discuss: What are your own beliefs about the role of texts in language teaching?

Task 3: Demo Activity

In this activity you will experience a demonstration of an activity sequence using an authentic text. This was originally designed for a group of intermediate adult learners. The topic of their unit was "People and Places" and it discussed reasons why people live where they do and why people move. Click your group link below and follow the instructions.

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

Task 4: Demo Activity Processing

Now look back at the demo sequence and discuss the following questions from a teacher perspective.

• Describe the characteristics of the text (video).

• Was it an example of an authentic material? Why or why not?

• What were some potential or real strengths and challenges of using the video with intermediate learners?

• Describe the tasks that you were asked to do 

• What aspects of the activities facilitated the comprehension of the text?

• Brian Tomlinson says that learning materials should serve one or more of the following four functions. Did these texts and tasks serve any of these functions?

• Instructional: They inform learners about the language.
• Experiential: They provide exposure to the langauage in use.
• Elicitative: They stimulate students to use language.
• Exploratory: They faciliate discoveries about language use.

Principles for Working with Authentic Texts: 

Read the list of principles from chapter 6 of McGrath. How can you relate them to the previous activity? Can you give an example from your own teaching context?

• Help Comprehension: Students will find it easier to cope with "real life" listening/reading if they are exposed to authentic texts in class.

• Put the Learner in the Picture: In most real life listening and reading scenarios, we have context to help us. We are interacting in a conversation and understand the purpose. We are listening to two people talk in line behind us and we the situation informs what is happening, Learners listening to recording in the classroom are at a disadvantage because they are hearing the audio out of context. Before playing the audio, give the learners all the contextual information they would have if they were really there.

• Focus on Meaning: Natural (real life) text processing involves a primary focus on meaning.

• The meanings that we ask students to extract should be related to the meanings the intended reader or listener is expected to derive from the text.

• Give students support: If you want learners to cope with the challenges of the text, give them help.

• Focus on Language: After meaningful processing of the text has occured, you can then draw students' attention to language features, not before.

References

McGrath, I. (2016). Materials Evaluation & Design for Language Teaching. Edinburg University Press.