In the second post in his series on authenticity, Unlock author Lewis Lansford considers some of the challenges involved in using authentic materials.
In my last post, I used the comments from a group of my teaching colleagues to define ‘authentic materials’ and discuss some of the advantages of using them in the classroom. In this post, we’ll get their views on the disadvantages of using authentic materials and consider possible solutions.
Authentic materials: the challenges
The biggest disadvantage of using authentic materials is that they contain more unfamiliar language that learners can possibly cope with. Often, they are too long, dense and/or complex.
GS: ‘It’s often hard to use them, because the real world isn’t neat and tidy.’
DM: ‘A major disadvantage of authentic material is that it might reflect idiosyncratic and unusual native speaker usage. Another is that it might be copyrighted. Also, newspaper articles aren’t typically written at the A2 or B1 level. If you were to bring in a real newspaper article, students would not be able to handle it.’
AH: ‘Often enough, the materials, especially emails, will contain some error, or [won’t follow] conventions.’
Another huge disadvantage for teachers is the fact that even when an authentic text is a reasonable length and level for students, lesson plans need to be written to turn it into something students can learn from. This often entails writing supporting material too. If you enjoy materials development, this can be a pleasurable experience, but if you’re pressed for time, you’ll want to opt for something ready-made.
Solution 1: Use the authentic materials as a starting point
DS: ‘When authentic materials do not fit the level of the students or the goal of the lesson, I can often base the lesson on a framework of something which starts out as authentic (real). In most cases the goal concerns structure appropriate to the level of student. A piece of authentic writing can be deconstructed in so many ways… into a grammar-based lesson, a “spot the differences” lesson, or a “complete the story/what happened next” lesson.’
When AH encounters the above-mentioned errors or other difficulties in an original text, she turns that into an opportunity to learn: ‘Students will want to improve on the original document, make it clearer or friendlier, or rephrase their own response differently to resolve the issues.’
Solution 2: Adapt the original
A teacher who takes on the task of adapting texts becomes, effectively, a materials writer.
DM: ‘The advantage of adapted material is that it can approximate authentic material, yet focus in on particular pedagogical points. It can be tailored in very specific ways. This is great for lower-level classes, and perhaps for finer points at the higher-levels. I could envision an adapted text that’s been levelled up, for example by replacing high-frequency words with low frequency synonyms, and complicated clauses, etc.’
When developing adapted materials, AH makes nothing ‘up out of thin air, it’s all gone through a fine series of filters. It will contain authentic phrases and that will be a focus, but it will be extended, fattened up a) with valuable words and phrases to get the most out of the available space and attention span b) for context, adding information shared/understood by the sender and the receiver, that didn’t need to be communicated in the original document, and c) general interest and accessibility, making the subject topical for a slightly wider audience.’
There can be downsides to adaptation. GS says that adapted texts may be more useful in practising a point, but ‘lose their authenticity.’
AH, who has adapted some material for publication says ‘what I find generally turns out quite badly is adding grammar. You know, you want to do a series of gerunds following prepositions, so you add two to a dialogue. There is pressure, after all, to provide practice, but you can always tell. If I ever publish something on my own, that won’t happen. I think that any text needs to reflect the authentic proportions and textures of English in that given genre.’
Have you had problems trying to use authentic materials in the classroom? What solutions have you used?