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eatures of textuallyauthentic m aterials

Looking at authenticity in this way, we can conclude that textuallyauthentic non-textbook materials will not necessarily be learnerauthentic, and that textually unauthentic textbook materials will notnecessarily be learner unauthentic.

A text is usually regarded as textually authentic if it is not written forteaching purposes, but for a real-life communicative purpose, where thewriter has a certain message to pass on to the reader. Because of thisintrinsically communicative quality, many teachers assume that alltextually authentic materials are authentic to learners, and thatcontinuous exposure to such materials will provide for their longer-term communicative needs.

Authentic texts are often regarded as more interesting than textbookmaterials because they can be more up-to-date, and related to everydayissues and activities. Linguistically, however, they tend to be moredifficult, being unsimplified, with ungraded syntactic patterns andvocabulary.

eatures of learner-authentic m aterials

Making textuallyauthentic

materials learnerauthentic

According to Breen (1985), the nature, type, and topic of a text decidewhether it is authentic, not just its authentic quality. He illustrates hisargument by pointing out that a poem in a coursebook which might beused for teaching purposes is authentic in nature, and provides learnerswith a basis for genuine comm unication, because the poet uses languageto stimulate our interpretation of his message.

From the learner s viewpoint, authentic m aterials are motivating,interesting, and useful, with content that does not cause them cultureshock or discomfort (Young 1980: 224). Their rhetorical structure mustbe appropriate to learner s needs and learning purposes (Widdowson1980). Krashen (1982) suggests that the linguistic features ofcomprehensible input should be just a little beyond the learner scurrent linguistic competence. When learners read an authentic text,their prior knowledge, interest, and curiosity make it easier for them toengage with it.

To summarize, we can say that learner-authentic materials are mainlylearner-centred, and that they can serve affectively to promote learnersinterest in language learning. In cognitive terms, they can providelearners not only with a chance to develop their linguistic andcommunicative competence, but also with an awareness of conventionsof communication, which will enable them to use appropriate styles indifferent communicative contexts (Bacon and Finnemann 1990).

Because of their intrinsically communicative quality, textually authenticmaterials tend to have greater potential for being made learner

authentic than textually unauthentic materials. This view has beensupported by Alderson (1980: 134) who points out that when theycannot find commercially-published materials to meet their learnersneeds, teachers start to produce their own materials in order to simulate

324 Winnie Yuk-chun Lee

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learning activities appropriate to their real-world needs. Research hasshown that the majority of students prefer non-textbook materials totextbook materials (Bacon and Finnemann 1990, Allen et al. 1988).However, two questions remain: How can we make materials reallyauthentic to learners? Can good and interesting materials by themselves

elicit positive affective and cognitive responses from learners, especiallyin a classroom learning context?

Breen (1985: 61-7) makes a concrete suggestion by claiming that thereare four factors involved in establishing text and learner authenticity:

What is an authentic text?For whom is it authentic?For what authentic purposes?What is authentic to the social situation of the classroom?

Here the author is drawing our attention to the fact that, apart from thematerials themselves, there are four o ther aspects to consider in order tofacilitate an interaction between learners and materials. In pedagogicalterms, these aspects might be denned as text factor (materials selection),learner factor (individual differences), task factor (task design), andlearner setting factor (learning environment). To which could be addedone more the teacher factor (the teacher s attitud e and teachingapproach).

Importance of a

teacher factor

The teacher plays an important role, because even if the materials are

learner authentic they will cease to be so if the teacher assumes anauthoritarian role in class, or opts for a traditional teaching approachwhich does not give students the chance to interact with one another.Thorp (1991) and Tudor (1993) suggest that teachers who are friendly,understanding, and sensitive to learners needs, and who also have highcultural awareness, will be more likely to create a good learningatmosphere, and to hold discussions with learners on material content,teaching methodology, and evaluation.

Relationshipbetween the learnerauthenticity factors

The five factors mentioned above are interrelated, and each willcontribute to the quality of learner authenticity. As users of thematerials, the needs of learners should play a central role, and governfactors of text, task, teacher, and learner, and learner setting. This viewis supported by Clarke (1989), who points out that learner influence onthe language teaching process is potentially significant, both at themacro level of syllabus design and at the micro level of what is donewithin each lesson.

Textually As pointed out above, textually authen tic materials are not inherently

authentic learner authentic. A careful and wise selection of materials focused onmaterials learners is a must if we want to obtain a positive response from them.selection The following are suggested guiding principles for making textually

authentic materials learner authentic:

Text authenticity and learner authenticity 325


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Is the material textually authentic?

Does it possess communicative potential? Does it have a realistic situation? Is the content relevant to learners life

communicative needs?experiences and future

Is the material compatible with the course objectives?

Does it have conten t and construct validity, i.e. can it really improvethe language skill(s) we want our learners to practise?

Is it too short or too long? Is it for comprehension/production activity? Are the text s language styles and rhetorical structure relevant to the

course objectives?

Is the material suitable for the teaching approach we adopt?

Is the material suitable for the tasks/activities designed?

Designing learner If we want tasks to be accessible to learners then, like materials, theyauthentic tasks should be learner authentic. The task design stage is crucial when using

authentic materials, and the following points should be considered:

In real-life comm unicative situations it is very common to use morethan one language skill to achieve different communicative purposes,and for this reason an integrated skills approach is recommended.

Contexts have to be provided for tasks, so that learners can practisethe skills in a natural, meaningful, and relevant way.

Tasks must have task validity, i.e. the content and na ture of the taskshould develop the language ability we want learners to practise(Bachman 1990).

The task content should be related to the authentic materials selected,so that learners can use them as a springboard for the task.

Whether the task is used as pre-activity, practice activity, or post-activity depends on the course objectives, the skill(s) to be practised,and learners preferences.

Practical A programme based on the above principles was devised for a group ofapplications BA part-time Social Work students at Hong Kong Polytechnic on a

three-week supplementary English programme. The aim of the coursewas to improve their general English proficiency. Textually authenticmaterials such as newspaper articles were used because of their greaterpotential for being made learner authentic. In ideal circumstances,students would have been encouraged to choose their own materials anddesign their own learning tasks. However, it was felt that this particulargroup did not have the learner-training background and experiencenecessary to make these choices by themselves.

Materials were prepared for the students, based on the responses theygave to a needs analysis questionnaire completed on registration. It washoped that, by identifying their needs and interests, the materials



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responses. They said that the materials and the tasks were bothinteresting and useful, as they were readable, accessible and, moreimportantly, gave them a chance to rehearse what they would have toface in the future. This suggested that materials and tasks were learnerauthentic.

onclusion Th er e is no single mo del or framew ork w hich will fit all learnin gsituations equally well. Widdowson (1984) has pointed out that there isno model of language which has the monopoly on truth, that capturesreality. We need to be flexible and sensitive to the characteristics oflearners if we want our materials to be learner authentic.

Received November 1994.

AcknowledgementsI would like to express my sincere gratitude toDon Porter of the University of Reading and

Bruce Morrison of the English Language StudyCe ntre , H ong K ong Polytechnic, for their valuablecomments on this paper. I also wish to thankRodney Jones, Nora Honeyman, and DickPowney for reading the preliminary version ofthis paper, which was presented at the ILEconference held in Hong Kong, December 1993.

ReferencesAlderson, J. C. 1980. A process approach to

Reading at the University of Mexico in ELTDocuments: Projects in Material Design. HemelHempstead: Macmillan/The British Council.

Allen E. D. E. B. Bernhardt M. T. Berry andM. Demel. 1988. Comprehension and textgenre: an analysis of secondary school foreignlanguage readers . Modern Language Journal72/2: 163-72.

Bachman L. F. 1990. Fundamental Considerationsin Language Testing Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.

Bacon S. M. and M. D. Finnemann. 1990. Astudy of the attitudes, motives, and strategies ofuniversity foreign language students and theirdisposition to au thentic oral and w ritten input .Modern Language Journal 1414: 459-73.

Breen M. P. 1985. Authenticity in the languageclassroom . Applied Linguistics 6/1: 60-70.

Clarke D. F. 1989. Materials adaptation: whyleave it all to the teacher? ELT Journal 43/2:133-41.

Krashen S. D. 1982. Second Langu age Acquisitionand Second Language Learning. Oxford: Perga-mon.

Thorp D . 1991. Confused encounters: differingexpectations in the EA P classroom . ELTJournal 45/2: 108-18.

Tudor I. 1993. Teacher roles in the learner-centred classroom . ELT Journal 47/1: 22-31.

Widdowson H. G. 1980. The authenticity oflanguage data in H. G. Widdowson Explora-tions in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.

Widdowson H. G. 1984. Explorations in AppliedLinguistics 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Young R. 1980. Modular course design in ELT

Documents: Projects in Material Designs.Hemel Hempstead: Macmillan/The BritishCouncil.

The authorWinnie Yuk-chun Lee is a language instructor atthe Language Study Centre, Hong Kong Poly-technic. At p resent she is doing a part-time P hD inlanguage testing at the University of Read ing. He rareas of interest are test design and materialsdesign, especially for the use of authenticmaterials.



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