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Eva T. Minasyan
Plekhanov Russian University of Economics Ph.D, Senior Lecturer
Exploiting authentic materials for ESP courses
Teaching ESP is more satisfying than teaching General English, because you have a much better idea of your learner’s needs. The specificity of ESP requires the use of authentic materials that are not always created for the purpose of language learning, since ESP English is seen as tool for other specialties, not as a subject itself as in General English. When considering the use of authentic materials, Widdowson wrote: «It has been traditionally supposed that the language presented to learners should be simplified in some way for easy access and acquisition. Nowadays, there are recommendations that the language presented should be authentic» [Widdowson, 1990:67]. Exploitation of such materials covers the following key steps:
1) gathering materials that help learners reach objectives: they should be realistic and current, as well authentic;
2) carrying on genre analysis — digging into authentic materials of a certain discourse community to see what language is used and why;
3) adjusting to learners’ language level and needs.
Authentic texts have been defined as «...real-life texts, not written for pedagogic purposes» [Wallace, 1992:145]. They are therefore written for native speakers and contain «real» language. They are «.materials that have been produced to fulfill some social purpose in the language community» [Peacock, 1997].
If authentic texts are not written for language learning purposes but for completely different ones, where do they come from and how are they selected?
Currently, the most practical is the Internet (authentic language videos, newscasts, etc.) Whereas newspapers and any other printed material date very quickly, the Internet is continuously updated, more visually stimulating, as well as being interactive, therefore promoting a more active approach to learning. The Internet is a modern day reality and provides a huge spectrum of topics for studying.
Nuttall gives 3 main criteria when choosing texts to be used in the classroom:
1. suitability of content (the reading material should interest/motivate the students, as well as be relevant to their needs);
2. exploitability (how the text can be used to develop the students’ competence as readers);
3. readability (describes the combination of structural and lexical difficulty of a text, as well as referring to the amount of new vocabulary and grammatical forms present).
Variety and presentation also influence the choice of authentic materials (the authentic presentation, through the use of pictures, diagrams, photographs, helps put the text into a context).
Hence, one of the main ideas of using authentic materials in the classroom is to ‘expoe’ the learner to as much real language as possible. They give the reader an opportunity to gain actual information reflecting the changes in language use, as well as giving the learner the proof that the language is real and not only studied in the classroom. «Authentic texts can be motivating because they are a proof that the language is used for real-life purposes by real people» [Nuttall, 1996:172]. Consequently, adjusting authentic materials will enable learners to interact with the real language and content rather than the form. Learners can feel they are learning a target language as it is used outside the classroom.
The main advantages of using authentic materials in the classroom therefore include:
■ positive effect on student motivation;
■ authentic cultural information;
■ exposure to real language;
■ more close relevance to students’ needs;
■ more creative approach to teaching.
The negative aspects of authentic materials are:
■ often too culturally biased, subsequently a good knowledge of cultural background is required;
■ vocabulary might not be relevant to the student’s immediate needs;
■ too many structures are mixed, so lower levels have problems decoding the texts;
■ special preparation is needed, thus can be time-consuming;
■ can become outdated easily, e.g. news, stories, articles.
Accordingly, when bringing authentic materials into the classroom, it should be done with a purpose, as highlighted by Senior «.we need to have a clear pedagogic goal in mind: what precisely we want our students to learn from these materials» [Senior 2005:71].
Students feel more confident, more secure when handling authentic materials as long as the teacher gives them with pedagogical support. They should be used in accordance with students’ ability, with suitable tasks being given in which total understanding is not important.
In order to overcome the problems created by difficult authentic texts, one solution is to simplify them according to the level of the learner. This can be done by removing any difficult words or structures, but this can also remove basic discourse qualities, making the text «less» authentic. The basic parameters to consider when simplifying a text are: linguistic simplicity (grammatical structures, lexical items and readability); cognitive simplicity (age, education, interests of the learner); psychological simplicity (does it follow traditional social norms?)
Another possible solution is to give text-related tasks based on 3 basic types:
1. pre-reading (used to activate existing schemata / plans)
2. while-reading (used to encourage the learner to be a flexible, active reader, also to promote a dialogue between the reader and writer)
3. post-reading (questions that follow a text, used to test understanding but sometimes a good schemata will be enough).
References
1. Guariento W. & Morley, J. Text and Task Authenticity in the EFL Classroom in ELT Journal 55(4). 2001. P. 347-353.
2. Nuttall C. Teaching Reading Skills in a foreign language (New Edition) Oxfor, 1996.
3. Peacock M. The Effect of Authentic Materials on the Motivation of EFL Learners in English Language Teaching Journal 51. 1997. P. 2
4. Senior R. Authentic Responses to Authentic Materials in English Teaching Professional 38. 2005. P. 71.
