CC BY
21USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALSARE CONSIDERED TO BE MORE HELPFUL IN THE PROCESS OF LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Atabaeva N.D.
Atabaeva Nodira Djuraevna - Senior Teacher, DEPARTMENT OF UZBEK AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES, TASHKENT ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING INSTITUTE, TASHKENT, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: USING authentic materials is one of the mainstays of an imaginative and motivating higher level course, but rarely features at levels lower than intermediate. Anybody who takes into the classroom a newspaper article, an advertisement, a pop song, a strip cartoon, or even a bus ticket, is using authentic materials.
Keywords: authentic materials, listening comprehension, discussion, interviewing, problem solving, self development, educational process, a language tool.
According to the students'responsesauthentic materials are considered to be more helpful in the process of foreign language learning than traditional teaching materials, however, artificial materials are also seen as necessary. Similarly to the previous survey the purpose of the present study was to investigate EFL learners' opinions about working with materials originally produced for native speakers. The methodology of the research as well as its results and the conclusion based upon them are discussed in the following parts of the study.At higher levels the same text could be used together with similar or related texts to form part of a research project (in this case, web sites, posters and similar leaflets spring to mind) [1, p. 128].
At lower levels some possibilities include leaflets, timetables, menus, short headline type reports, audio and video advertising, or short news broadcasts. The task should be simple and relatively undemanding, and it is important to pre-teach key vocabulary so as to prevent panic.
At more intermediate levels this list could be expanded to include longer articles, four or five minute TV or radio news reports, a higher quantity of shorter items, or even whole TV programmes, if your copyright agreements allow it. Again pre-teaching is important, although your students should be able to deal with unknown vocabulary to some extent. At higher levels it's a case of anything goes. At an advanced level students should have some tactics for dealing with new vocabulary without panicking, but it's still useful to have a few quick definitions to hand for some of the trickier stuff!
The important thing to start with is to narrow down the meaning of "authentic materials" [2, p. 149]. Yes, it is obviously a worthwhile thing for the students to have meaningful experiences in the classroom, to make language learning an educational process of self development and discovery as well as the learning of a language tool.
But this has little or nothing to do with authentic materials. For using authentic materials simply means using examples of language produced by native speakers for some real purpose of their own rather than using language produced and designed solely for the classroom. To illustrate what authentic materials for teaching English might look like, let's look at some samples.
There are several reasons for this, primarily a kind of fear that students will panic when faced with language that is largely unfamiliar, and a feeling that to prevent this the language should be edited to the students' level.
This is an unnecessary fear, as using authentic materials can be rewarding and stimulating for both teacher and students. Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the effectiveness of using authentic materials in the foreign language teaching process [3, p. 28].
Some of them focus on the effect of authentic materials on different language skills, the most often surveyed of which were receptive skills, e.g. reading and listening comprehension. Others deal with the impact of real language materials on the motivation of language learners.
It is hard to cover this topic here, as there are several methods, although one which seems immediately appropriate is the skill of ignoring it, if they can complete the task without it!
Especially with lower levels, it needs to be emphasised that students do not have to understand everything. I've found that students don't often believe you until you go through a few tasks with them. Teaching them this skill, and developing their confidence at coping with the unknown is an important element in their development as independent learners.
Conclusion. As can be seen, using authentic materials is a relatively easy and convenient way of improving not only your students' general skills, but also their confidence in a real situation. This is only a brief introduction to the ideas involved, but some of these ideas could easily be expanded to form part of a motivating and effective course.
References
1. Heflin J., Alaimo D., 2007. Creating contexts for instruction. In Students with autism spectrum disorders: Effective instructional practices. Рp. 127-130. Upper Saddle River.
2. Ghaderpanahi L., 2012. Using Authentic Aural Materials to Develop Listening Comprehension in the EFL Classroom. In: English Language Teaching. 6/2012. S. 146-153.
3. Harmer J., 1998. How to Teach English? Harlow: Longman, 1998. Pp. 198.
4. HatossA., 2004. A model for evaluating textbooks. In: Babel. 2/2004. S. 25-32.
