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Abstract:
An important task of the modern higher education system is teaching
reading. This has led to an increase in educators’ motivation for the target language
as materials and technology have been chosen properly. The following article
emphasizes the importance of authentic materials in teaching English during the
lesson. Using authentic materials during the lesson gives several opportunities
to achieve success in learning a foreign language. Authentic materials are basic
sources of information to develop learners’ interest. Opinions which are used in
this article will be useful for the teachers and students who are used authentic
materials during the lesson.
Key words:
authentic materials, teaching reading, language learning, text, real,
understand
There has been a growing interest in using authentic materials for the teaching
of reading. In order for learners to acquire the target language, teachers need to
present the real reading situation of the language. Although authentic materials
have a positive impact on learners and teachers, they may give difficult for readers
to catch and understand the text. Thus, some considerations should be taken in
order to develop appropriate and effective reading skills. Reading means different
things to different people, for some, it is recognizing written words while for others
it is an opportunity to teach pronunciation and practice speaking. However, reading
always has a purpose. It is something that we do every day, it is an integral part of
our daily lives, taken very much for granted and generally assumed to be something
that everyone can do. The reason for reading depends very much on the purpose
of reading. The use of authentic materials in the classroom is discussed, with the
student benefiting from the exposure to real language being used in a real context.
Other aspects which prove positive when using authentic materials are that they are
highly motivating, give a sense of achievement when understood, and encourage
further reading. They also reflect the changes in the use of language, there is a
wide variety of text types, and they are also very versatile (they can be used in
different ways to promote different skills) and can be used more than once as well
TURSUNOVA RAKHIMAKHON
VALIJANOVNA
Namangan State University. Master of
Linguistics Faculty
АUTHЕNTIC RЕАDING
SОURCЕS IN
TЕАCHING ЕNGLISH
FОR STUDЕNTS
ОF PЕDАGОGICАL
UNIVЕRSITIЕS
https://doi.org/10.47689/STARS.university-pp150-156
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as be updated. Anything can be used as authentic material but for developing
reading one of the most useful resources is the Internet, with large amounts of
varied material being easily accessible. One of the main reasons for using authentic
materials in the classroom is once outside the “safe”, controlled language learning
environment, the learner will not encounter the artificial language of the classroom
but the real world and language and how it is really used. The role of the teacher is
not to delude the language learner but to prepare him, giving him the awareness
and necessary skills so as to understand how the language is actually used. 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). asking whether their use is “inconsistent” with the principles
of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).
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) in contrast to
non-authentic texts that are specially designed for language learning purposes. The
language in non-authentic texts is artificial and varied, concentrating on something
that has to be taught and often containing a series of “false-text indicators” that
include:
– perfectly formed sentences (all the time);
– a question using a grammatical structure, gets a full answer;
– repetition of structures;
– very often does not “read” well.
The artificial nature of the language and structures used, make them very unlike
anything that the learner will encounter in the real world, and very often they do
not reflect how the language is really used. They are useful for teaching structures
but are not very good for improving reading skills (for the simple fact that they
read unnaturally). They can be useful for preparing the learner for the eventual
reading of “real” texts. If authentic texts have been written not for language
learning purposes but for completely different ones, where do they come from
and how are they selected? The sources of authentic materials that can be used
in the classroom are infinite, but the most common are newspapers, magazines,
TV programs, movies, songs, and literature. One of the most useful is the Internet.
Whereas newspapers and any other printed material date very quickly, the Internet
is continuously updated, more visually stimulating as well as interactive, therefore
promoting a more active approach to reading rather than a passive one.
From a more practical point of view, the Internet is a modern-day reality, most
students use it and for teachers, there is easier access to endless amounts of
many different types of material. From an even more practical/economical point
of view, trying to obtain authentic materials abroad can be very expensive, an
English paper/magazine can cost up to 3-4 times the price that it usually is and
sometimes is not very good. Often having unlimited access in the workplace,
and looking for materials costs nothing, only time. Authentic materials should
be the kind of material that students will need and want to be able to read when
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traveling, studying abroad, or using the language in other contexts outside the
classroom. Authentic materials enable learners to interact with the real language
and content rather than the form. Learners feel that they are learning a target
language as it is used outside the classroom. When choosing materials from
various sources, it is therefore worth taking into consideration that the aim should
be to understand the meaning and not the form, especially when using literary
texts with the emphasis being on what is being said and not necessarily on the
literary form or stylistics.
Nuttall gives three main criteria when choosing texts to be used in the classroom
suitability of the content, exploitability, and readability. The suitability of content
can be considered to be the most important of the three, in that the reading
material should interest the students as well as be relevant to their needs. The
texts should motivate as well. Exploitability refers to how the text can be used to
develop the student’s competence as a reader. A text that cannot be exploited for
teaching purposes has no use in the classroom. Just because it is in English does
not mean that it can be useful. Readability is used to describe the combination of
the structural and lexical difficulty of a text, as well as referring to the amount of
new vocabulary and any new grammatical forms present. It is important to assess
the right level for the right students. Variety and presentation also influence the
choice of authentic materials. A reading course can be made more interesting if a
variety of texts is used. Students very often find it very boring when dealing with
only one subject area, as can be the case when dealing with English for Specific
Purposes (ESP). One of the advantages of using texts dealing with the same
subject area is that they use the same vocabulary, with the student having to make
very little conscious effort to learn it. While on the contrary, the student becomes
highly specialized in that particular area and not in others. Whether the text looks
authentic or not, is also very important when presenting it to the student. The
“authentic” presentation, through the use of pictures, diagrams, and photographs,
helps put the text into context. This helps the reader not only understand the
meaning of the text better but also how it would be used. A more “attractive” text
will appeal to the student and motivate them into reading. It may seem to be a
very superficial aspect but the appearance of any article is the first thing that the
student notices. An “attractive” looking article is more likely to grab the reader’s
attention rather than a page full of type. Very often it is so easy to download just
an article from the Internet and present the student a page full of impersonal
print, without taking any of these factors into consideration. Other factors worth
taking into consideration when choosing authentic material for the classroom can
include whether the text challenges the students’ intelligence without making
unreasonable linguistic demands, does the language reflect written or spoken
usage, is the language in the text natural or has been distorted in order to try
and include examples of a particular teaching point? It is also important that the
text lends itself to being studied, can good questions be asked about it, or are
tasks based on it created? Above all does the text make the student want to read
for himself, tell himself something he doesn’t know as well as introduce new and
relevant ideas?
Important Factors in Choosing Authentic Reading Material
Does the text interest the student? Is it relevant to the student’s needs?
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Does it represent the type of material that the student will use outside of the
classroom? Can the text be exploited for teaching purposes?
For what purpose should the text be exploited? What skills/strategies can be
developed by exploiting the text? Is the text too easy/difficult for the students?
Is it structurally too demanding/complex? How much new vocabulary does it
contain? Is it relevant? Does it “look” authentic? Is it “attractive”?
Does it grab the student’s attention? Does it make him want to read more?
Important Factors in Choosing Authentic Reading Materials
The concept of authenticity is central to CLT, with the learner being exposed
to the same language as a native speaker. Four types of authenticity within the
classroom have been identified and in particular the use of authentic texts:
The authenticity of the texts which we may use as input data for our students;
2. Authenticity of the learners’ own interpretations of such texts;
3. Authenticity of tasks conducive to language learning;
4. Authenticity of the actual social situation of the classroom language. (Breen
1985:61)
Widdowson has a process-orientated view of authenticity, making a distinction
between “authentic” and “genuine”. Genuine is an example of native speaker
language, while authentic is a native speaker response (it can also include the
response the writer intended when writing the text.):
“The language presented to them may be a genuine record of native speaker
behavior, genuine, that is to say, as textual data, but to the extent that it does
not engage native speaker response it cannot be realized as authentic discourse.”
(Widdowson 1990:45) Authenticity can therefore be considered to be the
interaction between the reader and the text and not just the text in itself. Reading is
considered to be an ongoing interaction, going beyond the physical context of the
text, looking for meaning as well as processing information. Goodman takes this
even further claiming that reading is “…an essential interaction between language
and thought…” (1988:12). Where the writer encodes his thoughts as language and
the reader decodes the language into thought.
The Use of Authentic Reading Materials in The Classroom.
One of the main ideas of using authentic materials in the classroom is to “expose”
the learner to as much real language as possible. Even if the classroom is not
a “real-life” situation, authentic materials do have a very important place within
it. It has been argued that by taking a text out of its original context, it loses
its authenticity: “As soon as texts, whatever their original purpose, are brought
into classrooms for pedagogic purposes they have, arguably, lost authenticity.”
(Wallace 1992:79)
Even if it is true, the learner is still exposed to real discourse and not the artificial
language of course textbooks, which tend not to contain any incidental or improper
examples. They also tend to reflect the current teaching trend. Authentic materials
also give the reader the opportunity to gain real information and know what is
going on in the world around them. More times than not, they have something to
say, be it giving information, or a review. They also produce a sense of achievement.
Extracting real information from a real text in a new/different language can be
extremely motivating, therefore increasing students’ motivation for learning by
exposing them to a ‘real’ language (Guariento & Morley 2001). They also reflect
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the changes in language use, (again something that does not occur in textbooks,
which become very dated, very quickly) 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 proof that the language is used for real-life purposes
by real people.” (Nuttall 1996:172)
The wide variety of different types of text.
The advantage of taking a complete newspaper or magazine into the
classroom, rather than photocopies of an article, is that students can actually
choose what they want to read. The more the learner reads, the better a reader
will become, not only improving his language level but also his confidence. If
the text interests the learner, it can also be related to his own experiences. One
of the aims of authentic materials is to help the student react in the same way
L1 speakers react in their first language (L1). Learners who live in the target language
environment, once outside of the classroom will encounter a variety of situations
in which different reading purposes/skills are required. We can claim that learners
are being exposed to real language and they feel that they are learning the ‘real’
language. The main advantages of using authentic materials in the classroom
therefore include:
– having a positive effect on student motivation;
– giving authentic cultural information;
– exposing students to real language;
– relating more closely to students’ needs;
– supporting a more creative approach to teaching.
These are what make us excited and willing to use authentic materials in our
classrooms, but while using them, it is inevitable that we face some problems.
The negative aspects of authentic materials are that they can be too culturally
biased, often a good knowledge of cultural background is required when reading,
as well as too many structures being mixed, causing lower levels of problems when
decoding the texts (Martinez 2002).
Students often bring copies of newspaper articles (in particular the tabloids)
or song lyrics to the classroom, asking to translate them after having looked
up each word in the dictionary and not understanding a single word. Richards
(2001) notes that authentic materials often contain difficult language, unneeded
vocabulary items, and complex language structures, which can often create
problems for the teacher too. They can also become very dated, very quickly
but unlike textbooks can be updated or replaced much easier and more cost-
effectively. The biggest problem with authentic materials is that if the wrong
type of text is chosen, the vocabulary may not be relevant to the learner’s needs
and too many structures can create difficulty. This can have the opposite effect,
rather than motivate the learner, it can de-motivate and in Krashenite terms
“put up the effective filter”.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Authentic Reading Materials.
When bringing authentic materials into the classroom, it should always 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. Authentic
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materials 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.
A possible solution is to give text-related tasks. They are three basic types:
Pre-reading: used not just to test or compensate for linguistic/socio-cultural
inadequacies but also used to activate existing schemata;
While-reading: used to encourage the learner to be a flexible, active reader and
also to promote a dialogue between reader and writer;
Post-reading: often are questions that follow a text, used to test understanding
but sometimes a good schema will be enough.
Rather than just simplifying the text by changing its language, it can be made
more approachable by eliciting students’ existing knowledge in the pre-reading
discussion, reviewing new vocabulary before reading, and then asking students
to perform tasks that are within their competence, such as skimming to get
the main idea or scanning for specific information, before they begin intensive
reading. The reading approach must be authentic too. Students should read
the text in a way that matches the reading purpose, the type of text, and the
way people normally read. This means that reading aloud will take place only in
situations where it would take place outside the classroom. Reading is an activity
with a purpose. The purpose of reading guide the reader’s selection of texts.
The purpose of reading also determines the appropriate approach to reading
comprehension.
Any instruction materials can be used as authentic material but for developing
reading one of the most useful resources is the Internet, with large amounts of
varied material being easily accessible. One of the main reasons for using authentic
materials in the classroom is once outside the “safe”, controlled language learning
environment, the learner will not encounter the artificial language of the classroom
but the real world and language and how it is really used. The role of the teacher is
not to delude the language learner but to prepare him, giving him the awareness
and necessary skills so as to understand how the language is actually used. Having
made a distinction between authentic and non-authentic material and evaluated
the use of them in the classroom, it is worth taking into consideration Davies
who wrote: “It is not that a text is understood because it is authentic but that
it is authentic because it is understood. …Everything the learner understands is
authentic for him”. (Davies 1984:192)
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