Assignment C - Part 3

Essay

600-700 word Essay on Using Authentic Materials and the Internet

Please write the essay under the four headings given.

a) The value of using authentic materials in foreign language teaching:

When we are planning our class, we always need to think about what we going to bring to the
students. Knowing how to use authentic materials is very important.
Even when we have a book to base our class on, sometimes the text in it will not be something
that our students will be interested in or can be too difficult for them.
When we decide to use authentic material, we can bring to class something that students may
enjoy practicing and learning from.
That will make it easier for the teachers to make their students pay attention to what they are
reading because they really want to understand that text.
We also bring to class a material that wasn't made to help students, this video, text, etc, is what
natives are in contact with, and not something designed for learning purposes. That builds a wide
variety of useful vocabulary spectrum which is reflected in actual life. Also, we show our students
that they can understand and practice with newspapers or YouTube videos, for example, and that
will help them see how much they improved and maybe make them start to listen or read those
things at home, creating a new habit.
And we can't forget that sometimes we use books that are not updated, so maybe the material in
it is talking about something that is not in our daily routine anymore, so with authentic materials,
we can bring, a new text, for example, that will be about something we use nowadays.

b) Reasons for the selection of this text and the 12 vocabulary items. Rationale for changes to
text, if applicable.
And all of this was in my mind when I was choosing the authentic material, I wanted to bring
something that is very updated, focused on technology, and that would make students curious, so
they will pay attention while reading.
At the same time, I needed to bring materials that could bring new vocabulary and knowledge to
students on a C2 level.
That’s what I focused on when choosing the 12 worlds in the text, all of them were words that
would be relevant to the understanding and were items that they likely wouldn’t understand due
to their difficulty level.

c) Why my activities are appropriate for this class:

The first activity will help them understand each new vocabulary, with it they will be able to see
the parts of the speech, pronunciation, meaning, and how to use the words in different tenses.
In the second one, they will use the internet to learn a little bit more about the devices that can be
used to have a healthier life, they will also see the new vocabulary in many of these websites and
articles. Finally, they will use this search to help them answer their classmates on the last activity.

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Where they need to give the name of some technological device and what they use them for,
putting in their own context what they have learned.

d) Advantages and disadvantages of using the internet as a resource for classroom teaching:
(You are not required to talk about teaching online)
Regardless of opinion or our daily experience, the internet became part of our student's lives,
which makes it part of our class. We need to learn how to use it to our benefit and teach students
how to use it too.
Online we can find a lot of authentic materials that can improve the quality of our class, also
students can use them to search for new information or to have contact with the learning
language.
But pay attention, because not only them but us, as teachers, have to be careful while choosing
the websites, today anyone can post anything on the internet, that’s why we always need to check
the source and only use truly reputable sites.

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