ASSIGNMENT: 3

COURSE: TEACHING LISTENING AND SPEAKING

AUTOR: OSHIMEJE STANUISLAUS

TOPIC: AUTHENTICITY IN THE CLASSROOM

Authenticity in the classroom refers to the use of authentic materials in form of text or task or situations
with the sole aim of exposing students to the language as it is used in the real world, this approach is
often viewed by many language teachers and content creators, in the recent years to be of utmost
importance. However, there have been a diverging and contradicting opinions on determining which
phase of language learning is most appropriate to include authentic materials in the learning process.
This is as result of the fact that most authentic materials might be confusing to some group of learners
depending on their level, for example an authentic text from a newspaper may be confusing to learners
A2 level in the sense that some languages constructed naturally may not have a structure or form that
would easily be recognized by a lower level leaner or in the case of higher level learners they may not
be familiar with the situation which could undermine the initial purpose of authenticity. nevertheless,
making the right choice of authentic materials and being able to use them at the right phase of language
learning process can a long way in improving students’ confidence and motivation towards language
learning.

I am of the school of thought that authenticity should form an integral part of language learning process,
it may have its downsides but if carefully and technically incorporated in the classroom, its numerous
benefits to Language learning cannot be overestimated. After all, Language is meant to be spoken and
the idea of language is to be able to communicate in the real world So imagine the shock a student that
have only been thought throughout his language learning process that the greeting in English is HOW
ARE YOU? I AM FINE THANKS AND YOU. whereas in real life situation many native speakers do not even
almost use that in their Day to day natural authentic conversation as we all know its quite more
common to hear Native speakers say things like HOW ARE YOU DOING, WHAT’S GOING ON , HOW IS IT
GOING , WHAT’S UP , just to mention but a few, I strongly believe that a student who is exposed to this
kind of real world greetings at different phases of his or her language acquisition process will for sure
feel more confident and comfortable to respond when in contact with these variations in a real world
forms of exchanging greeting , therefore I strongly believe that teachers have to be authentic in
classroom.

The author’s main idea is to call readers attention to the importance of differentiating between text-
based authenticity and task-based authenticity and how the former can deviate from the original
purpose of authenticity if not properly adapted and how the latter has a greater flexibility to its
adaptation in different phases of leaning. I particularly think that task-based authenticity is undoubtably
relevant in my teaching context as I regularly strive to create tasks and activities that enable my students
have the real-life experience of the real world in the classroom but however being able to integrate both
approaches is vital for Language learning.