Part 1
The following statements are all controversial. Do you agree or disagree with them? Provide concrete examples and account for your answers based on the reading material assigned for today (Widdowson, Breen & Nunan)
1) It is not possible to have real authenticity in the classroom.
2) All pedagogy involves some form of simplification.
Part 2
Read the following short article and think of one more creative way to add to the list: http://www.fluentu.com/english/educator/blog/authentic-materials-for-teaching-english/
Answer the following questions based on the text "What is the history of reading and writing?" 1) Find examples of fixed expressions, semi-fixed expressions and collocations. 2) Think of a possible teaching context and plan three activities to present the new vocabulary. You may use or adapt any of the sample exercises in chapters 6 and 7. 3) Based on your experience wirking with the text proposed, What would you say are the pros and cons of this approach? Do you agree with the following statement by Thornbury (p.11): "Lewis offers us a prospect of a journey, even an exciting one, but it is a journey without maps". Discuss your answers in pairs.
1) Considering the classroom to be an artificial environment, I agree with Nunan's view of deauthentication. He states that any material we bring into the classroom is deauthenticated because it was not written with that purpose in mind.
ReplyDeleteWiddowson on the other hand, says that it's up to the teacher and the task given to reauthenticate the text, by giving meaningful, relevant tasks that can be applied in real-life situations.
I agree with both views, because whereas it's true that texts (not even coursebook ones) aren't written with a classroom audience in mind, we as teachers can make them meaningful by adapting them and creating tasks appealing to students.
2) If we consider Nunan's view of no text brought to the classroom being authentic, we can think of simplification as a solution, even though Widdowson suggests that this would also be deauthenticating. If we consider foreign stories, such as Matilda, we will find several instances of cultural citations in the story. So, in order to make the text understandable and the story easy to follow, simplification is in order. I agree with this view if it's applied in classrooms of a beginner level. But with intermediate or advanced, cultural references can be exploited in order to understand the language better.
Very good points, Agustín! Can you please complete part 2 before class next Monday? Thanks!
DeletePART ONE
ReplyDelete1) I agree with Nunan’s point of view. It is impossible to have absolute authenticity in the classrooms since they are designed to facilitate the learning process and this implies that the material will be modified in a way to facilitate the learning process. However, on the other hand, it is true that teachers can make material authentic for their students so they find it meaningful and they learn the conventions of the language being learnt.
2) As we have already discussed in class, simplification is usually present in the classroom environment to facilitate the language learning process. Teachers tend to ‘de-authenticate’ material in order to help their students understand what they are being taught. In my opinion, simplification should be used with students at a starter level only when necessary. Teachers should find ways of providing tools that aid comprehension of the conventions of the foreign language that will be useful at any time.
PART TWO
Imagine your students have learnt vocabulary related to ‘travelling’. You can ask them to work in groups and think about a place they would like to visit. Then, they should plan their trip using the ‘Trip Advisor’ app on their phones in order to get useful information. Later on, you can also ask them to prepare a short presentation for the whole class to show what they have done, using the vocabulary items learnt.
By preparing a task like this one, we encourage our students to be in contact with authentic material and to use the language learnt in a lesson in a creatively and meaningful way.
Great ideas Juli! Very creative task. Well done!
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