Authentic Materials

CELTA
 Authentic Materials
Look at the following text from a coursebook.
Answer the questions:
• Who wrote it?
• Who is intended to read it?
• What is its purpose?
• What is the quality of the English like?
 • TEXT
• THE YEAR
• Teacher: "Comrades, today we shall speak about the year, its seasons, months
and the weather. Answering my questions try to give the fullest answers you
can because the more you speak English, the sooner and the better you will
know it. What season will you begin with. Captain Nosov?"
• Captain Nosov: "Let it be autumn, because our school-year be­gins on the 1st of
September, and September is the first autumn month. Though, it is not so cold
in autumn as it is in winter, the weather is seldom fine. In October and
November it often rains. The days are shorter and the nights are longer than in
summer. As for me I don't like this season and stay indoors most of the time.
• Autumn is a busy time with us, student's, because we work hard at many
subjects and begin preparing for the military parade. As the anniversary of the
Great October Socialist Revolution is celebrated on the 7th of November, we
have marching drills every other day.
• Teacher: "Good, Captain Nosov, you may take your seat. And what season
comes after autumn. Major Somov?"
• Major Somov: "After autumn comes winter It is the coldest season of the year.
The winter months are- December, January and February. The 22nd of
December is the shortest day of the year. In winter it does not rain, but it often
• Who wrote it?
• Professors in Minsk State Linguistic University
(Belarusians)
• Who is intended to read it?
• Officers in the Soviet army.
• What is its purpose?
• To teach English, reading? Vocabulary?
• What is the quality of the English like?
• Very unnatural: Let it be autumn, Autumn is a busy time
with us, student's, you may take your seat.
Look at the following text from a coursebook.
Answer the questions:
• Who wrote it?
• Who is intended to read it?
• What is its purpose?
• What is the quality of the English like?
• What does it look like?
• Has the English been graded?
•
READING
• Celebrity interview
• Which celebrities are in the news at the moment? Why
are they in the news? What have they done?
• Look at the article from Hi! Magazine. Who is the
couple in the interview? Are there magazines like this
in your country? What sort of stories do they have?
• Read the article quickly and put these questions in the
right place.
•  
• Have there ever been times when you have
thought ‘This relationship isn't working'?
• Terry, footballers are usually hard, but you
seem very sensitive. Why is this?
• You're both terribly busy in your separate
careers. How do you find time to be together?
• How did you two meet?
• How do you find being superstars
• 4 Read the article again and answer the questions.
• Why are they famous?
• They are both successful in their careers. What have
they done?
• In what ways are they normal people? What is not
normal about their lives?
• How do you know they're in love?
• Was it love at first sight?
• What is their attitude to newspapers and 'other
people'?
• Why do some people want them to split up?
• In what way is Terry unusual for a footballer?
• 5 Work in groups of three. Read the text aloud.
• Language work
• 6 Choose the correct tense.
• Donna and Terry are I have been I were together for
two years.
• They like I have liked I liked watching TV on
Saturday night.
• They meet i have met I met after a football match.
• They have lived I live i lived in their new home
since April.
• Terry is / has been / was in love just once.
• A lot of people would love to see us
split up. People have accused Terry of
things ... Terry: Of course you have to
be prepared to give and take in any
relationship. There's a trust between
us, and as long as that's there, we will
last.
• Terry: It's because this is the first time
I've been in love. I think that when
you meet the person that you want to
spend the rest of your life with, you
change. You become a softer person.
• Donna: We mean the world to
each other. Neither of us will do
anything to spoil it.
Look at the following text from a coursebook.
Answer the questions:
• Who wrote it?
• John and Liz Soars (British coursebook writiers)
• Who is intended to read it?
• Students of English
• What is its purpose?
• To teach reading skills
• What is the quality of the English like?
• Completely natural.
• What does it look like?
• Pages from a magazine.
• Has the English been graded?
• Yes.
 Look at a newspaper:
• Answer the questions:
• Who wrote it?
• Who is intended to read it?
• What is its purpose?
• What is the quality of the English like?
• What does it look like?
• Has the English been graded?
• Answer the questions:
• Who wrote it?
• Journalists. Probably native or near native speakers of
English.
• Who is intended to read it? Probably native or near
native speakers of English.
• What is its purpose?
• To inform and entertain.
• What is the quality of the English like?
• High, journalese.
• What does it look like? A newspaper.
• Has the English been graded? No, although the style
will suit the target audience.
 Complete the sentences:
Non authentic texts are written by ________
For __________. They look like __________
_______ ________.
The English may vary a lot in how _________ it
is.
It is often specially written to contain
__________ _________ __ __________
 Complete the sentences:
Non authentic texts are written by language
teachers
For students. They look like course book
materials.
The English may vary a lot in how natural/
accurate it is.
It is often specially written to contain vocabulary
or grammar items.
Semi authentic texts are written by ______
_____ _________
For students. They look like _ ________
_________
The English should be _________ but may be
__________
It is often specially written to contain
__________ _________ __ __________
Semi authentic texts are written by course book
writers
For students. They look like a specific genre
The English should be accurate but may be
graded
It is often specially written to contain
vocabulary or grammar items.
• Authentic texts are written by ______
_______ ________
• For _______ ________ ________
• Their purpose is ___ _________
• They are not __________ __ ________
________.
• Authentic texts are written by (near) native
speakers.
• For (near) native speakers.
• Their purpose is to inform.
• They are not intended to teach English
 Advantages and disadvantages of authentic
materials
One side of the class One side of the class
consider the consider the advantages
disadvantages
• Exchange info in new
pairs.
 Advantages and disadvantages of authentic
materials
Disadvantages
• It can be unnecessarily
complex for the ss to
understand.
• It contains the whole salami
which means much of it is
beyond the ss’ level.
• It doesn’t contain idiomatic
English.
• It is written to contain vocab
or grammar points to teach
Advantages
• They get a thrill from
reading something real.
• It contains the whole
salami and is therefore
natural.
• It contains idiomatic
English.
• It’s difficult to pull out
vocab or grammar points to
teach
 Assignment set up
Skills Related Tasks.
• AIMS
• To develop your ability to work on learners'
skills development  
• to make use of authentic texts 
• to encourage background reading on ELT-
related topics.
• WORD LIMIT 
• 750-1000 words (excluding the actual tasks)
• PREPARATION
• Find a piece of authentic material that is
appropriate for use with one of your TP groups
in terms of their needs, interests and level of
abilities. It is acceptable to adapt the original
material by shortening it, for example.
However, the material must be authentic so
you must not re-write the actual text in order
to adjust it to the students’ level.
• Do some background reading on skills
development. We suggest “Learning Teaching”
by Jim Scrivener, “How to teach English” by
Jeremy Harmer or “The Practice of English
Language Teaching” by Harmer.
PART 1
• Explain why you have chosen your material,
stating what it is and why you think it is
appropriate. You should say why it is
appropriate for your particular group (the
students’ interests, abilities, etc.) and which
group it is intended for (max.100 words)
PART 2
• Decide on a receptive skill and then two sub-skills of
that skill that the material could help to develop and
design tasks that give the students practice in these
sub-skills. In Part 2:
• a) describe the tasks briefly and how the tasks would
fit into the lesson as a whole – what would precede
the tasks and what would follow them for example
and
• b) state your rationale clearly and why you think your
tasks are suitable for the material and how they
develop the particular receptive skills chosen. (max.
450 words)
PART 3
• Decide on a follow-up productive skills activity and
design a task (or tasks) for the material that gives
the students practice in the given skill. Note that this
should be a skills-based activity, not a grammar or
vocabulary practice activity. Design the task. In Part
3: a) describe the task briefly and b) give your
rationale, say why you think your task is suitable for
the material and how it develops the productive skill
chosen. (max. 450 words)
In at least one of the parts you need to make
some reference to your background reading
(appropriately referenced). This should be
quoted as part of your text, not merely
referenced at the end.
• Please attach appendices containing a copy of
both the materials and the tasks in the form in
which you would use them in a real lesson.
You should submit both the original text and
the adapted text where you have done so.
With the productive skills task, if it is a task
that you would set up orally, you should attach
the actual instructions that you would use.
• Common reasons for this assignment needing to be resubmitted
•
Not relating the material to your TP group and their needs,
interest, level, etc.
• Not linking your task to the stated (sub-)skill; for example, saying
that you want to develop gist  
•          reading skills, and then designing a task which doesn't
require students to read for gist.
• Not making any reference to your background reading.
• Not attaching the material and tasks as you would use them in
class.
• Assessment criteria
• correctly using  terminology that relates to
language skills and sub skills
• relating task design to language skills practice 
• finding, selecting and referencing information
from one or more sources
• using written language that is clear, accurate
and appropriate to the task