Bridging the Gap Between the Classroom and the Real World: Using authentic texts in the languages classroom

Wei Qu (wendyquwei@gmail.com)Kathy Purvis (kathy.purvis@uhs.sa.edu.au)

Authentic texts and authentic tasksAuthentic materials “reflect the outside world”

and “have been produced for purposes other than to teach language” (Nunan, 1988. p99).

Authentic texts are “substitutes for the community of native speakers within which ‘naturalistic’ language acquisition occurs” (Little, Devitt and Slingleton, 1988).

Authentic texts are written and read by native speakers for real communication rather than to teach language (Maxim III, 2002).

Authentic tasks allow students to respond to a resource in an authentic way.

Aims of using authentic texts are toenhance students’ understanding of meaning

and communication in the target languageteach students about the nature of the

language such as social purpose, linguistic items, cultural understanding and authentic natural language.

allow students to read updated language.inspire and motivate students by providing

relevant and engaging texts “bridge the gap between the classroom and

the real world” (Guariento & Morley, 2001).

Selected authentic texts Letters from Chinese Year 12 students. Each

target student received a different letter.Job advertisements1. Photos of five short advertisements were

taken in Adelaide’s China Town.2. A complete job advertisement, to which

students replied by writing an application letter and CV , was sourced from a Russian/Asian food stall in Adelaide Central Market owned by a Chinese.

Teaching and learning with authentic texts

Working with the letters

For the first task, a one on one conversation with the teacher about future careers and aspirations.

Start with the textbookRead and discuss the lettersWrite an English email in replyWrite a Chinese email in reply

The job applicationStarting with textbookUsing the five short job advertisementsPreparing for the major task using the job

advertisement supplied by the researcher’s friend

Students backgroundsStudent background1 English speaking background2 Born in Australia and of Malaysian background3 English speaking background4 Born in Australian and has only a smattering of

Cantonese language background5 Born in Australia and of Chinese-Vietnamese

background6 Born in Australia and of Malaysian background7 Born in Australia and of Malaysian background8 Born in Korea. Recently arrived in Australia9 Born in Cambodia. Recently arrived in Australia10 English speaking background

Students’ overall reflection of reading authentic texts

All students provided positive reflections on reading authentic text.

Generally, they reasoned that they could not only learn about how Chinese people think, but also real Chinese language use.

The intercultural reflection (the primary purpose of reading Chinese students’ letters ):

“I thought the cultural exchange of thoughts was helpful in broadening our perspectives of how the Chinese see the world and our future”. (S1)

“understand how Chinese people think” (S3)

“the nature of the jobs in China and what jobs the students are interested in at their level of study” (S10)

“a person’s life, opinions and thoughts on the current world” (S2)

students’ reflections of the content of the letters

Two questions about content of the letters:

1. What have you learnt from the letter about Chinese students’ thoughts about the future?

2. What differences and or similarities are there between the way you think about the future as a young Australian person and the way the Chinese student thinks in your letter?

S1’s reflection to these two questions:“I thought the cultural exchange of thoughts was

helpful in broadening our perspectives of how the Chinese see the world and our future.”

He then continued to comment: “The student used phrases that we would almost

never use in English, such as ‘ 我要用我微薄 的力量去关系我爱的和爱我的人，去回报 社会。’ (I want to use my small ability to look after the people who love me and whom I love and to give something back to society.) I don’t think this student thought very highly of herself. She seemed confident in her future but didn’t think her life was worth much. I thought this is quite opposite to much of Australians who quite like themselves.”

S6’s reflection to the two questions:“I have learned that Chinese students really take much consideration

about their future and that their parents may or may not have influences on the career path that they choose to take – my student said that her parents hoped for her to study medicine but just like a lot of us, she wanted to get into something she was interested in doing which for her was an occupation that involved economics….They also have a clear image on the kind of family they want; in my student’s case, marrying a husband that loves her along with a beautiful baby…Young Chinese students also take into consideration their parents which shows that they have much respect for them.”

“My student said that she’d like to help out her parents in any way – for example buy her dad a car because she knows he has a love and passion for cars. I don’t know whether it is because I come from a Malaysian background but I do find myself wondering about my parents after I have settled with a job and family and what I could do to help them out – I think there is this Asian custom to look after parents when they reach old age whereas there are such places like nursing homes here in Australia.”

Students’ reflection on language learning from authentic textsthe majority of the students (7 of 9) found that

they learned “real”, “generally used” and “updated” language not found in textbooks.

1) “textbooks only show a piece of time that’s not up-to-date and doesn’t give people the colloquial words or grammar”. (S2)

2) “It was good to have been exposed to authentic text because not everyone speaks or writes like how text is presented in the Chinese textbooks”. (S6)

3) “The way Chinese is being presented is changing time to time”. (S7)

Task authenticity Not all students considered that writing a job application for a real job ad is a real task.

Year 12 students: an assessment task “did not want to work”, “not an appealing

job” and “time frame inconvenient” (S2).“The letter wouldn’t be truly treated like

an application” (S4)

Year 11 students: 4 students: to convey information

1 student: to complete an assessment task1. The real stall and the pictures on the job

advertisement made the task real.2. They were informed that their letters would

be submitted to the boss.

Conclusion From teacher’s perspective, using authentic

texts in the classroom is time consuming.From students’ perspective, they enjoyed the

challenge of reading ‘real’ Chinese written by real and identifiable Chinese people.

There is no doubt that, if well chosen and

suitably adapted, engagement with

authentic texts does indeed “bridge the gap

between the classroom and the real world”.

Reference Guariento, W & Morley, J 2001, 'Text and task authenticity in the EFL classroom', ELT

Journal, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 347-353.

Lee, WY-c 1995, 'Authenticity revisited: Text authenticity and learner authenticity', ELT Journal, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 323-328.

Liddicoat, AJ, Papademetre, L, Scarino, A & Kohler, M 2003, Report on intercultural language learning, DEST, Canberra.

  Little, D, Devitt, S & Singleton, DM 1988, Authentic texts in foreign language teaching:

theory and practice, Authentik.

 Maxim III, H 2002, 'A study into the feasibility and effects of reading extended authentic discourse in the beginning German language classroom', The Modern Language Journal, vol. 86, no. 1, pp. 20-35. 

Nunan, D 1988, The learner-centred curriculum, Cambridge University Press, NY.   Scarino, A & Liddicoat, AJ 2009, Teaching and learning laguage: A Guide, Australia, <

http://www.tllg.unisa.edu.au/lib_guide/gllt.pdf>.