Using and Adapting Authentic Materials to Motivate Students - Handout

Sophia Teacher Training
STT_01_AuthenticMaterials_Handout_v6.docx 1
Using and Adapting Authentic Materials to
Help Motivate Students
Richard Pinner – rpinner@sophia.ac.jp www.uniliterate.com
Course description:
This course offers an insight into how best to select
and adapt authentic materials to use with students
as a way of exposing them to other cultures and
ways of thinking. It has been shown that authentic
materials are more motivating for students
(Peacock, 1997) and thus the class will feature
practical demonstrations of ways in which
authentic materials can be used to help motivate
students. In the class, participants will look at,
observe and demonstrate tasks which utilise
authentic materials and participants will also have
the chance to a adapt materials and design their
own tasks in a
hands-on
workshop.
Defining Authenticity
Alex Gilmore (2007) identifies eight ‘inter-related’ meanings from the literature:
1. “the language produced by native speakers for native speakers in a particular language
community
2. the language produced by a real speaker/writer for a real audience, conveying a real message
3. the qualities bestowed on a text by the receiver, in that it is not seen as something already in a
text itself, but is how the reader/listener perceives it)
4. the interaction between students and teachers and is a ‘personal process of engagement’
5. the types of task chosen
6. the social situation of the classroom
7. the relevance something has to assessment
8. culture, and the ability to behave or think like a target language group in order to be validated by
them”
Adapted fromGilmore (2007, p. 98)
Which of these definitions do you find the most convincing?
The Authenticity Continuum
In order to incorporate the majority of the speakers of English into the concept of
authenticity whilst also allowing for such important factors as motivation, autonomy and
identity, authenticity might best be considered not as a binary set of absolutes, or even
as a grey area with two extremes on either side, but as a continuum with both social and
contextual dimensions. The horizontal axis represents the social dimension of
authenticity, at one end the learner or individual and their needs, linguistic ability and
motivation to learn, at the other the target language use community. This might be an
L1 country such as the USA or UK, or it might be the international community where
English is used as a tool for communication in multilingual contexts, or it could even be
a workplace where English will be needed in order to interact with colleagues. The
vertical dimension of the continuum is meant to represent the context of language use.
The continuum presents the two contexts which are likely to be most relevant to
language learning; the classroom and the real world where the communication takes
place. (Pinner, 2012, 2014, 2016)
Native
Real
Self
Classroom
Task
Social
Assessment
Culture

Useful Definition of Authenticity for Teaching
In this training workshop we will use Tomlinson and Masuhara (2010, p. 400) definition which states
that authentic materials are ‘designed not to transmit declarative knowledge1
about the target
language but rather to provide an experience of the language in use.’ Students also need to
authenticate (Widdowson, 1978) the materials, which means undertaking “a personal process of
engagement” (van Lier, 1996).
Domains of Authenticity
Authentic Tasks
Put a number (1 – 3) next to each of these examples to decide
which you think is the most authentic task.
Example A: The teacher brings an English language
newspaper to class and has students read the text and
underline every instance of the present perfect aspect or
passive tense, and then asks them to copy each sentence
out into their notebooks.
Example B: The teacher uses an ‘inauthentic’ text from a published course book which was
contrived specifically to practise reported speech and then discusses other ways in which the
speakers from the text could have said the same thing in a different way.
Example C: The teacher asks students to use the internet to research about their favourite
celebrity or hero and then create a short presentation in English to the rest of the class about
that person.
Authenticity and Motivation
World Englishes and Authenticity
It is no longer possible to say that something is authentic just because it
comes from an American or British newspaper, and it is also no longer
possible to say something is not authentic for the same reasons. As David
Graddol says, “The future status of English will be determined less by the
number and economic power of its native speakers than by the trends in
the use of English as a second language” (2003, p. 157)
 Do you agree with the idea of World Englishes?
 Could you utilise World Englishes in your classes?
 How do you think your students would respond to this?
1
宣言的知識
Kachru (1985)
Authenticity MotivationThe relationship between student and
teacher motivation can be “either
positively or negatively synergistic”
(Deci, Kasser, & Ryan, 1997, p. 68)
Inner
circle
Outer
circle
Expanding
circle
Graddol (2007)
authentic
text /
materials
output /
production
tasks
language in
use

Dealing with Difficulty
 Authentic materials are more motivating – why? Perhaps because of culture and relevance
to the class. Perhaps because they are more engaging and feel ‘real’.
 Authentic materials are more difficult – why? Because the language in the texts has not been
modified for our learners. These texts are not intended for learners. So, are they only
suitable for advanced students? No, we can either adapt them or prepare our learners for
them.
 How can we overcome the difficulty problem? Teach our learners coping strategies, such as
the ‘panacea method’.
Context is the key to meaning. Remove the difficult words. Treat them like a jigsaw
puzzle. Ignore any words you cannot understand. Only focus on what words you
understand. Try other words to see if the sentence makes sense. When you find a
piece that fits, move on.
Other strategies
 Provide a vocabulary glossary
 Provide a straight translation
 Give the students plenty of time but engage them in the process of unlocking meaning.
Make them work to understand the text as this will help them learn new words better..
Selecting Materials
Choosing appropriate materials – what
factors should you consider?
 Age of your learners
 Language ability of learners vs.
difficulty of text (use Flesch-
Kinkaid to evaluate)
 Engagement / relevance of
materials to the learners (and
teacher)
 Sensitive issues which may be
inappropriate
Questions to help you select materials
 Do I (the teacher) find this
content stimulating?
 Will my learners find this
interesting?
 Is it suitable for my learners
(difficulty, age)?
 How does it fit in with the other
work we are doing in class?
 Will this be useful to them?
(assessment, future goal
Adapting Materials
Frieda Mishan (2005) advocates the consideration of 3 Cs – Culture, Currency and Challenge. Here is
another simple model for adapting/using authentic materials. Can you add any criteria to this
model?
Comprehension Form Focused (vocabulary and grammar). This should be dealt with in as interactive a way as possible – eg.
Students could simply match up the numbers 1 -6 with a – e or they could check the words in a dictionary and
teach them to their partners. Consider scaffolding.
Engagement Once the main ideas of the materials are clear and students have been given time to prepare and understand,
have them interact in a personal (authentic) way with the text/material. Eg. Asking opinions, debating,
responding etc. Materials need face validity
Reflection The students should be given a chance to reflect on the skills/language that they have used and the purpose
this has in their own learning. In other words, Autonomy training. Students should know something about
what and why they were learning.

Sean Penn broke out of jail: biography
December 27, 2004 www.smh.com.
Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn was once arrested for attempted murder before fleeing his jail cell
and escaping to Hong Kong.
The star dangled a photographer over a ninth-floor hotel balcony in Macau after catching him in his
room in 1986 while he was filming Shanghai Surprise, according to The Sunday Morning Post in Hong
Kong.
He was arrested and put in a cell with his personal assistant who helped him hold the photographer
over the balcony - but the pair escaped and jumped on a jetfoil boat and drove to Hong Kong.
The incident is revealed in interviews Penn gave author Richard Kelly for his biography, Sean Penn:
His Life and Times.
Penn, then aged 25 - travelled to Macau with then wife Madonna, tailed by a massive media circus for
the filming of the movie Shanghai Surprise, now widely seen as one of Hollywood's worst films.
Penn recalled how after walking into his hotel an intruder "lunged at him" and, helped by his personal
assistant who was also his kickboxing coach, "grabbed the guy, ran him through the room to the
balcony and hung him over - on the ninth floor".
It was then that Penn claims he realised the intruder was in fact a paparazzi photographer, one of
scores tailing the couple because of the intense interest in pop queen Madonna and her new
husband.
Police were called, according to the newspaper, and Penn said: "Five minutes later I'm in jail, on a
stone floor next to my friend, and everyone's talking Portuguese."
However, Penn noticed the cell door was ajar and fled with his assistant before jumping on a jetfoil to
escape Macau, then a Portuguese colony.
Penn was later given a pardon by the Portuguese Government, which ruled Macau until 1999, he
said.
The incident took place a year after Madonna and Penn married in August 1985. They were to divorce
four tumultuous years later.
His arrest in Macau was never reported, although the couple were widely reported to have had run-ins
with photographers in London, Hong Kong and Macau while they were on location for the film.
Filming in Macau was abandoned with no explanation at the time although one report said the film's
executive producer, ex-Beatle George Harrison, flew to Macau to try to defuse tensions between
Penn and photographers.
Madonna complained afterwards that the press had been "unbelievably vicious and rude" during
filming.
• Evaluate the ‘authenticity’ of each version of the handout.
Consider face validity and scaffolding.
• Now evaluate the content of itself. Would your students
engage with this as authentic? Would they be able to
authenticate this?

Sean Penn:
badass escape
Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn was once arrested for
attempted murder before fleeing his jail cell and escaping to
Hong Kong.
The star dangled a photographer over a ninth-floor hotel balcony in Macau after catching him in his
room in 1986 while he was filming Shanghai Surprise, according to The Sunday Morning Post in Hong
Kong. He was arrested and put in a cell with his personal assistant who helped him hold the
photographer over the balcony - but the pair escaped and jumped on a jetfoil boat and drove to Hong
Kong. The incident is revealed in interviews Penn gave author Richard Kelly for his biography, Sean
Penn: His Life and Times. Penn, then aged 25 - travelled to Macau with then wife Madonna, tailed by
a massive media circus for the filming of the movie Shanghai Surprise, now widely seen as one of
Hollywood's worst films.
Penn recalled how after walking into his hotel an intruder "lunged at him" and, helped by his
personal assistant who was also his kickboxing coach, "grabbed the guy, ran him through the
room to the balcony and hung him over - on the ninth floor”. It was then that Penn claims he
realised the intruder was in fact a paparazzi photographer, one of scores tailing the couple
because of the intense interest in pop queen Madonna and her new husband. Police were called,
according to the newspaper, and Penn said: "Five minutes later I'm in jail, on a stone floor next to my
friend, and everyone's talking Portuguese. “However, Penn noticed the cell door was ajar and fled
with his assistant before jumping on a jetfoil to escape Macau, then a Portuguese colony.
Penn was later given a pardon by the Portuguese Government, which ruled Macau until 1999, he
said. The incident took place a year after Madonna and Penn married in August 1985. They were to
divorce four tumultuous years later. His arrest in Macau was never reported, although the
couple were widely reported to have had run-ins with photographers in London,
Hong Kong and Macau while they were on location for the film.
Filming in Macau was abandoned with no explanation at the time although one
report said the film's executive producer, ex-Beatle George Harrison, flew to
Macau to try to defuse tensions between Penn and photographers.
Madonna complained afterwards that the press had been "unbelievably
vicious and rude" during filming.

Task: Adapting Authentic Texts
This evaluation criteria might help you to structure how you adapt these authentic materials.
Now please choose a spokesperson from your group and ask them to explain the lesson plan you
designed.
Form small groups
You will be given an authentic text to use
Discuss the merits of this text in groups
Plan a lesson which you think would be suitable for this text
Try to create some comprehension questions, discussion points and
communicative tasks
Explain your lesson plan to the class
Evaluation
• Age of your learners
• Language ability vs. difficulty of
text
• Engagement / relevance
• Sensitive issues / appropriateness
Adaptation
• Comprehension
• Engagement
• Reflection

Some Useful Resources
Name Link Description
D-Volver Movie Maker www.dvolver.com/moviemaker/ Have students make movies around a special theme or grammar point
Google Maps http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/
Use maps to practise directions, using relative clauses to indicate people or you could
have them plan a bank robbery using future tenses! So many options here.
Online Exchange
Programs
See mailing lists, you can also use Facebook and
other social networking tools
Organise a virtual exchange to immerse your students in other cultures and learn about
something new while using English
WebQuests
http://www.world-english.org/webquests.htm
and http://webquest.org/index.php
They come in all shapes and sizes or make your own!
BBC Learning English
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/lan
guage/wordsinthenews/
BBC news especially for EFL learners. Lessons and articles include MP3 files and
vocabulary glossaries.
Children’s BBC www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/ BBC news especially for kids
NHK http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/index.html Audio files and Japan centred news in English
Onestopenglish www.onestopenglish.com A huge source of downloadable lesson plans and discussion forums
Onestopclil
www.onestopenglish.com/clil - see also
www.CLILJapan.org
Worksheets and discussion for Content and Language Integrated Learning
British Council www.teachingenglish.org.uk
Lesson plans from the British Council. Great resources and great for learning British
culture.
TED.com www.ted.com Utterly brilliant site for video listening lessons, all with subtitles but quite high level.
Today program http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/default.stm High level but very topical and with downloadable podcast audio
IATEFL / TESOL mailing
lists
http://ltsig.org.uk/discussion-list.html or
http://calico.org/calico-l/calico-l-info.html. are
two examples
Great for finding exchange partners
Guardian lessons
www.onestopenglish.com/skills/news-
lessons/monthly-topical-news-lessons/
These are ready to go and have a choice of 3 levels.
Short Stories for Kids http://freestoriesforkids.com/short-stories A nice site for simple short stories with morals
Adapting from
Literature
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/britlit/landlady
as an example. Email me for more information
Nice literature lesson plan as an example
Japan Times www.japantimes.co.jp/ Great for high level news about Japan

Multimedia Resources and Authenticity
Because of Information Communication Technology, there is an almost unlimited source of
authentic materials available at our fingertips. Students can gain access to samples of the target
language in seconds, but not all the content is suitable or even good quality. The key is to know how
to find what you need for your class and to help students to assess the quality of the
sources they find.
Virtual Learning Environments
Does your school have a VLE? Moodle is free and easy to set-up and can provide a great
online resource for students and teachers to interact.
Online Cultural Exchanges
Although easy to set up these are perhaps the most authentic type of online
material because they are generated by real interactions with real people.
Contact a school in another country using an online forum and set up a place
online where students can chat and share messages. Facebook is a good way
to do this, or else create your own blog using WordPress or some other
online site. You can find virtual exchange partners by posting a message on
an online mailing list such as the IATEFL Learning Technologies Special
Interest Group2
or CALICO mailing list3
.
R.A.F.T.
These are Remote Access Field Trips. If you have any twin schools in other cities or countries, or have
colleagues in other institutions around the world, they can all mingle and collaborate online. A RAFT
might involve a week long project of making videos and posting them on an online forum or blog,
then responding to comments about where to go next for example. You could create a very
advanced and engaging sequence of lessons where classes collaborate with students across the
world. (Pinner, 2011)4
©opyright issues!
 Educational institutions have special permissions regarding copyright issues.
 Information in English and Japanese is available at http://www.cric.or.jp/
 If you are not sure, include the source and you should be fine!
 Displaying films and playing music are ok because you are not re-
selling or charging money like a cinema or concert.
To add references to each page easily, paste the source reference in the
footer of the document.
2
http://ltsig.org.uk/
3
https://calico.org/
4
This was taken from an article I wrote for English Teaching Professional magazine
http://sophia.academia.edu/RichardPinner

References
Chambers, G. N. (1999). Motivating language learners:
Multilingual Matters.
Cheng, L., & Watanabe, Y. (2004). Washback in language
testing: Research contexts and methods: Routledge.
Deci, E. L., Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1997). Self-determined
teaching: Opportunities and obstacles. In J. L. Bess
(Ed.), Teaching well and liking it: Motivating faculty
to teach effectively (pp. 57-71). Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press.
Gilmore, A. (2007). Authentic materials and authenticity in
foreign language learning. Language Teaching,
40(02), 97-118. doi:10.1017/S0261444807004144
Graddol, D. (2003). The decline of the native speaker. In G.
Anderman & M. Rogers (Eds.), Translation today:
trends and perspectives (pp. 152-167). Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters.
Graddol, D. (2007). Changing English (Revised ed.). Abingdon:
Routledge.
Kachru, B. B. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic
realism: the English language in the outer circle. In
R. Quirk, H. G. Widdowson, & Y. Cantù (Eds.), English
in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language
and Literatures (pp. 11-30). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Mishan, F. (2005). Designing authenticity into language
learning materials. Bristol: Intellect Books.
Peacock, M. (1997). The effect of authentic materials on the
motivation of EFL learners. ELT Journal, 51(2), 144-
156. doi:10.1093/elt/51.2.144
Pinner, R. S. (2011). Making the most of moodle. English
teaching professional(73), 64-66.
Pinner, R. S. (2012). Examining Authenticity and Motivation
from an International Perspective. JACET ESP Annual
Report, 14, 26 -35.
Pinner, R. S. (2014). The authenticity continuum: Towards a
definition incorporating international voices. English
Today, 30(4), 22-27.
doi:10.1017/S0266078414000364
Pinner, R. S. (2016). Reconceptualising Authenticity for English
as a Global Language. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Tomlinson, B., & Masuhara, H. (2010). Applications of the
research results for second language acquisition
theory and research. In B. Tomlinson & H. Masuhara
(Eds.), Research for materials development in
language learning : evidence for best practice (pp.
399-409). London: Continuum.
van Lier, L. (1996). Interaction in the language curriculum:
Awareness, autonomy and authenticity. London:
Longman.
Widdowson, H. G. (1978). Teaching language as
communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Further Reading
Jenkins, (2006) ‘Current Perspectives on Teaching World
Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca’ TESOL Quarterly
40(1) (pp. 157 – 181)
Richards, J.C. (2001). Curriculum development in language
teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Seargeant, P (2009) The Idea of English in Japan: Ideology and
the Evolution of a Global Language. Bristol: Multilingual
Matters
Sharma, P. and Barrett, B. (2007) Blended Learning: using
technology in and beyond the language classroom. London:
MacMillan Education
Watanabe, Yoshinori., Ikeda, Makoto., & Izumi., Shinichi Eds.
(2012) CLIL: New Challenges in Foreign Language
Education. Volume 2, Tokyo: Sophia University Press.
Summary
You can download the slides and additional resources at
www.uniliterate.com
• Please email me!
rpinner@sophia.ac.jp
• Please also checkout
www.cliljapan.com
Thanks for your attention and ‘keep it real!’

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