Dr. Jon Mills outlines arguments for and against using authentic texts in the classroom. He discusses how authenticity depends on a text's context and how learners are outsiders to this context as non-native speakers. While authentic texts can motivate learners and serve as models, the classroom cannot replicate the true context of a text. Especially constructed semi-authentic texts may therefore better serve students' writing needs. Finding suitable authentic texts also requires significant time and effort to ensure appropriateness. Overall, authentic texts are best for teaching comprehension while constructed texts can better model writing structures.

1. Dr Jon Mills

2. Outline
• Reasons for using “authentic texts”
• The impossibility of authenticity
• Text in context
• Register: Context of situation
• Authenticity within the context of situation
• Conclusion

3. Reasons for using “authentic texts”
• Motivation
• Availability
• To serve as a model
• Our task as teachers

4. Impossibility of authenticity
“I would, on the contrary, argue against using
authentic language in the classroom, on the fairly
reasonable grounds that it is actually impossible to do
so. The language cannot be authentic because the
classroom cannot provide the contextual conditions for
it to be authenticated by the learners. The authenticity
or reality of language use in its normal pragmatic
functioning depends on its being localised within a
particular discourse community. Listeners can only
authenticate it as discourse if they are insiders. But
learners are outsiders, by definition, not members of
user communities. So the language that is authentic
for native speaker users cannot possibly be authentic
for learners.”
(Widdowson 1998: 711)

5. Text in Context Context of
Culture
Genre
Context of
Situation
Register
Text

6. Register: Context of Situation
Field
Mode
Text
Tenor

7. Authenticity in Context of Situation
• The Ideational Metafunction
• Subject Matter
• Concepts
• Terminology
Authenticity
of Field
• The Interpersonal Metafunction
• Participants in the Communicative Process
• Task
• Formality
Authenticity
of Tenor
• The Textual Metafunction
• Lexicogrammatical Features
• Discourse Pattern
• Thematic Progression
Authenticity
of Mode

8. Difficulties finding suitable texts
• Time spent
• Appropriateness

9. Time spent finding suitable material
“Not surprisingly, producing one hour of
good learning material gobbles up hours
of preparation time. Each stage of
finding suitable carrier content,
matching real content to learning and
real world activities, composing clear
rubrics, planning an effective layout, is
time-consuming. Estimates vary but
15:1 can be considered a minimum.”
Dudley-Evans and St John 1998: 172

10. Difficulty finding appropriate text
Suitability
Field:
Ideational appropriateness
Ideational difficulty
Mode:
Text typological appropriateness
Grammatical difficulty
Tenor:
Communicative purpose

12. The context of the classroom
“… the classroom cannot provide the contextual conditions
for it to be authenticated by the learners. …. So the
language that is authentic for native speaker users cannot
possibly be authentic for learners” (Widdowson 1998: 711).
• Lessons oriented towards
Reading
• Focus on ideation
– Comprehension tasks
• Focus on reading techniques
– Skimming, scanning, etc.
Writing
• Focus on form / lexicogrammar
– Discourse pattern
– Paragraph structure
– Discourse markers,
– Etc.

13. Conclusion
• Authentic texts are authentically read for the
ideas that they contain.
And so are best suited to ideational tasks
Authentic texts may also be suitable for teaching
reading techniques, such as skimming and scanning.
• Especially constructed semi-authentic texts
usually serve better as a model students’
writing.
• Authenticity of task
The project essay

14. Bibliography
Dudley-Evans, Tony & Maggie-Jo St John (1998) Developments in
English for Specific Purposes Cambridge: CUP.
Gregory, M. (1967) “Aspects of Varieties Differentiation” Journal of
Linguistics 3, pp. 177-98.
Halliday, M.A.K., A. McIntosh & P. Strevens (1964) The Linguistic
Sciences and Language Teaching London: Longman.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1967-8) “Notes on Transitivity and Theme in English”,
pts. 1-3 Journal of Linguistics 3.1, 3.2, 4.2.
Swales, John M. (2009) “When there is no Perfect Text: Approaches to
the EAP Practitioner's Dilemma” Journal of English for Academic
Purposes 8, 5-13.
Swales, John M., and Stephanie Lindemann (2002) “Teaching the
Literature Review to International Graduate Students” Genre in the
Classroom: Multiple Perspectives ed. Ann Johns, Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 105-119.
Widdowson, H.G. (1998) “Context, Community, and Authentic
Language” TESOL Quarterly 32.4 pp. 705-16.