This document discusses using authentic texts for language learning. It covers three main advantages: culture, currency, and challenge. For culture, authentic texts incorporate the target language culture and help learners build cultural schemata. For currency, authentic texts cover current topics and emerging language. They also better motivate learners. However, coursebooks struggle to represent diverse English cultures or learners' native cultures. The document proposes using local context-specific materials instead of global coursebooks. It also notes authentic texts provide intrinsically challenging but effective language input at all proficiency levels.

1. Integrating currency,
challenge, and culture
in English materials
(Mishan, 2005, pp.44-94)
Prepared by:
Tahere Pormooz
Course:
Materials Development
Instructor:
Dr. Nafissi
Fall, 2020

2. We will cover…
Chapter 3: Authentic texts for language learning
(the pedagogical rationale)
Why to use authentic texts?
Chapter 4: Authentic texts and authentic tasks
How to develop authentic tasks?

3. Chapter 3: Authentic texts for language learning
(the pedagogical rationale)
Purpose: pedagogical arguments for the use of authentic
texts for language learning:
The 3 c’s:
1. culture: Authentic texts incorporate and represent the
culture of the speakers of the target language.
2. currency: Authentic texts offer topics and language in
current use, as well as those relevant to the learners.
3. challenge: Authentic texts are intrinsically more
challenging yet can be used at all proficiency levels.

4. 1. Culture
1. Anthropological definition
(culture with a small c)
The total body of tradition born by a
society and transmitted from generation to
generation. It thus refers to the norms,
values, and standards by which people
act, and it includes the ways distinictive in
each society of ordering the world and
rendering it intelligible (Murphy, 1984: 14).
2. Traditional definition
(Culture with a capital C)
“Intellectual refinement” and artistic
achievement of a society, its
literature, art, and music.
• These two concepts are interdependent. The intellectual product of a
society affect but at the same time reflect the behaviors and values of its
people and the framework within which they function.
• The vital element common to both these facets of culture is language.

5. The relationship between
language and culture
*The relationship between language and culture has been endlessly
emphasized over the centuries.
*Sapir and Whorf were early linguists who pointed out the language-culture
relationship.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: The language we use affects the way we view
and think about the world around us. Language is a guide to social reality.
* We cannot understand neither language nor culture if we study them in
isolation.

6. Byram, 1991: Language is not simply a reflector of an objective cultural
reality. It is an integral part of that reality through which other parts are
shaped and interpreted. It is both a symbol of the whole and a part of the
whole which shapes and is in turn shaped by sociocultural actions, beliefs
and values. In engaging in language, speakers are enacting sociocultural
phenomena; in acquiring language, children acquire culture [...] Given this
theoretical viewpoint, it follows that to teach culture without language is
fundamentally flawed and to separate language and culture teaching is to
imply that a foreign language can be treated in the early learning stages as
if it were self-contained and independent of other sociocultural
phenomena.
Conclusin: The language teaching materials should present the culture
of target language. And if the texts used for learning the language are to
truthfully represent the target culture, they must be ones that are products
of both of and for that culture, i.e. authentic texts.

7. How authentic texts can lead to successful language learning?
The cultural element present in authentic texts is not necessarily explicit.
Students need to be trained to extract appropriate information from the material.
Rather like a page written in invisible ink, the cultural message is there to be
read, but only if one has learned how to make the invisible writing appear. Such a
skill is known as cultural awareness and involves sensitivity to the impact of
culturally-induced behavior on language use and communication. Such
awareness will lead to empathy – an important step in successful language
learning being the capacity to identify with the target language culture. However,
In learning about another culture it is impossible to be entirely objective, since the
native culture quite simply ‘gets in the way’. Drawing comparisons and contrasts
between cultures can serve as a useful exercise or as a starting point for deeper
explorations into them. It can also broaden understanding and ultimately improve
the learner’s ability to communicate with native speakers of target culture.

8. Authentic texts
• Target culture films, television programmes,
newspaper/magazine articles, literature and so on.
• They give learners the opportunity to observe target
culture customs, behaviors, and interactions, and
thus to infer underlying values and attitudes.
• Authentic texts, therefore, help the learners to build a
sort of “cultural framework” for language. This leads
to one of the most important theories associated with
language-culture bond: schema theory.

9. Schemata: “cognitive networks that encapsulate our
expectations of how the world works”
Schemata may thus be conceived as structured groups of
concepts which constitute generic knowledge about events,
scenarios, actions, or objects that has been acquired from past
experience.
Schemata are culture-specific and to some extent idiosyncratic
since these concepts are formed within an individual’s mind
influenced by his/her own cultural background and personal
experience. They are an individual’s notional representation of
social norms which s/he has constructed during the process of
acculturation into his/her own culture. When processing language
input, the reader/listener effectively ‘maps’ the input against an
existing schemata that is compatible with the incoming
information.
1.1. Schema theory

10. An example of how schemata works:
The policeman held up his hand and stopped the car.
In comprehending of this sentence one needs layers of implicit knowledge to
come into play:
1. A knowledge of the mechanics of a car (which has a system to stop it)
2. An assumption that there was a driver inside the car (who operated the
system)
3. A knowledge of the conventions regarding traffic control and the role a
policeman might play in it
The knowledge required to understand this sentence might be termed as
“traffic cop schema”.

11. Thus, comprehension emerges through an interactive and cyclical process
occurring between the reader’s background knowledge and the text. This
process is far more vigorous in the case of the non-native speaker/reader
who is in the process of creating new sets of schemata for his/her new
linguistic culture. Nunan, for instance, cites a study which found a lack of
appropriate background knowledge to be a more significant factor in the
ability of L2 learners to understand school texts than linguistic complexity.
The importance of background knowledge to comprehension of a text is
illustrated in this example:
A group of Japanese students initially had difficulties comprehending a
passage from the Roddy Doyle novel “Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha” where the
young protagonist’s father pretends to talk to Father Christmas by shouting
up the chimney. The students were familiar with the Father Christmas
tradition, as it has been adopted to some extent in Japan, but were
apparently not familiar with the use of the chimney as Father Christmas’s
traditional mode of entry into houses.

12. In short, schema theory gives a psycholinguistic interpretation to
the role of cultural knowledge in the learning and understanding of
the target language. The emphasis it places on acquiring knowledge
of the target culture is one of the strongest arguments for the use of
authentic texts which incorporate this cultural information. It also
begs two further questions which will be dealt with in following.
First of all, how can we talk about a ‘target language culture’ in the
case where the language is used by many different societies and
cultures, as is the case with English?
Secondly, how can such a disparate selection of English speaking
cultures be adequately represented in ELT coursebooks?

13. 1.2. English as an International language
The relativism that is inherent in the concept of culture is nowhere
more apparent than in the context of an international language
such as English. English is spoken worldwide in many diverse L1
and L2 cultures which inevitably embody many different sets of
values, customs and life experiences.
English is used as an International Language in the fields of
tourism, business,
entertainment. And as
science, technology, education and
Modiano points out, ‘English is now a
prerequisite for participation in a vast number of activities. The
global village is being constructed in the English language as are
the information highways’. Modiano also notes the phenomenon of
the use of English by non-native speaker artists to create cultural
artefacts such as songs in order to access global markets.

14. Multiple English language cultures:
The existence of multiple English language cultures might be represented via
some version of the Venn diagram, overlapping in some areas but separate in
others:
Example: the ‘overlap’ of sports such as cricket in the
former British colonies, India and Pakistan, places where
another element, religion, distinguishes the cultures.

15. 1.3. Culture and the ELT coursebook
The ELT coursebook as a genre has to deal
with two culture-related problems:
1. One regards the English language culture it
presents.
2. The other regards the culture(s) of the
learners who use it.

16. Presentation of culture in ELT coursebook
 From the 1980s, the ELT coursebook was mainly Anglo-centric,
‘relentlessly British’, projecting Western, white, middle-class values and
educational attitudes.
 Today’s coursebooks offer international stories and topics rather than
the predominantly British-oriented ones. They look more towards other
English-speaking countries. For example, “Language to Go Pre-
Intermediate” (Cunningham and Mohamed, 2002) has texts about
Australia, India, and a number about the USA.
 In representing Britain, the ‘white middle-class’ aspect of the
coursebook has begun to shift. The proportion of British people from
ethnic groups figuring in coursebooks is now more reflective of British
society. However, ‘successful’ people, such as sports and entertainment
personalities figured mainly among white people. Representation still
remains insistently middle class, both in populace and the activities they
pursue, giving the typical ELT book that clean, happy, smiley glow
normally attributed to the advertisement.

17. British culture or global culture?
ELT coursebook is still caught in its attempt to serve two
masters, British culture and global culture. By acknowledging
English as a world language, the ELT coursebook serves the
requirements of its non-Anglo-centric global audience, who
have little interest in British or other English L1 cultures. But in
doing so, the coursebook risks denying its cultural roots and
transmuting into an a-cultural entity. For example, the
International Express series’ Pre-Intermediate coursebook has
only two sections about the UK and one about Australia.
Where coursebooks do retain a tighter language and-culture
link, this tends to remain largely that of the UK, with the
behaviors, customs and values portrayed in them being too
culture-specific for teachers and learners using them in non-
UK settings.

18. How far has ELT book gone in fostering cross-cultural
awareness in its users?
In a survey of 15 coursebooks published between 1997 and 2002, less than
two-thirds had any material aimed at raising cross-cultural awareness, and only
two made serious attempts at this (and these had the same author and were
part of the same series: International Express Intermediate and Pre-
Intermediate). Materials on this subject in coursebooks are generally neutral.
They tend to take the form either of fairly bland texts giving examples of cross-
cultural differences or of ‘culture quizzes’ which test learners’ superficial
knowledge of the customs of other cultures.
Maley (1993): We need materials that sharpen observation and encourage
critical thinking about cultural stereotypes. However, the commercial demand
for cross-cultural acceptability takes priority by most ELT coursebooks and has
a neutralizing effect on the materials designed on this issue.

19. The culture of the learners
 Cultural factors: work ethos, eating habits, leisure activities, etc.
 Here, we consider one key cultural factor: pedagogical cultures of the learners.
 Learning is a culturally-conditioned behavior. Such aspects as teacher-learner
relationships, learning styles, degree of learner autonomy and so on, all vary between
cultures. If the native learning culture is ignored and unsuitable teaching models
enforced, this can be confusing, traumatic and unproductive to learning.
 Example: The task-based and problem-solving activities requiring group work which
are so characteristic of the Communicative Approach are distinctly student-
orientated and represent Western modes of communication that are alien to those of
the East. Learners from the collectivist cultures of Japan, Korea and China find it
hard to adapt to the Western concept of group work. These cultures have very
teacher-centered traditions. Students from such cultures cannot be expected to learn
via activities which constrain them to behave ‘in ways which are both alien to their
educational culture and forbidden in their daily life’. Similarly, activities which
encourage personal expression might actually be seen as improper to learners from
cultural contexts, such as China, in which self-expression is not suited to so ‘public’ an
arena as the language classroom.

20. Proposed solution
Practitioners are realizing that the only appropriate means of dealing with the
cultural diversity of the language learner is to avoid using materials produced for a
global market and gear materials’ production to a local level, publishing
local/national or context-specific coursebooks, or using collections of materials or
context-specific syllabi. Such materials might be authentic texts drawn from the
local English-speaking culture, ones that are relevant to the teaching context or
ones that are simply of interest to a particular group of learners. The basic point is
that texts and materials should be ‘culturally and experientially appropriate for
learners’; that is to say, that account should be taken of both the native culture of
the language learners (and this includes pedagogy), and of the English language
culture most relevant to them.

21. 2. Currency
 The second advantage of using authentic texts
for language learning is their providence of
current topics and language.
 Here, currency is a key word which encompasses
up-to-date-ness and topicality as well as
relevance and interest to the learner.

22. How can using authentic texts foster learners’ motivation?
As Ellis puts it, motivation depends on ‘engaging students’ interest in classroom
activities’. Ellis goes on to point out that an important part of that motivation is the
desire for communication. Using texts which will provide incentives to
communication is thus an important motivating factor, and this is where the
authentic text comes into play. Such texts can spur intrinsic motivation, in that they
help to stimulate ‘natural curiosity and interest’ which ‘energizes’ the students’
learning. The motivational impulse that the authentic text can provide is particularly
strong for integratively motivated learners who are interested in absorbing or
integrating into the culture of the target language.
In addition, using authentic texts, teachers can opt to cover issues that are more
controversial or have more ‘adult’ content than those contained in the ELT book, in
order to meet the interests of their learner groups. They can include controversial or
even taboo subjects for ELT books such as sex drugs, religion, death, drugs, war,
violence, politics, poverty, relationships and alcohol, all subjects customarily avoided
by the ELT coursebook treading the minefield of cultural sensitivities laid by the
trans-global reach of its market.

23. 2.1. Currency and language
The key word currency applies not only to subject matter but to language.
Language is constantly changing and growing, and no more so than in the
decades witnessing the growth in communications technologies: ‘an area of
huge potential enrichment for individual languages’. In preparing learners for
their experience with the language, teachers should keep learners ‘at the
cutting edge’ of language change. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the Internet
offers us ever growing quantities of authentic texts disseminating and
propagating the new varieties of language associated with its various
applications (e.g. electronic mail, chat rooms and the Web) and the neologisms
they have spawned. In the many corpora of the spoken language, thousands of
film scripts and numerous chat rooms accessible on-line, the Internet offers us
an unmatched resource of the spoken language in flux.

24. Deficits of ELT coursebook in providing current language
 Fossilization of the language of the time of publishing on print medium
 Non-inclusion of spoken and nonstandard language (spoken language is
classed as nonstandard and ungrammatical by textbooks)
For example: “Ain’t” is classed as ‘widely disapproved as non-standard and
more common in the habitual speech of the less educated’ by the Merriam
Webster Dictionary
knowing up-to-date language is especially important for learners who want to be
able to use their English in native speaking context. The absence of such
language from pedagogical works can be a source of frustration and puzzlement
as learners struggle with the subtleties of appropriacy of language registers.
Today, this ‘gap’ in the language that we are teaching our students is gradually
being narrowed, as findings from the field of corpus linguistics begin to inform
pedagogical works. Drawing on corpora of the spoken language, rules are being
codified from the spoken, rather than the written language, redressing the
written-spoken balance.

25.  Since in using authentic texts for language learning, currency and content are
important, coursebook syllabus is replaced with a more text-driven
framework.
 A text-driven approach, in contrast with grammar-driven language syllabus,
works in a converse fashion, in that it starts with (authentic) texts, and derives
the language features to be studied from these. Rather than presenting the
learner with the ‘pre-packaged formula’ of a grammatical feature, samples of
its use and explanation of its structure, it uses a consciousness-raising
activity.
 Consciousness-raising activity: a pedagogic activity where the learners
are provided with L2 data in some form and required to perform some
operation on it, the purpose of which is to arrive at an explicit understanding
of some linguistic property of the target language. It allows learners to
discover and make hypotheses about structures of use, based on how they
perceive them operating in the input data.
2.2. Text-driven syllabus

26. The text-driven syllabus is (ideally) drawn up by the learners on an individual
basis, with the teacher schematizing a master-syllabus for his/her own records.
The syllabus is built up based on the ‘discoveries’ of the learners, and thus
arises organically from the texts studied. The text-driven syllabus may be
concretized as follows. The sets of hypotheses or rules ‘discovered’ by the
learners can be consolidated into a structure or layout akin to a traditional
grammar book, consisting of sets of headings (either grammatical or functional),
under which come explanations, examples and references. The syllabus can be
stored either on file (electronic or paper) or on a database, so that items can be
added and further examples of contexts or usages can be inserted as they are
encountered. Even if the teacher has to meet the requirements of a prescriptive
syllabus, this can be done by cross-referencing it to the ‘organic’ one to check
that the required grammar points are being covered.
How to develop a text-driven syllabus?

27. 3. Challenge
 The most famous representation of the concept of challenge in second language
acquisition can be seen in Krashen’s i+1 by which was indicated that input is
comprehensible to the learners even when above their current proficiency level.
 The degree of comprehensibility can logically be linked to that vital factor for
learning, motivation, which is only fostered where learning materials and tasks
pose a reasonable challenge to the students - neither too difficult nor too easy.
 Conversely, the fact of successfully rising to a challenge is in itself motivating,
building confidence and a sense of achievement; when students realize they can
successfully deal with and understand authentic texts, confidence in their target
language abilities increases. This has been particularly demonstrated in recent
years in relation to language learners’ use of the Internet, with the technological
as well as linguistic challenges that this presents.

28.  Gaining the ability and confidence to rise to a challenge can foster another
affective factor which impacts learning: the readiness to take risks in the target
language.
 Risk-taking: refers to things such as guessing meanings based on context or
background knowledge, speaking even if risking making mistakes and so on.
Risk-taking is vital to learning, as long as these risks are moderate but
intelligent. According to Oxford, lack of practice in risk-taking can seriously
inhibit language development.
Conclusion: Materials such as authentic texts which offer a challenge to
language learners, also give them the opportunity to rise to it, and to take
calculated risks, thereby boosting affective factors essential to learning,
confidence, self-esteem and motivation.
Authentic texts and risk-taking

29. Argument: Authentic texts pose difficulty to lower level learners.
Answer:
 Despite their limited proficiency in the language, students need the challenge and
stimulation of addressing themes and topics which encourage them to draw on their
personal opinions and experiences. Challenge as a factor of the subject matter itself
is thus also an important impetus for learning, one that correlates with affective
factors of appeal and potential for engagement.
 Challenge is not only a factor of the input text, however, but of the task required of the
learners. It is the task, with its inbuilt element of challenge to the learner, which is
central to using (authentic) texts for language learning, in that the task ‘mediates’
between the learner and the text. It follows that texts can be made accessible to
learners not by simplifying these, but by adjusting the demands of the task involving
them. As Grellet says (in the context of reading skills): ‘The difficulty of a reading
exercise depends on the activity which is required of the students rather than on the
text itself. In other words, one should grade exercises rather than texts’.
Answering an argument

30.  A core principle in grading tasks is to make the task appropriate to the text. This is the
basis of the concept of task authenticity where it is suggested that tasks should
coincide with the communicative purpose of the text, and be a ‘rehearsal’ or
‘approximation’ of tasks performed with the text in real life.
 There are many tasks to be used with authentic texts which are suitable for learners
from all levels.
 A useful principle to bear in mind in designing tasks for lower level learners is that
‘partial comprehension of text is no longer considered to be problematic since this
occurs in real life’. If there is no requirement for detailed, word-for-word decoding of the
input text, then quite complex ones can be used, with the tasks set reflecting the
learners’ own levels.
Example: Fairly simple but authentic tasks appropriate to newspaper and magazines
articles include getting the gist of the text by reading headlines, subheadings, first
sentences of paragraphs, scanning for key words and using existing knowledge of a news
story to clarify meaning. Significantly, these are some of the most common strategies
applied to newspaper reading by native speakers.
3.1. Grade the task not the text

31.  One of the aspects of the authentic text that is most significant in
making it appropriate for learners of all levels, is its richness of context.
Today’s TV news relates to yesterday’s and last week’s and to news
accessed on other media; personalities and places are real and
contextualizable, and presentation formats are familiar. Background
knowledge is a resource to be exploited in learning and one which is
not the prerogative of learners at high proficiency levels.
Conclusion: All this means that in developing strategic competencies,
texts do not need to be simplified; it is what learners are expected to do
with the texts that has to be controlled.

32. Authentic texts are not uniform in their level of (linguistic) difficulty. For
example, the essential information in a foreign language menu can
probably be understood even by someone with an elementary knowledge
of the target language, while a target language newspaper might prove
too challenging. Therefore, texts are ‘naturally graded’ and can be found
for the full range of learner proficiency levels. certain songs,
advertisements, TV programmes, films, Internet discourse, poetry and
novels are intrinsically linguistically ‘simpler’ than others. Obvious
examples include ‘action’ songs, dialogue-free TV advertisements, TV
weather forecasts (because of their visual component), and poems such
as limericks. In some literature, stylistic simplicity is adopted as the
writer’s trademark.
3.2. The ‘naturally graded’ authentic text

33. Chapter 4: Authentic texts and authentic tasks
Purpose: construct a pedagogic framework which
interprets the authenticity-centered approach and
provides us with a practical teaching method
We will discuss:
 Task
 Towards a framework for task authenticity
(guidelines for task authenticity)
 Task typologies

34. The contemporary notion of task as a pedagogical model was engendered
within the Communicative approach to language teaching. Task emerged
around the mid 1980s as the model for full-blown methodologies.
Although a definitive definition of the term task remains elusive because it
tends to differ according to the purposes for which the task is used, it is
nevertheless useful to consider a few well-known definitions.
1. Task

35.  Prabhu (1987): A task is an activity which requires learners to arrive at an
outcome from given information through some process of thought and which
allows teachers to control and regulate that process.
 Nunan (1989): A communicative task is a piece of classroom work which
involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing and interacting in
the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather
than form.
 Willis (1996): A task is a goal-oriented communicative activity with a specific
outcome where the emphasis is on exchanging meanings not producing specific
language forms.
 Skehan (1996): A task is an activity in which meaning is primary; there is some
sort of relationship to the real-world; task completion has some priority; and the
assessment of task performance is in terms of task outcome.
 Cook (2000): As a pedagogical model, the task is inherently authentic; the focus
is on ‘getting the job done’, in line with its connotative associations with work.
Definitions of task

36. A distinctive feature of the task in language pedagogy is that in pursuit of its goal, it
comprises a number of stages which vary both in their degree of focus on language form,
and in their degree of autonomy from the teacher and from learners.
For example, in the Bangalore project reported by Prabhu (1987), the task had three
stages, each with differing teacher/learners relationships:
• the pre-task (whole class activity, under teacher guidance and control, in which the goals
of the task were clarified)
• the task (individual or voluntary collaborative work, with assistance sought from the
teacher if necessary)
• assessment of the task outcome (teacher marking of individual student’s written statement
of the task outcome)
 Explicit language analysis was absent in Prabhu’s model. It was believed that
meaningful communication was sufficient to develop proficiency in the language, it thus
eschewed rule- or form-focused activities.
Variability of degree of language focus and
teacher/learner autonomy in different task stages

37. In the context of the task, it became necessary to devise methods of
focusing on form without losing the values of tasks as realistic
communicative motivators. Thus, in more contemporary models of
task, the language focus constitutes an essential element.
For example, Willis’ (1996) task stages include:
• Pre-task (introduction to the topic of the task)
• Task cycle (consisting of three parts, the task, planning and report)
• Language focus (analysis of language used, practice of new
words/patterns)
Language focus as an essential element of task

38. Nunan specifies four components for a task; the goals, the input, the activities
derived from this input and the roles implied for the teacher and learners.
 Goal: ranges from ‘the general intentions behind any task’ (the general
communicative outcomes) to the tighter definition of a goal as a concrete
outcome.
 Teacher/learner roles: A radical shift in teacher/learner roles had been
precipitated by the Communicative approach. CLT loosened the reins of
teacher control, allowing learners to turn to each other in the quest for real
communication, and the initiative has been gradually transferred from the
teacher to the learner. The teacher’s role has changed to that of guide,
facilitator and resource.
 Input: this is presupposed, in the context of this chapter, to be authentic texts.
 The activities derived from the input: the main concern of this chapter (task
authenticity)
Nunan’s model of analyzing the task

39. Task authenticity:
 Authentic tasks or ‘real-world’ tasks are contrasted with traditional ‘pedagogic’ tasks.
Authentic tasks require learners to approximate, in class, the sorts of behavior required of
them in the world beyond the classroom.
 Pedagogic tasks engage learners in tasks they are unlikely to perform outside the
classroom.
 The rationale for ‘real-world’ tasks is that they constitute a rehearsal for real-world
situations.
 Example: a ‘real world’ task might be to read a newspaper article and write a letter to the
newspaper editor about it. The corresponding ‘pedagogic task’ would be to read a
newspaper article and answer comprehension questions on it.
 The distinction between the authentic task and the pedagogic one is not always clear.
Tasks may be more or less ‘real’ to different learners and thus induce greater or lesser
involvement depending on individual needs, interests and motivations. This suggests that
task authenticity is in great measure a factor of task authentication, i.e. it depends on the
learner’s response to it. Authenticity, in other words, is a factor of the learner’s involvement
with the task.
2. Towards a framework for task authenticity

40. What makes a task authentic? (criteria for task authenticity)
1. Tasks should reflect the original communicative purpose of the texts on
which they are based.
 It is impossible to understand a text if one is not aware of its function.
 Authenticity is a function of the interaction between the reader/hearer and the
text which incorporates the intentions of the writer/speaker.
 Exercises must correspond as often as possible to what one is expected to do
with the text.
 We should not ask a student to listen without identifying - or helping him identify
- a purpose that relates to the communicative value of the text (referring to
listening skills).
 The meaning that we ask students to extract should be related to the meanings
the intended reader is expected to derive from the text - i.e. the writer’s intention.

41. 2. Tasks should elicit response to/engagement with the text on which they
are based.
 All text is conceived with some reader/listener response in mind, be this
internal and affective/cognitive (pleasure, engagement, curiosity) or external
(an action).
 Authenticity is a characteristic of the relationship between the passage and
the reader and it has to do with appropriate response.
 Within the idea of response is implicated some level of engagement:
Authenticity is not brought into the classroom with the materials or the lesson
plan, rather, it is a goal that teacher and students have to work towards,
consciously and constantly. Authenticity is basically a personal process of
engagement.
 Authenticity in this context, is a subjective concept. What is an authentic and
absorbing task to one learner may not be for the next.

42. 3. Tasks should be appropriate to the text on which they are based.
 Teaching materials should reflect the authentic communicative purpose of the
text by ensuring appropriacy of task.
 This is a significant factor since it challenges that trusted staple of the language
teaching tradition, the comprehension question: We rarely answer questions
after reading a text, but we may have to write a letter, use the text to do
something, compare the information to some previous knowledge. Answering
questions, particularly when the questioner already knows the answer, is an
inauthentic and mechanistic procedure.
 This is not to dismiss the importance of checking comprehension of texts, but to
point out that this has to be done in ways that are respectful of learners’
sensitivities and intelligence, via questions or tasks that are appropriate to the
texts. This might be done by asking students to redraft the ending of a story, or
to script a dialogue between the characters. Such an activity can extend and
deepen learners’ involvement with a text, and at the same time their
understanding of it can be inferred from their scripts.

43. 4. Tasks should approximate real-life tasks.
 Tasks should be considered as a rehearsal or approximation of ‘real world’
behaviors.
 The precise outcome/s of a task cannot be anticipated and do not necessarily
correspond to its goals. For example, e-mail is increasingly used in language
learning as a way for learners to correspond with native speakers of their target
language; but results for such a task as ‘getting details about the target
language culture’ from the NS partner can vary enormously, from no response at
all, to the NS sending the learner a long list of culture-related Web sites. The
task (and the teacher devising it) has to be versatile enough to absorb this
variability.

44. 5. Tasks should activate
language and culture.
learners’ existing knowledge of the target
 No text stands culture-free, nor does the reader/listener of the text come to it
as a cultural tabula rasa. The cultural ‘baggage’ of the reader/listener
includes his/her native cultural background plus his/her knowledge of the
target culture.
 Authentication of the task by the learners is in part a factor of the cultural
baggage, both native and foreign, that they bring to it.
 The effects of culture works not only at the level of the input, but at the level
of pedagogic interaction. For example, group work has a rather different
function in collectivist cultures such as Japan, Korea and China. Learning
activities, in other words, are culturally conditioned behaviors.

45. 6. Tasks should involve purposeful communication between learners.
 Real communication takes place between learners, i.e. that communication
is meaningful in that it has a genuine purpose.
 The task-based approach aims at providing opportunities for learners to
experiment with and explore language through learning activities which are
designed to engage learners in the authentic, practical and functional use of
language for meaningful purposes.
 The idea of genuine purpose is relative to the aims of the communicator.
The purpose can range from getting a practical outcome - such as obtaining
information or receiving a response to an e-mail message, to one that is
specific to the context of the language classroom.

46. In short:
In order for tasks to be authentic, they should be designed to:
1.Reflect the original communicative purpose of the text on which they
are based.
2. Be appropriate to the text on which they are based.
3. Elicit response to/engagement with the text on which they are based.
4. Approximate real-life tasks.
5.Activate learners’ existing knowledge of the target language and
culture.
6. Involve purposeful communication between learners.
* The next step is to expand on these guidelines with their practical
implementation in mind.

47. What is communicative purpose?
 Communicative purpose is defined as ‘what we do through language’.
It refers to what people want to do or accomplish through speech.
 Communicative purpose is a defining factor of the genre of a text
(other factors include structure, content, form, intended audience and
medium), genre being primarily characterized by the communicative
purpose(s) it is intended to fulfill.
 Since communicative purpose is not the sole factor identifying genre,
commonality of communicative purpose does not guarantee
commonality of genre.
 Some genres may have sets of communicative purposes. For
instance, the overt communicative purpose of a news broadcast may
be informative, but there may be elements of persuasive intent.
2.1. Guideline 1: Consistency with communicative purpose

48. Three basic categories of communicative purposes:
1. Transactional: conveying ‘factual propositional information’ with
a view to obtaining goods, services etc. (proposed by Brown and
Yule)
2. Interactional: maintaining social relationships (proposed by
Brown and Yule)
3. Reactional: the desire to make listeners/readers react personally
to other people’s ways of seeing things (proposed by Duff and
Maley).

49. Wilkins’ proposed set of communicative purposes:
1. Persuasive: includes speech acts such as advising, ordering,
warning, threatening and permitting. (transactional function)
2. Engaging: engaging the emotions, imagination etc. internally
(reactional function)
3. Provocative: causing an external manifestation of inner emotion, in
the form of an oral response, physical action etc. (interactional
function)

50. Table I: Flow chart showing derivation of communicative purpose
l s the text intended toprovoke:
Theperform ance of a
physical action?
A productive reaction?
An emotive/intellectual
response?
Passive reception of text?
Does this entail:
7
7
following instructions?
purchase/use of goods/services?
Communicative
purp ose
7 lnstn,ctional
7 Persuasive
7 producing oral/written information? 7
7 oral/written reaction which
advances interaction?
Soliciting
anticipated oral/written follow-up?
no anticipated follow-up?
no anticipated follow-up?
7 Interactive
"? Provocative
7 Engaging
7 Informative

51. Table 2: Desa-iption of communicative pu1p oses
Nomenclature Communicativep11rpose
of text is to
Ba sic
funct ion
communicative
Informative transmit information Transactional
Persuasive persuade (re. pu rchase,
action etc.)
opin ton, Transactional
Soliciting interact or transact (business or
personal)
Transactional
Instructional give instruction for implementing a
process
Transactional
Provocative provoke emotive I intellectual I
kinaesthetic reaction
lnteractional
Interactive inte rac t or tra ns act (bu siness or
per sonal)
en gag e imag inat ion/e motio ns
(including humour)
Jnteractional
Engaging Reactional

52.  Designing learning tasks to reflect the original communicative purpose of
texts presupposes the factor of appropriacy.
 This factor can be said to have two perspectives, one looking to the text,
the other to the interaction between the learner and the text:
1. The first perspective looks to the medium, discourse type and
communicative purpose of the authentic text and derives the task from
this.
2. The second looks to the learner and includes his/her anticipated
reaction/response to, and level of engagement with the text.
2.2. Guidelines 2 and 3: Appropriacy, response and
engagement

53.  Maintaining appropriacy requires the task designer to look at a text and envisage
a way of handling it that reflects its treatment by native speakers: Does the NS
reader skim it, scan it, study it word-for-word or simply refer back to it for
guidance? Does the listener listen carefully to words being spoken, listen for the
main points only or pay more attention to musical or visual elements?
Furthermore, what is the reader/listener’s relationship or attitude to the text? Is it a
text which instils respect or emotion (a poem, a classic pop song), is it one that
produces a momentary emotive response (a joke, a photograph), or is it of little
consequence (a memo, a weather forecast)?
 Inappropriate tasks such as inserting comprehension questions between the
paragraphs of a humorous anecdote, or asking learners to point out activities
using phrasal verbs in a distressing press photograph of women grieving on
learning of a child’s death, can be avoided, and ones sensitive to the texts can be
devised. The anecdote might be read aloud in its entirety and learners’
comprehension gauged by the amount of laughter, its humor analyzed afterwards
to whatever depth the students desire. The background to the photograph, for
example the civil war in which the boy was killed, might be discussed.

54.  The idea of the task approximating a native speaker task may be conceived
in terms of a continuum. At one end of this lie tasks which replicate
commonplace native speaker activities (such as adjusting plans on the basis
of a weather forecast or replying to an e-mail). At the other end of the
continuum lie more specialized tasks which pertain to particular professional
contexts (such as advertising or journalism) and which may involve analysis
of linguistic, visual or audio aspects of a text. Analysis of how the impact of
an advertisement or news piece is achieved would be typical here.
 In between the two ends of the continuum lie learning tasks that externalize
what, for the native speaker, are generally internal experiences. A task that
consists of a step-by-step breakdown of what a native speaker does
unconsciously when listening to/reading a text can therefore also be said to
be authentic. An example might be to watch/listen to a news broadcast and
note down the topic of each news item, its main protagonists, where the
reported event occurred, and such like.
2.3. Guideline 4: Approximate real-life tasks

55.  This guideline refers to the exploiting of the learners’ cultural and linguistic
‘reference points’ in language learning tasks. It points up the importance of
custom-designing materials for individual learner groups having, to the
teacher’s knowledge, been exposed to particular language or cultural points
which recur in the new text/task and which can form the launching point for it.
 Their knowledge of the target culture might range from the more obvious factual
things (currency, cuisine, daily and leisure habits, infrastructures) to the deeper
levels of social structures, values, gender and ethnic equality, consumerism
and wealth, freedom of expression, and other cultural indicators. More often,
learners will have a better awareness of the former, but with encouragement
may be able to use this to make inferences as to the latter. People’s daily and
leisure habits, for example, reveal their attitudes to work and to their private
lives, and how they prioritize these; looking into cooking and eating habits can
reveal conventions as to who prepares and serves meals, and so on.
2.4. Guideline 5: Exploit learners’ existing knowledge

56.  Learning tasks for any given group should ideally be ‘on the cusp’ between
building on what the learners know, and bombarding them with a superfluity
of new concepts.
 In its initial stage/s, a task might involve ‘milking’ the learners for prior
knowledge of the subject of the text/task. For example, if the text the
learners are going to use is a film excerpt showing a pub scene, they might
be asked first to script a scene in a pub to show their idea of a typical
grouping in this situation, drinking habits, who pays and when, and so on.
The benefits of this are two-fold: on the linguistic level, learners are alerted
to, and thus ‘equipped with’ some of the language/concepts within the new
text/task. On the affective level, such pre-tasks prove to learners how much
they already know, and this is encouraging, motivating and provides
incentive for the new task.

57.  This guideline links the authenticity-centered approach to its
Communicative roots in which meaning plays a central role. The concept of
‘purposeful’ or ‘meaningful’ communication has became central to the
methodological implementation of CLT.
 What can be taken from meaningful tasks is the aspect of creativity that is
inherent in all of them. They can produce a real, concrete outcome, such
as producing a report based on the results of a questionnaire polled inside
or outside the classroom, or conceiving a product and advertisement for it,
based on the results of market research (again, carried out within or
outside the classroom).
 Communications technology has hugely facilitated our pursuit of tasks
involving real communication; today, e-mail ‘key-pal’ partnerships offer
opportunities for genuine correspondence between learners of different
languages and cultures.
2.5. Guideline 6: Promote purposeful communication

58. 3. Task typologies
The concluding step in the development of the framework is to establish a set
of task types in which the guidelines for task authenticity can be
implemented. Two sources were drawn on for this:
1. External sources: established taxonomies drawn from the literature:
Prabhu (1987), Willis (1996), Maley (1993).
2. Internal sources: the guidelines for task authenticity themselves.

59. Prabhu’s (1987) 8 task types

60. 3. Drawing inferences Drawing up progra1nmes I itineraries I timeta
bles I 1naps, making appointments based on:
Routines
Narrative accounts, descriptions
Staten1ents of needs, intentions
Work, travel requirements
Descriptions of travel
Identifying 'odd one out' 1n sets of
objects, lists
Inferring quan tities bough t from money
spent
Relating ind ividua l n eed s to age
requirements e.g. school enrohnent, voting
ri2:hts, driving
4.Making calculations Time (from clock-face)
Durations (from calendar)
Age from year of birth/vice versa
Expenditure (from shopping lists, price lists)
Checking calculations
Comparing pricing, income, expenses
Comparing distances(on route maps)

61. 5. Interpreting and extrapolating Interpreting/extrapolating
Information from tables/tin1etables
Rules I anomalies from sets of
regulations
Generalisations fro1n tables
Classifications
Personal information from a CV
6. Analysis Mak ing decisions/plans on bas is of
infonnation (e.g. best route., best fonn of
transport, best siting for school, based on
given factors (e.g. cost).
Analysis of the postal system (based on
oost codes)
7. Extension Completing stories/dialogues
8. Reforn1ulation Interpreting telegrams
Composing telegrams
Reoreanising a CV for given audience

62. Willis’ (1996) 6 task types

63. 4.Problem-solving Analysing real or
hypothetical
situations, reasoning,
decision-making
Solution to
problem
and
evaluation
Puzzles,real-life
problems, case
studies
5. Sharing
personal
expenences
Narrating,describing,
exploring altitudes,
reactions
Personal:
expansion of
socio-
cultural
knowledge
Anecdotes,
op1n1ons,
personal reactions
6.Creative tasks brainstorming,
factfinding,ordering,
problem-solving
Product,project creative writing,
1nodel,
experiment,
1nagaz1ne,
recording, video

64. Maley’s (1993) 12 task types

65. 4. Matching Find a correspondence
between the text and
something else
Match text with a visual
representation, a title, another
text, a voice, n1usic
5. Selection/Ranking Select or rank a text or
texts according to some
given criterion
Choose the text that is
-most suitable for a given purpose
(e.g. inclusion 10 a teen age
magazine).
-the most/least (difficult, formal,
personal, complex ...)
- most/least like the original
version.
Choose words from a text to act as
an aoorooriate title
6. Comparison/Contrast Identify poin ts of
similarity/difference
between two or more
texts
[dentify vvords/expressions/ideas
common to or paraphrased in both
texts.
C o ,n p a r e f a c t s o r
grammatical/lexical complexity (See
also # 11Analysis)

66. 7. Reconstruction Restore
coherence/completeness
to an incomplete or
defective text
Insert appropriate words/phrases
into gapped texts.
Reorder ju mbled words, lines,
sentences, paragraphs etc.
Reconstruct sentences/texts from a
word array.
Reconstitute a written text from
an oral presentation (various types
of dictation)
Remove sentences/lines which do
not 'belong' inthe text
8. Reformulation Express the same
meaning in a different
fonn
Retell a st ory f r o m
notes/memory/ke)"vords
Rewrite in a different style, m ood
or format (e.g. prose as poem)
(See also # 3 Media Transfer)
9. Interpretation Engage with the text
relating it to personal
knowledge/experience
Relate text to own experience
Associate text with ideas, images
Formulate questions for the text's
author
Assess the truth, likelihood,
possible omissionsof the text

67. 10. Creating Text Use the text as a
sprin gboard for the
creation of others
Write a parallel text on a different
theme
U se th e sa m e story
outline/model/title to write a new
text
Quarry words from text A to
create a new text B
Reshape the text by adding
lines/sentences. (See also # I
Expansion and # 8 Reformulation)
Combine these texts to create a
new text
l l . Analysis Linguistic analysis of Work out and list the number/ratio
the text of:
-One-word verbs/two-word verbs
- Different tenses
- Content/function words
-Different ways 10 wh ich the
word X i s referred to in the text
(anaphoric reference)
Put words into semantic groups
e.g. the sea, movemen t, ecology
etc.)

68. 12.Project .Vork Use text as springboard
for a product
Use the text as the centrepiece of
an advertising campaign: decide
on pr odu ct, design campa ign
posters, j ingles etc., present the
product as a TV commercial.
Use a text about a specific
proo1em: aes1gn & a1stnoute a
questionnaire on this problem (to
other groups). Tabulate & present
results
Use text present ing a particular
point of vie,v: prepare and
then
display a short magazine article
supporting/disagreeing Vi th this
point of view

69.  In all three cases, the task types have to be seen as functioning within the
model of the task cycle as specified by each of the authors:
 In Prabhu’s case, this consisted of a teacher-led pre-task introducing the
task, the task activity done in groups or individually, and a teacher-
assessment of the task outcome on an individual basis.
 Willis’s task cycle includes a comparable pre-task and task activity
(although with group/pair work as the norm), but follows this with a specific
language focus session drawing on the language generated during the
task.
 Maley’s tasks had a basic two-phase pattern of task completion, followed
by comparing outcomes.

70.  While varying in procedure, these three cases show a number of task types in
common as the following table reveals:

71.  Despite their common, ultimate goal of promoting language learning,
what the three task taxonomies have most in common is tasks which
involve cognitive processing; extracting, comparing, classifying and
reformulating information. This reveals the Communicative basis of these
three taxonomies, the notion that language learning is induced through
purposeful use of language. But while this was fundamental to the earliest
of these three task-based methodologies, project teaching aimed at
meaning-focused activity to the exclusion of ‘rule’ or ‘form’-focused types
(Prabhu 1987). The more recent permutation of the Communicative
approach embraces language study, particularly in the form of
consciousness-raising of linguistic structures. This is reflected by the
inclusion in Maley’s procedures of a task type dedicated to linguistic
analysis (procedure number 11) and in a language focus stage being
integrated into Willis’ task cycle.

72. Considering a sample of texts incorporating each of the communicative purposes,
a set of seven task typologies was generated. In accordance with the texts’
anticipated effects on the learners and the interactions stimulated, these were
termed response, extraction, inferencing, extension, transference, reaction
and analysis. Definitions and examples are summarized in the following table:
Mishan’s proposed seven task typologies

73. Response Response (manifested orally or - Listen to instrumental
represented in ,vriting/graphically) to section of a song and
audio, written, visual, or audio-visual write a prose piece,
input of e111otive nature poem, or draw a
picture to illustrate whatit
evokes
Inferencing Inferring/extrapolating/interpreting - Watch a series of film
infonnation/concepts (including cultural) trailers and infer the
fron1 audio, written , visual, or audio genre, settin g, bas ic
visual input. story, intended audience
etc. of each.
Transference Transference, translation or paraphrase - Deconstru ct a
from one medium, genre or culture to newspaper/magazine
another (in cludes awareness of article reporting findings
significance of these transferences). of a survey to infer and
write the original survey
questions.

74. Extraction Extracting factual informat ion
(including factual cultural indicators)
fro1n audio, written, visual, or audio-
visual input.
- Extra ct factu a l
information (e.g. pnce,
in gred ients, 'u n iqu e '
features of product, from
adverti se1n ents (e.g.
foods, electrical goods,
cars)
Analysis Awareness-raising of linguistic forms
and functions and of emotive I
figurative I subjective use of language.
-A n a ly se h ow n
evs pa per head l i n es
achieve impact
- Analyse conversational
strategi es on basis of
d i a l o g u e s f r o n1
interviews.films. soans.
Extension E x t e n s i o n / p r e d i c t i o n o f
development/outcome of event, situation
presented via audio, written, visual, or
audio-visual inout
- Identify V ith
a character in
novel/story or film
and develop

75.  It should be noted that the implicit communicative purpose of a text does not limit authentic
response to it to a single task typology. Each communicative purpose may be cross-
referenced to a set of potential, authentic task typologies as shown in the table below.

76. 3.1. Tasks and skills
 The task typologies are described in terms of the broad linguistic, cognitive
and physical activities they entail. The skills involved in carrying out these
activities are what Nunan calls ‘enabling’ skills, that is, they are those which
are needed to enact the tasks, the tasks are not designed in order to practice
specific skills.
 Language skills are conventionally conceived in terms of the 3 levels below,
and language learning activities are often identified correspondingly with
particular skills:
Level 1. A basic breakdown into two sets, receptive and productive.
Level 2. Four macro-skills, referring to the skills required to deal with the
different media of input and output (e.g. reading skills are those skills used in
dealing with input from the written mode, and so on).
Level 3. Micro-skills: these are specific to the task, e.g. the micro-skills of
skimming and scanning of written texts that is specific to ‘extraction’ tasks.

77.  A critical feature that distinguishes the task model of language learning from
other models is that it requires learners to combine and integrate the use and
practice of skills. This is what helps make the task model so authentic, for in
real life, skills are not only deployed in isolation. For instance, we might use
scanning skills on classified advertisements columns to find a specific
requirement (a suitable flat-share, a second-hand bicycle), then we might
make a phone call or write an e-mail, deploying speaking or writing skills.
 Furthermore, the interactivity at the heart of the task model implicates
essential
meaning,
collaborative and communication skills, such as negotiating
exchanging instructional and explanatory input, agreeing and
disagreeing, reaching consensus and so on.

78. Thanks!