Authentic materials in the language classroom

Keeping it real: Authentic materials in the language classroom

Peter Beechpeter@peterbeech.com

What are authentic materials?

What are authentic materials?

“Authentic material is language where no concessions are made to foreign speakers. It is normal, natural language used by native or competent speakers of a language.”

Harmer 2007: 273

Why use authentic materials?

Why use authentic materials?• Authentic materials are real and so more interesting and

motivating than language teaching materials • They are an essential part of the rich input prescribed by

Willis J. (2000) and Krashen (1982)• They present the type of language which the student will

meet outside the classroom• Students gain confidence when they understand them • They can be geared to the interests of a particular group of

students

Sources of authentic materials

Sources of authentic materials

• Newspapers, magazines, books, brochures, letters, poetry

• Photographs, pictures, maps• Tape recordings, songs and song lyrics• Realia

Structure of a Reading Lesson

• Context setting activity• Pre-teach vocabulary• Gist and main read activities• Focus on grammar embedded in the text• Controlled practice activity• Free practice activity.

Context setting activity

Context setting activity

Entire village suspected over mayor's murder

· Official ambushed on Spanish mountain road· Victim was repeatedly threatened, say colleagues

Pre-teach vocabularyPolice in northern Spain began questioning the entire population of a tiny mountain village yesterday after the mayor was shot dead in an ambush on a country road.

All 37 inhabitants of Fago, in the Pyrenees near France, are suspects in a crime which police believe involved several of the many villagers who had argued with the mayor, Miguel Grima.

Mr Grima was shot on Friday evening after rocks were thrown across a road leading into the village, forcing him to stop or slow his car.

Pre-teach vocabularyHis body, peppered with shotgun pellets, was discovered in a gully beside the road the following day while his battered Mercedes was found abandoned down a forest track some eight miles away. Police believe several people, possibly local huntsmen whom Mr Grima had been fighting through the local courts, took part in the murder. Spanish news media were gripped by the killing as rumours of longstanding feuds among the villagers began to emerge.

"No one in the village is wicked enough to do anything like this," one resident, who asked not to be named, told the news agency EFE while police went around collecting shotguns.

Pre-teach vocabularyBut the mayor had a long list of enemies, including local builders to whom he had refused licences. There were also a number of people who had been prevented from registering as voters. He had also received threats. "These were made repeatedly over a period of time," said Antonio Torres, a local official for Mr Grima's People's party.

One resident found rocks scattered across the road, and moved them when he returned home on Friday night. Another, who drove past the mayor's Mercedes as it was stopped by the roadside at the same spot, said he was waved on by a man carrying a flashlight - almost certainly one of the murderers.

The village has only 22 registered voters, 17 of whom gave Mr Grima their support at the last elections. But the mayor had reportedly fought about 40 court cases in which people living in Fago, or born there, challenged his decisions.

Pre-teach vocabularyPolice reportedly believe that the plot to kill Mr Grima was hatched over time and by several people. At least one of these would have followed him to the nearby town of Jaca, where he attended a meeting of local mayors on Friday. He would have then telephoned his accomplices when Mr Grima set off.

They would have set the trap for him on one of the roads into the village, where cars are few and far between. "Revenge is best eaten cold," one anonymous neighbour told the El País daily yesterday. Mr Grima's family, who buried him in a nearby cemetery yesterday, have remained silent about the crime.

Pre-teach vocabulary"We feel now as though we are all suspects," one neighbour told El Periódico newspaper. "Grima had enemies but he had friends too." Neighbours suggested that Mr Grima, who had set up a small hotel in the village, had not respected the customs of those born and bred there. "Few people are going to cry," one neighbour told state television TVE.

In this case, he added, he doubted that the villagers would turn up en masse for the funeral. "I don't think people are very sad," he said. "But I can't believe his murder has anything to do with the rows in the village."

Gist read activity

Why was the mayor murdered?

Detailed read activity

1. Who do the police suspect?2. How did the murderers make the mayor stop his car?3. What was the murder weapon?4. Who had a motive for the murder?5. Was he a popular mayor?6. How did the murderers know when the mayor was approaching?7. What is the reaction of the villagers to the murder?

Grammar focusPolice in northern Spain began questioning the entire population of a tiny mountain village yesterday after the mayor was shot dead in an ambush on a country road.

All 37 inhabitants of Fago, in the Pyrenees near France, are suspects in a crime which police believe involved several of the many villagers who had argued with the mayor, Miguel Grima.

Mr Grima was shot on Friday evening after rocks were thrown across a road leading into the village, forcing him to stop or slow his car.

Grammar focusHis body, peppered with shotgun pellets, was discovered in a gully beside the road the following day while his battered Mercedes was found abandoned down a forest track some eight miles away. Police believe several people, possibly local huntsmen whom Mr Grima had been fighting through the local courts, took part in the murder. Spanish news media were gripped by the killing as rumours of longstanding feuds among the villagers began to emerge.

"No one in the village is wicked enough to do anything like this," one resident, who asked not to be named, told the news agency EFE while police went around collecting shotguns.

Grammar focusBut the mayor had a long list of enemies, including local builders to whom he had refused licences. There were also a number of people who had been prevented from registering as voters. He had also received threats. "These were made repeatedly over a period of time," said Antonio Torres, a local official for Mr Grima's People's party.

One resident found rocks scattered across the road, and moved them when he returned home on Friday night. Another, who drove past the mayor's Mercedes as it was stopped by the roadside at the same spot, said he was waved on by a man carrying a flashlight - almost certainly one of the murderers.

The village has only 22 registered voters, 17 of whom gave Mr Grima their support at the last elections. But the mayor had reportedly fought about 40 court cases in which people living in Fago, or born there, challenged his decisions.

Grammar focusPolice reportedly believe that the plot to kill Mr Grima was hatched over time and by several people. At least one of these would have followed him to the nearby town of Jaca, where he attended a meeting of local mayors on Friday. He would have then telephoned his accomplices when Mr Grima set off.

They would have set the trap for him on one of the roads into the village, where cars are few and far between. "Revenge is best eaten cold," one anonymous neighbour told the El País daily yesterday. Mr Grima's family, who buried him in a nearby cemetery yesterday, have remained silent about the crime.

Grammar focus"We feel now as though we are all suspects," one neighbour told El Periódico newspaper. "Grima had enemies but he had friends too." Neighbours suggested that Mr Grima, who had set up a small hotel in the village, had not respected the customs of those born and bred there. "Few people are going to cry," one neighbour told state television TVE.

In this case, he added, he doubted that the villagers would turn up en masse for the funeral. "I don't think people are very sad," he said. "But I can't believe his murder has anything to do with the rows in the village."

Keeping it real: Authentic materials in the language classroom

Peter Beechmail@peterbeech.com

PALSO Fthiotidas, Lamia 7 – 8 November 2009