" I AM NOT AGAINST" AND  "I AM AGAINST"

Instructor started talking about what authentic material is and its necessity in English Language Teaching (henceforth ELT); however, as s/he talked a number of questions concerning authenticity rose in my mind. First of all, I would like to focus on her/his three statements about authentic materials and then I will clarify why I find them problematic or confusing.

1. “Authentic materials are created for real life by native speakers.”

2. “If you find it challenging for your learners, you can modify it according to your students’ level.”

3. “Authentic materials are definitely motivating for learners.”

            When the first explanation is taken into consideration, a question comes out into my mind: “Does any authentic material have to be created only by native speakers?” English is a lingua franca all over the world and even a nonnative speaker can produce a material that is very similar to any native speaker’s material. So, “by native speakers” should be removed from explanation.

            Second problem is about modifying authentic materials. What does it mean that I can modify it according to my students’ level? To what extent can I modify it? What if I modify a very complex authentic text for beginner students? Or when I modify it, can I still trace authenticity, is it still authentic or not? There is an uncertainty in the sentence. As I learned from some scholars in another course, authenticity is placed on a continuum. The rate of authenticity decreases respectively as the arrow goes right. When I make even a small chance on my material, it is not an authentic material anymore according to this continuum.

          genuine (authentic),      altered,      adapted,      simulated,     minimal

Why I disagree with the second statement is not because I find it completely erroneous but I find it lacking.

The third statement above shows how s/he underestimates the fact that authentic materials can also be demotivating as much they can be motivating. As it is known, authentic materials have more syntactic and lexical complexity. A number of structures can be seen at the same time in any authentic material. It is highly possible to come across with unneeded vocabularies. Besides, unfamiliar content/culture related to the target language country may demotivate the learners. So, in my opinion, using authentic materials in the classroom is a little bit risky especially when an inappropriate material is chosen.

Finally, to prevent any misunderstanding, I would like to add that I am not against the use of authentic materials; in contrast, I look with favour upon their use in ELT.  Yet, I am against choosing inappropriate authentic materials and making big changes on them. Every change we make decreases the level of authenticity that is a disadvantage for us. Then, where is the gist of using the authentic material? What I suggest for this condition is carefully chosen authentic materials suitable for learners’ level that needs no or little modification.