Unpacking terms: Authentic Resources

Simplified explanation, summary, and discussion of the concept of "authentic resources." This video is not about making a case for or against the use of authentic resources, but rather a reflection on what we consider to be "authentic" and the implications of that label.
For some additional reflection on the issue of 'authenticity" in language teaching, check out this article by David Taylor: www.tesl-ej.or...
Zyzik & Polio have written a book about using authentic resources: www.press.umic...

[@ProfeLJ]

My colleague and I are running a teacher workshop and this topic came up. I am going to start the next session of the workshop with this FABULOUS video! Your words from your book Common Ground keep returning to my memory ," if the students do not understand then it is just noise." Le agradezco por todo de lo que hace Ud por nosotros, Doctora.

[@Pacmanite]

4:43 “Do we value the authenticity of the resource itself more than the authenticity of what we do with it?” This is such a good point! So often when a text too far above a learner’s level is used, they’re not really reading it so much as stitching together glosses. This happens so much when I’m using a Latin textbook that quotes from Latin poetry while students are still having enough trouble fluently reading the textbook prose at that stage. The majority of words have to be glossed and the student is just piecing together glosses to get to the meaning of the cryptic lines of poetry. But that task is “authentic” because it’s from “real Latin”?

[@Unpackinglanguagepedagogy]

"stitching together glosses" -- YES!! Thank you for your comment. I might use that phrase in an upcoming presentation (with credit to you, of course)

[@Pacmanite]

@@Unpackinglanguagepedagogy Thank you!

[@susanv.h.degrave7828]

@@Pacmanite Wow great insight Carla! Do you see value in reading for "the gist"?

[@Pacmanite]

@@susanv.h.degrave7828 It depends on the context. If I am independently language learning I often do read, watch, listen for gist because I can consume like 10x or more content at that gist level per unit of time than I could have gotten if I insisted on the 95-99% level. And gist level texts are fun for me to consume. But if I’m teaching a class of 20 students and pitch something at the gist level, I know that a good chunk of the students will get nothing at all and hide their incomprehension. So I do a lot more to ensure my students comprehend the material and I’m a lot more careful to keep things at higher comprehensibility for them than I would be for myself.

[@susanv.h.degrave7828]

@@Pacmanite Exactement!! thank you for clarifying

[@cookingwithsuegz5045]

In my humble opinion, this video deserves at least 10,000 views.

[@Unpackinglanguagepedagogy]

Thank you! Almost there!

[@ayahuaska3573]

This video is great! I love the content of your channel!

[@erinmcdermott9611]

Why do IPAs then insist on authentic resources for the interpretative text?

[@Unpackinglanguagepedagogy]

Great question, Erin!! Let me start by saying that IPAs are just one option among different ways of assessing performance, and they have some relatively strict guidelines, including dialogic feedback (meeting with students individually to review the recording of the interpersonal part)... and not everyone follows that. In my opinion, just because you don't follow IPAs to the letter, that doesn't mean your assessments are automatically "worse". Going back to your question of why they insist on authentic resources: some people think that the only "real" measure of performance/proficiency is what learners can do with unmodified resources because the underlying assumption is that what we do in the classroom is to prepare them to use the language outside of the classroom (where resources won't be modified).

[@cookingwithsuegz5045]

👏👏👏👏

[@Unpackinglanguagepedagogy]

Thank you! Was that a standing ovation? 😂

[@cookingwithsuegz5045]

@@Unpackinglanguagepedagogy Of course! Great work and great content!