Essay on using authentic materials and Internet
Write a 500-700 word essay in which you:
a) Explain the value of using authentic materials in foreign language teaching (See Units 5 and 9 and do
your own research).
b) Say why you feel the text you have chosen would be appropriate for this class and explain the reasons for
your vocabulary selection. If you have adapted your text, explain the rationale for the changes you made in
this section.
c) Say why you feel the activities you have chosen would be appropriate for this class.
d) Comment on the advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet for teaching and language
resources. (See Unit 10)
Please write the essay under the four headings given. The sections do not all have to be the same length.
a) The value of using authentic materials in foreign language teaching
Authentic material in the classroom is beneficial to the learning process. It inform
about the current events in the real world that learners often exposed to in their
everyday life. It is the most suitable means of showing the real use of English for
communication rather than materials, which were designed especially for teaching
purposes. Learners become motivated as the material get them closer to the real world
scenario. Conventional teaching material in the classroom builds the base but adding
authentic material enhance learners’ communicative competence and interpersonal
skills and build confidence. Authentic material provides rich language input and
current information. The much talked about, native and non-native stuff is always on
non-native student’s mind, authentic material bridge that gap and make connection
bringing down the level of assumed difficulty due to psychological impact. Authentic
materials can help students to bridge the gap between classroom knowledge and their
capacity to participate in real-life communication situations as they bring students
closer to the target language culture and this will result in making the teaching-
learning process more enjoyable. Having said that, authentic materials are most
valuable in linguistic process of learning.
b) Reasons for the selection of this text and the 12 vocabulary items
The reason, why I chose the text “ The advantages of Mixed Marriages” is that it’s a
global phenomenon. It will be interesting for my students from different ethnic
background and the age group. As marriage is everyone’s matter of interest and
somehow it might be on someone’s mind to marry a person from different race and
culture. The history, benefits and the trend will give them an insight about mixed
marriages. The topic is interesting and fun to know how it works talking about the
guiding factors for a lasting relationship. The article I have adopted is not too lengthy
or stretched to too many details but focussed mostly on the benefits. I needed to add
some data and trend which I have taken from another source, the pew social research
website. The introductory paragraph I have added to clarify other synonyms;
Interracial marriage, Intermarriage and exogamy that have the same meaning and are
used in the same context in the text. So I have compiled in order of Introduction, trend
and data and the benefits. The highlighted vocabulary items I have selected will add to
students’ knowledge and vocabulary with a particular context to the topic and will be
challenging for students to use in a different phrases but they will understand the