1. Authenticity in Materials Development: Principles and Procedures Brian Tomlinson

2. General Criteria for Authenticity Is it: 1 original? i)not a copy ii)novel 2 genuine? i)not a fake (i.e. not pretending to be authentic) ii)of value 3 true? i)factually true ii)true to life (i.e. representative of reality – e.g. an authentic Japanese restaurant in Liverpool)

3. Criteria for Authenticity of Materials Is the text or activity: 1 original? Does it involve novel use of the language 2 genuine? Is it likely to be perceived as relevant to the learners? Is it of potential value to the learners? How worthwhile is it to the individual learner in the contexts they are learning the target language in and in the contexts in which they are likely to need or want to use it?

4. 3 true? True to life (i.e. representative of reality) Does it mirror what the language is typically used to do? 4 faithful? Fidelity = Reflecting recognisable behaviour of proficient users in a comparable communicative context.

5. 5 contextualised? Is the text and/or task located, connected, interactive and does it have an intended outcome. e.g. ‘Give him the keys, let him drive it.’ 6 meaningful? Is it likely to be sufficiently understood by the learners? Is it likely to make connections with the learners’ lives? Is it likely to satisfy the wants and needs of the learners?

6. Las Meninas is a 1656 painting in the Museo del Prado in Madrid by Diego Velázquez https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Las_Meninas_01.jpg

7. Las Meninas is a series of 58 paintings that Pablo Picasso painted in 1957 Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1721744

8. Las Meninas by Nicomedes1954 - Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5849797

9. Las Meninas by Salvador Dali (1976-77)

10. In these times lecturers, teachers and materials developers are always in danger of becoming less than fully themselves. If universities, ministries of education and publishers terrorise them enough, they become something else, something diminished and reduced, just hanging on to survive. ‘And in these times people were always in danger of becoming less than fully themselves. If you terrorised them enough, they became something else, something diminished and reduced, mere techniques for survival.’ Julian Barnes – The Noise of Time

11. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non- existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to." [MovieMaker Magazine #53 - Winter, January 22, 2004 ]” ― Jim JarmuschJim Jarmusch

13. Man: Arggh. Oh no. Woman: What’s the matter? Man: Oh, this cash machine’s not working. Do you know if there’s another machine somewhere? I really need to get some money. Woman: Hmmm …I’m not sure. There might be one in the shopping centre. Man: Thanks. (p. 169 of Speakout Intermediate (Clare & Wilson, 2012) Unit 5 Recording 6 Conversation 1)

14. A: So, did you have a good day? B: Yes, thank you. I think I learned lots of new things. Juliette and I want to go out on Friday evening. Can you suggest anything? Juliette really likes music. A: Well, what about a concert? They have lots of famous bands on at the Arena. I can look if there’s anything on this Friday … B: That’s a good idea but …er … it might be too expensive. A: Yes, I suppose tickets for big bands are quite expensive … Or you could try the student union on Chambers St. You can dance there and it’s quite cheap. B: That sounds great. Global English Intermediate, (Clandfield & Benne, 2012) p. 152.

15. Some Questions 1 Are only native speaker texts authentic? 2 Can teachers create authentic texts? 3 Can students create authentic texts? 4 Can an adaptation be authentic? ‘It is authentic if it is faithful to the objectives of the original but it is intended for a different audience’. 5 What makes a task authentic?

16. My Position on Authenticity 1 Interactive experience of authenticity is a pre-requisite for the development of effective communicative competence but: It’s not always beneficial. It’s not always necessary. It’s never sufficient. The experience also needs to be: 1.accessible 2.meaningful 3.affectively engaging 4.cognitively engaging 5.salient 6.noticeable

17. Effective Authenticity 2 For a text or task to be effectively authentic it needs to be: contextualised interactive valid (i.e. it reflects what we typically use the language for - i.e. to achieve an outcome) faithful (i.e. reflects the behaviour of proficient users of the language in a similar context) meaningful for the learners (i.e. connected to the previous experience and the lives of the target learners) relevant for the learners (i.e. responsive to the likely needs and wants of the target learners) compatible with the beliefs, needs and wants of the target teachers.

18. Procedures for Ensuring Authenticity 3 Procedures for ensuring effective authenticity in materials development include: Develop a library of potentially engaging written, spoken and visual authentic texts Encourage and facilitate learner development of libraries of such texts Select (or facilitate selection of) texts likely to be meaningful, relevant and engaging Offer choice of texts for classroom activities Facilitate initial learner experience (rather than study) of the selected texts Facilitate learner noticing and discovery Devise receptive or production tasks with intended outcomes Offer a choice of tasks Encourage responsive ‘teaching’ during task performance Facilitate self, peer and teacher monitoring and editing of production Recycle texts, tasks and noticing frequently and differently

19. Conclusion I’m hoping that this presentation: 1. has stimulated some thought 2.might stimulate a greater and more effective use of authenticity.

20. References Baleghizadeh, S., Goldouz, E. & Yousefpoori-Naeim, M. (2016). What grammar activities do ELT workbooks focus on? In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), SLA Research and Materials Development for Language Learning (pp. 153-165). New York: Routledge. Bardovi-Harlig, K. & Mossman, S. (2016). Corpus-based materials development for teaching and learniung pragmatic routines. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), SLA Research and Materials Development for Language Learning (pp. 250-267). New York: Routledge. Ishihara, N. & Paller D. L. (2016). Research-informed materials for teaching pragmatics: The case of agreement and disagreement in English. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), SLA Research and Materials Development for Language Learning (pp.87-102). New York: Routledge. Shireen, N. (2016). The Bumblebear. London: Jonathan Cape. Tomlinson, B. & Masuhara, H. (forthcoming 2017). The Complete Guide to the Theory and Practice of Materials Development for Language Learning. Hoboken: Wiley.