Authentic materials and authenticity in foreign language learning

Abstract

This article reviews some of the wide-ranging issues and research surrounding authentic materials and authenticity in foreign language learning. After a brief historical overview and a discussion of some of the definitional ambiguities associated with authenticity, the paper goes on to discuss four important areas of concern: i) the gap between authentic and textbook discourse; ii) the English-as-a-world-language debate; iii) authenticity and motivation; iv) text difficulty and task design and their effects on language acquisition. The article concludes by examining some of the reasons behind resistance to change in curriculum and materials design and possible future directions.

Cite this

Alexander Gilmore (2007). Authentic materials and authenticity in foreign language learning. Language Teaching. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444807004144

@article{alexander2007authentic,
  title  = {Authentic materials and authenticity in foreign language learning},
  author = {Gilmore, Alexander},
  year   = {2007},
  journal = {Language Teaching},
  doi    = {10.1017/s0261444807004144}
}

Citations in this library

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 929 citations exist upstream.

References

Cited by