Articles Review(3)

A Review on Effective Ways to Use Authentic Materials with
                               ESL/EFL Students
                                           by
Charles Kelly, Lawrence Kelly, Mark Offner and Bruce Vorland
                                   Zahra Mojib
                                Dr.Hassaskhah

                                        2010


The article tries to demonstrate how authentic materials can be effectively used in an ESL/EFL classroom, through an experiment carried out by the authors.


The survey on the background of the topic area, showed that they enlivened the classes and created a more positive attitude toward meaning.we can make use of a number of materials available such as menus, maps, newspaper inserts, store advertisements, travel brochures, catalogs, phone books, real estate pamphlets, and various pamphlets of sightseeing and tourist information.

According to the authors, there are some points to consider while choosing an authentic material.First,you must provide enough copies of the material. It’s better if the material is not too long to handle. Materials that includes pieces that come apart must be avoided. Moreover you must appropriate material considering the level of the students.

The researchers provided each pair with authentic material.They gave them question handouts as well.They told them that the handouts would be collected ,since this kept them more focused on the exersice.Students tended to complement one another.The conductors asldo gave a brief explanation after distributing the material. They commented on students’ work and gave hints.

The authors believed that for a question to be well-formed they must:

a)give students the opportunity to practice English

b)help students gain confidence

c)expose them to cultural differences

d)help them to find relevant information

A number of different types of questions were used by the researchers such as tour questions which contained easy, multiple choice questions and provided students with an overview of the material. There were also cultural and personal choice questions which brought attention to cultural differences. they are required to choose items, based on personal preferences. There were some challenging questions as well. They usually compared their answers with their partners, and developed their critical thinking.

They also made use of some other supplementary activities such as word search. Preparing a crossword puzzle using the words from the material had been useful. They personalized information by doing a series of real life tasks such as writing an e-mail or making a shopping list. Pair practice also was encouraged. They could role play different situations. the internet was also used to provide authentic material. They made use of online lessons which could be completed by the students.

As a conclusion the authors believed that authentic material brought real world into classroom and generated a deeper understanding of the topic. The students learned to process relevant information from irrelevant ones and they got confidence in English speaking society.

The research seemed quite a narrow one, which implemented the use of authentic material along with a question hand out. It seems that it was quite limited and incomplete since it didn’t present any clear definition of an authentic material and that in what situations it should be implemented. Of course using authentic material will help students in a number of ways but these are not demonstrated by the paper.They didn’t represent a full and fair and clear picture of the participants, their levels and how exactly they conducted the research.They concluded that student benefited in a number of ways but they didn’t say how. The idea of using alternative activities seemed more interesting than the question hand out, since they are varied and more real life and more meaningful. Finally I can say that the research was not much successful in depicting a vivid and complete review considering the topic area.