Филологические науки/1. Методика преподавания языка и литературы

К.п.н. Донченко М.В.

Харьковский институт финансов Украинского государственного университета финансов и международной торговли

Preparing authentic materials for Business English Learners

Nowadays many teachers have advocated the use of "authentic," "from-life" materials in the classroom. Authentic materials are any texts written by native English speakers for native English speakers. These can include language-based realia, such as signs, magazines, advertisements, and newspapers, or graphic and visual sources around which communicative activities can be built, such as maps, pictures, symbols, graphs, and charts [1].

As we know, teaching texts, which are fundamentally non-communicative, were written essentially to present language data rather than to convey information that’s why they tend to lack the discourse features of genuine text. Authentic material, on the other hand, gives students a taste of 'real' language in use, and provides them with valid linguistic data, necessary to develop their communicative skills. If students are given only scripted material, they will learn an impoverished version of the language, and will find it hard to come to terms with genuine discourse when they are faced to learning and using Business English.

The advantages of using authentic materials:

1. Authentic materials bring learners into direct contact with a reality level of Business English.

2. Authentic materials drawn from periodicals are always up-to-date and constantly being updated.

3. Authentic materials from a particular source, such as The Economist, tend to work in consistent areas of language, so, after a while, students who practice reading The Economist will become experts in reading English language business publications.

4. Authentic materials provide us with a source of up-to-date materials that can be directly relevant to business English learners’ needs.

David Heitler in his article emphasizes some important criteria for choosing an appropriate article, they are as follows:

1. Topic. Is this the kind of real English that my student(s) need? Will we get additional value out of a marriage between the real English in these materials and my learners’ real business (and general) knowledge?

2. Target language area. Is it up-to-date? Is it topical? Will even experts – as the students are – learn something new? Will they be able to combine their knowledge of the world with the knowledge they gain from this material?

3. Skills. Are we limiting the area of language sufficiently for the students to feel that they are making genuine progress?

4. Students needs and interests. Is this material directly relevant to the students’ requirements? [2]

One of the disadvantages of authentic materials is its difficulty, but there is the point. The trick, regardless of the text used, is not to edit and grade the text, but to grade the task according to the students' abilities. This is for three reasons: most importantly, it reflects the kind of situation your students may face in an English speaking environment, it saves you time and energy and lastly it encourages and motivates your students when they can 'conquer' a real text. Naturally certain texts will lend themselves more easily to certain levels [2, 3].

At lower levels some possibilities include leaflets, timetables, menus, short headline type reports, audio and video advertising, or short news broadcasts. The task should be simple and relatively undemanding, and it is important to pre-teach key vocabulary so as to prevent panic.

At more intermediate levels this list could be expanded to include longer articles, four or five minute TV or radio news reports, a higher quantity of shorter items, or even whole TV programmes, if your copyright agreements allow it. Again pre-teaching is important, although your students should be able to deal with unknown vocabulary to some extent.

At an advanced level students should have some tactics for dealing with new vocabulary without panicking, but it's still useful to have a few quick definitions to hand for some of the trickier stuff!

As can be seen, a key problem is to deal with unknown language. One of the methods that some teachers use in their practice is ignoring new vocabulary provided the students can complete the task without it! Especially with lower levels, it needs to be emphasized that students do not have to understand everything. Many students don't often believe that they can cope until going through a few tasks with their teachers. Teaching them this skill, and developing their confidence at coping with the unknown is an important element in their development as independent learners.

As can be seen, using authentic materials is a relatively easy and convenient way of improving not only your students' general skills, but also their confidence in a real situation. This is only a brief introduction to the ideas involved, but some of these ideas could easily be expanded to form part of a motivating and effective course.

Literature:

1.Elaine Tarone, George Yule. Focus on the Language Learner. – Oxford University Press. – 1989. – 202 p.

2. http://www.pearsonlongman.com/intelligent_business/

3. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/resources/authentic_materials.shtml