Authentic Materials in the Classroom: Their use to advance communicative competence

Communicative Competence, Examples?

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• Saville-Troike provides specific examples:
• knowledge or expectation of who may or may not speak in certain settings,
• how one may talk to persons of different statuses and roles,
• what nonverbal behaviors are appropriate in various contexts,
• how to ask for and give information,
• how to request,
• how to offer or decline assistance or cooperation,
• how to give commands,
• etc. (Saville-Troike, 1996: p. 363)

Communicative Competence: Four Areas of Focus

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• Grammatical Competence
• Sociolinguistic Competence
• Discourse Competence
• Strategic Competence
• from Alptekin (2002)

Communicative Competence and FL Teacher

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• Role of FL teacher is to help students to mesh themselves with the mainstream, target community and their linguistic behavior.
• Authentic texts start to bridge that gap for the students—expose them to a new way of seeing the world

Practical Ideas for incorporating authentic texts

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• Chibimaruko-chan
• Goo! Website
• Neruton / Drama Movie
• Giving Directions
• Train timetables (train culture)
• Shopping knowledge
• Ordering food
• New Year’s Cards
• CrayonShin-Chan

Practical Ideas for incorporating authentic texts

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• School-Related Language
• Sugata student diary
• Vacation Directives
• Entering the job marketm

Additional Resources for Authenticity

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• History of Japan Course
• Mangajin compilations
• Etiquette books from Japan
• Japanese Cultural Encounters / Japan’s Cultural Codewords

In summary…

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• Authentic texts = designed for L1 community
• Goal of FL program is to elevate communicative competence
• Authentic texts help bridge this gap
• Have fun! Make language real for students!