論 文

To Use or Not to Use: Authentic Materials
in a Reading/Writing Lesson; A Study

Susan Laura Sullivan

要旨

本論文は英語の授業に実物の教材の使用についての是か非かを述べる。実物の教材はどういうものなのか，また多くの学者や講師などの実物の教材の実用性に対する意見を考察する。更にスキーマなどの認
識学習，また思考と知識の処理の仕方の定義と概念も説明する。このような概念や学者の意見がEFLの授業に実用的に執行され，その過程や結果が詳細に述べられる。本論文中，実物の教材の効果も考察される。
キーワード：authentic materials（実物の教材），non-authentic materials（実物でない教材），schemata（スキーマ），top-down processing（トップダウン処理)，
bottom-up processing（ボトムアップ処理），ESL/EFL, language acquisition（言語習得)，SLA（第二言語の習得)，second language learning（第二言語の学習），TESOLAbstract
This paper studies the use of authentic materials in the classroom.
It introduces the concepts of what defines authentic materials, andpresents various points of view of researchers, teachers and academics
on their usefulness. In addition, it defines and illustrates cognitive
learning concepts such as schema and ways of processing thought― 79 ―

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No. 27and knowledge. These concepts and points of view are practicallyapplied to an EFL class, and the process and results are discussed.
The effect of using authentic materials is also explored throughout.
Keywords: authentic materials, non-authentic materials, schemata, top-down processing,bottom-up processing, ESL/EFL, language acquisition, SLA, second
language learning, TESOL   Authentic materials come in many shapes and sizes. Within the ESL/EFL field,
there is no one criteria for deciding just what defines material as authentic (fordiffering views, see, Fanselow & Crymes, 1976; Hadley, 2001; Nunan, 1989, Morrow, 1977,
Widdowson, 1978; Breen, 1985 as cited in Taylor, 1994; Day & Bamford, 1998). Nor isthere a clear consensus on the actual benefit to the learner (Fanselow & Crymes, 1976;
Day & Bamford, 1998). Many writers hold the viewpoint that authentic and simplified
texts work in conjunction with one another to enhance learner development, andthat simplified texts and simplified originals are not without authenticity (Day &Bamford, 1998, p. 59). Hadley (2001, p. 190) writes that “simulated authentic”(materials pedagogically derived or created with the intent of providing realistic
situations of communication) and “unmodified authentic” (communicative material
not specifically designed for language learning purposes) are both of use in aiding
student comprehension. This writer holds the same position.
   In 2006, two reading and two writing lessons centred on the use of authentic
materials in an EFL Japanese tertiary classroom were developed by the author of thispaper (1). Within the four activities, unmodified authentic material, simulated
authentic material, and simplified original material (see above) were used. This paper
will focus on the use of one of the activities designed, which utilised unmodified
authentic material. The authentic material used can be seen below, and following
this, the worksheet given to the students for the activity, a copy of the answers, andsamples of student language use pertaining to the activity. Please refer to thesethroughout the reading of this text. How the materials should ideally be used, how
they were used, and reasons for the choice of activities made to complement thematerial chosen will be explored. There is also a discussion of student interaction― 80 ―

To Use or Not to Use: Authentic Materials in a Reading/Writing Lesson; A Studywith the material, especially focussing on the role of authenticity in relation todeveloping reading and writing skills.
   In addition, within reading comprehension (which can overflow into writing
comprehension), “awakening” the appropriate schemata is seen as particularly
important, and authentic materials can be well-suited to encouraging this. Therefore,
this paper will also focus on an explanation of this concept (after the teachingmaterials). Further aspects of the schemata-theory, such as the interaction of “topdown” and “bottom-up” processing, and the cyclical nature of a reader’s comprehensionof a text (and it can be argued, a writer’s process of production) (Hadley, 2001,
pp. 323–329; Taylor, 1976, p. 317), will be discussed within the later sections

1. The Authentic Materials   The students who participated in this activity were pre-intermediate to lowerintermediate Japanese learners of English studying at Kanagawa University,
Kanagawa. The objectives of the lesson were reading for specific information to
introduce and consolidate weather vocabulary/knowledge and future forms, leading
to the writing of a forecast using some future forms and some of the vocabulary
learnt or already known. Weather maps and charts from Japan Times, 2006, Friday,
May 19, and International Herald Shimbun, 2006, Friday, May 19 were used.

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To Use or Not to Use: Authentic Materials in a Reading/Writing Lesson; A Study

2. The Worksheet Given to the Students and the Answers
What’s the Weather Like?
Work with your partner and answer these questions.
1. Look at the Number 1 Weekly Weather Forecast:
A. Which day was predicted to be the sunniest day of the week?
B.

I wanted to have a barbeque on the twentieth of May. Why couldn’t I?

**********************************************************************************
2. Look at the Number 2 Weather map a:
A. Which areas will have the most rain at 8pm tonight?
B. What is the best city to visit today? (hint, I want to go walking outside)
C. What was the coldest city yesterday?
D. Which will be the hottest city tomorrow?
***********************************************************************************
3. Look at the Number 2 Weather map b:
A. What will be the hottest Asian city tomorrow?
B. What will be the coolest European city today?
C. In which cities will it rain but be warm (↑17°c) tomorrow?
D. Today, which cities will be fine and warm?
E. Which cities will be partly cloudy tomorrow?
***********************************************************************************
Challenge: Look at Number 2 Weather map b. Look at the weather for Seoul
and Sydney. What season is it in Seoul (the month is May)? What season is it in
Sydney? What could you say about the weather in the two countries at this time of
the year?
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3. Answers To the Worksheet:• Teacher’s Answers to exercises 1, 2 and 3:
1. A. Sunday, Monday. B. It rained, or was cloudy in all areas.
2. A. Sendai, Niigata, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Takamatsu, Naha. B. Sapporo.
C. Sapporo (11.3c) D. Naha (27c).
3. A. New Delhi (36c) B. Moscow (8c) C. Los Angeles (20c) [Manila at 34c might
be considered hot]. D. Rio de Janeiro (26c) Seoul (25c) Sydney (24c) E. Honolulu,
Moscow, Seoul and Sydney.
Challenge: From the chart, it would seem that autumn in Sydney and spring inSeoul are quite similar, even though one country should be getting hotter and theother should be getting colder.

4S amples of Student Language Use: Authentic Materials 1 (Reading exercise)― 84 ―

To Use or Not to Use: Authentic Materials in a Reading/Writing Lesson; A Study

5. Authentic Material in Developing Reading and Writing Skills in a
Second or Foreign Language Learning Environment in Relation to“Instantiating” Schemata   It is claimed that texts which are recognisable to students in terms of content,
form and culture, can help them overcome any reading comprehension difficulties
they may encounter with less common vocabulary, and with words specific only tothe subject presented (Paulston & Bruder, 1976, as cited in Carrell & Eisterhold, 1987,
p. 226). A suggestion why this may be so is that familiarity of content and/or form
allows the readers to relate the written word to knowledge they already possess, or to“a pre-existing scheme” (Widdowson, 1984, p. 221). One should also be able to expand
this idea to writing, listening and speaking. Within the reading process, readers, thecontent of texts, and the form of texts do not exist in separate vacuums which only
merge at the time of reading. Readers do not gain only author-driven knowledge
from the information presented. Rather, as Clarke and Silberstein (1977) state, theinformation the reader brings to the act of reading is wider than the textual
information that he or she is presented with (as cited in Carrell & Eisterhold, 1987,
pp. 136–137; see also Carrell & Eisterhold, 1987, p. 219; Hadley, 2001, p. 45; Widdowson,
1984).

   Writers create their texts with the assumption that the reader will have some― 85 ―

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form of knowledge of the text, and also with an ideal reader in mind (Carrell, 1987, as
cited in Mangubhai, 2006, p. 4.12). This ideal may be that the reader is, for example, aprimary school student who knows what an apple is (in the case of a children’s reader
that is being used to teach the alphabet), or is a biology student who knows a science
textbook will be written in a certain way.
   The reader, too, draws upon previously acquired formal and informal
knowledge, experience, points of view, mindset, and thinking in regards to thecontent and form of the text he or she is presented with, and also in regards to theactual act of reading. All of the preceding will influence the conclusions readers draw
in relation to meaning and comprehension (Clarke and Silberstein, 1977, as cited in
Carrell & Eisterhold, 1987, pp. 136–137).
   This background knowledge, tempered with interactive cognitive skills thatcome into play when students are involved in acts of discourse, is known as the“schema theory” (Hadley, 2001, pp. 146–147). “Schematic” knowledge is not held at
the forefront of a student’s mind, but is “stored in memory” (Clarke & Silberstein,
1977, as cited in Carrell & Eisterhold, 1987, p. 220), and this background knowledge is
not always triggered in the course of a lesson, but can remain, accordingly, dormant,
despite the possibility that the students possess a pre-existing area of knowledge
pertaining to subjects studied (Clarke & Silberstein, 1977, as cited in Carrell & Eisterhold,1987, p. 223; Carrell & Wise, 1998, as cited in Hadley, 2001, p. 156).
   Therefore, as implied in the first paragraph of this section, it stands to reason
that class activities which incorporate authentic materials which are familiar to
students culturally and/or formally, have a better chance of “awakening” orinstantiating the students’ schemata, and of thereby being useful in “harvesting”
appropriate ideas, concepts and knowledge which might otherwise lie fallow. Thispre-existing student knowledge can be used towards easing the understanding ofmaterials and concepts presented, and therefore used towards enriching thedevelopment of language (Hadley, 2001, p. 161).
   The importance of this awakening, or utilisation, of schemata-knowledge, canbe seen in the fact that materials that are familiar and known to students are better
comprehended (Grabe, 2004, p. 50; Rivers, 1968, as cited in Carrell & Eisterhold, 1987,
p. 225), and in the observance that very little can be achieved to further reading (andother) skills without interesting material (Coady, 1979, as cited in Carrell & Eisterhold,― 86 ―

To Use or Not to Use: Authentic Materials in a Reading/Writing Lesson; A Study
1987, p. 220; Williams, 1986, as cited in Day & Bamford, 2002, p. 1).

   To expand upon the last points, an assumption is made that if readers andlearners are not able to match their pre-existing knowledge to the text or task at
hand, frustration and disinterest will occur and very little will be achieved. Carrell &Eisterhold state that if text and instructor-assumption of reader knowledge does not
actually match the reader’s knowledge, or it fails to provide enough “clues” toinstigate the correct schemata, comprehension will not occur (1987, p. 223). For
example, a Japanese student may look at a picture of the formerly cited apple in achildren’s alphabet reader and at the symbol ‘A’ (written to represent the phoneme /ae/- the first sound of the word ‘apple’) and may draw on knowledge of the Japanesewriting system, where symbols have whole meanings (for example 雨, part of the
kanji alphabet, is literally the symbol for rain), and may think that ‘A’ means ‘apple’,and ‘E’ means elephant, and so on, as opposed to these symbols being a way of
introducing the phonetic sounds of these letters. Confusion might occur.

6. Reasons Given for the Selection of Activities Made to Complement
the Material Chosen   Grabe states that texts have many ways of aiding readers in understanding
material on the page (2004, p. 54) and Cziko (1980, as cited in Mangubhai, 2006, p. 4.6)
writes that at the lower levels of second language reading development, student
attention is drawn more readily to graphics or visuals than written text. Graphics andvisuals (weather maps) were a large component of the authentic material used in thelesson under discussion, as seen in the examples above.
   Weather maps and charts can be adapted to suit the purposes of all levels andlearning styles of students, depending on the complexity of the charts, as they tend
to contain both graphic and textual information, and are usually within the
background experience of the reader.
   These particular weather charts (see prior) are well-suited for lower-level learners
with little exposure to English. There are many visual cues and clues to support andexplain the text that accompanies them. In addition to the weather symbols, which
represent cloudy weather, rainy weather, fine (fair) weather and so forth, the weather
charts also include graphics of the islands of Japan. Visuals of the world, of a high― 87 ―

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No. 27and low-pressure system and Japanese area names written in Roman script are also
evident.
   These features should support the background knowledge students possess of
their own country; knowledge of the weather their country is experiencing, or canexperience in certain seasons; and weather symbols (which are also used in Japanese
language weather charts).
   These cues should serve to activate or heighten concept-driven top-down
processing, which includes students’ broad general knowledge, in this case of Japan,
the world and weather maps (Smith, 1971, Goodman, 1972 as cited in Hadley, 2001,
p. 146; Smith, 1971, Goodman, 1972, as cited in Carrell & Eisterhold, 1987, p. 221).
Knowledge of Japan and the world and the actual weather, through this processing,
will help fill out the students’ content schemata, whereas their familiarity with theformat of reporting the weather should serve to instantiate their formal schematic
knowledge, which deals with background knowledge of rhetorical and organisational
structures, and may include pre-existing knowledge of the use of future forms in
English (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1987, p. 223).
   Both combined will ease the facilitation of student understanding whenpresented with the reading activities that accompany the authentic materials (Hadley,
2001, p. 145, p. 161). If similar maps of another country were given to the students, it
can be argued that the students’ formal schemata and their general schematic
knowledge would assist them in comprehension and completion of task, but there isperhaps more chance of this knowledge coming into play if material that is up todate (at the time of the lesson), easily personalised and directly relevant is used.
   The scanning/extracting specific information questions included on theworksheet given to the students (see prior) will hopefully bring together both
top-down and bottom-up processing as students look for visual and textual cues tofactually answer questions (bottom-up). Bottom-up skills then work “bi-directionally”
with top-down processing skills to address the questions which require more skills ofinference (for example, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B - see worksheet, prior), all of which helps
develop reading skills (Carrell, 1998, as cited in Hadley, 2001, p. 149).
   Japan-specific weather charts, particularly those that are unmodified, should also
serve to collectively address the concept of students’ individuality (as a nation and anationality) which Hadley states is an important precept of teaching (2005, p. 205).
― 88 ―

To Use or Not to Use: Authentic Materials in a Reading/Writing Lesson; A Study   The questions on the worksheet are particularly guided towards general queries
incorporating fairly easy to infer/locate (for this level) ‘Japan-centric’ answers,
gradating to slightly more complex world weather questions which provide students
with a chance to easily incorporate the new into that which they already know (bothcognitively and academically) (Ausbel, 1968, 1978, as cited in Hadley, 2001, p. 144), anda chance to “modify schemata” as schemata is not static (Widdowson, 1984, p. 224).
   This leads to broadening the learner’s scope of interest and learning, and may
provide a conducive environment for acquisition of language and new schema, which
could lead to further future acquisition of language and schema, as the “old informs
the new”, which illustrates both the ongoing cyclical nature of the process of reading,and of language learning itself (Neisser, 1976, as cited in Widdowson, 1984, pp. 224–225).
   Brainstorming weather words in pairs and then “boarding” them under nouns
and adjectives was chosen as a way to begin this lesson in the preparation stages inorder to build up students’ “expectancy of what they [are] about to read” (Phillips,
1984, as cited in Hadley, p. 207) and to help facilitate the retrieval of the most suitable
schemata for the task.
   It also introduces the students to new vocabulary and might extend their
vocabulary beyond that presented on the weather chart, which does not containwords such as celsius, maximum, minimum or degrees. Hirsh and Nation, drawing
on Laufer (1989) and Liu and Nation (1985) argue that students need a ninety-five
percent comprehension level of vocabulary to read something comfortably (as cited in
Hirsh & Nation, p. 690, 1992). Day (2008) lists the percentage as lower, ranging from
75% to 83%, but this is still a significant figure. Accordingly, it is worthwhile preteaching/eliciting appropriate lexis. It is also a further argument in favour of using
appropriate authentic material, as that which is more easily recognised is more easily
named and remembered (Paulston & Bruder, 1976, as cited in Carrell & Eisterhold, 1987,
p. 226).
   For a lower level class, teachers may also like to brainstorm continents and theirrelevant countries/cities so that questions 3A and 3B (see prior) are not beyond thestudents’ cultural/content experience, and for all classes, may like to run throughtheir definition of just what constitutes as “warm” day, so that students know what is
expected of them for question 3C and 3D (for example, a New Zealand teacher fromthe South Island may feel that warm is sixteen to seventeen degrees celsius, whereas― 89 ―

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No. 27an Indonesian student may feel that twenty-five degrees is cool). This will ensure thatstudents’ and teachers’ schemata-expectations are not at odds with one another, and,so saying, comprehension is more likely to occur.
   This type of observation also promotes the development of sociocultural
knowledge, as does the challenge at the bottom of the worksheet (Dashwood, A.,
2006, personal communication), which is an important aspect of communicative
English (Hadley, 2001). Authentic materials are the perfect tool for nurturing thistype of awareness in students.
   Questions are answered and feedback given in “lots of three” to gauge andmonitor comprehension. For questions 2C and 2D students can also provide thetemperature using a form similar to, “Sapporo was the coldest city yesterday. It waseleven-point-three degrees celsius”. This indicates their grasp of the material (animportant part of the reading and classroom process) (Mangubhai, 2006, p. 4.9;
Phillips, 1984, as cited in Hadley, 2001, p. 208 ) and helps to transfer the knowledge
they have gained to vocabulary skills, further comprehension skills and oral skills(Phillips, 1984, as cited in Hadley, 2001, p. 208). Teachers could also use this part of thelesson to incorporate “maximum/minimum” vocabulary.
   The final writing activity consolidates all aspects of the lesson.

7. Activities, Student Langue Use and Further Discussion of Authentic
Material Use and its Application within the Classroom   Though it is argued that second language learners may rely too heavily ongraphic cues and therefore not open schemata fully (Mangubhai, 2006, p. 4.6), thereverse seemed to be true in this activity where, for question 2A which asked thestudents “Which areas [of Japan] will have the most rain at 8pm tonight?” (seeworksheet), the students’ reading skills were more thorough than the teacher’s, in thatthey retrieved the answers from the information listed under the heading “Possibilityof Rain” on the weather chart, meaning that they had three correct place names forthis answer, whereas the teacher had seven. Maybe this indicates that the teacher was
reliant on visuals, and too dependent on top-down processing skills, but the students
seemed to use both, top-down and bottom-up skills, looking for specific information
to support their assumptions.
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To Use or Not to Use: Authentic Materials in a Reading/Writing Lesson; A Study   This is also, in part a proofreading problem, and indicates some of theimpracticalities associated with authentic materials, particularly when time
constraints are involved. Another problem is the sheer logistics of photocopying
authentic materials for thirty-five students (similar problems are reported by Geddes& Whites) (1978, as cited in Hadley, 2001, p. 188). This is possible, and really the only
practical way to present the material if computer access is not viable, but clarity islost and the material loses its absolute “hands-on” authenticity, thereby “nulling” andvoiding, to a degree, its worth as authentic. This was evident in the fact that one
student read the times in Map 2 as noon–8pm, and 8pm–midnight (instead ofnoon–6pm and 6pm–midnight), due to a poor copy, which led her to answering
question 2A incorrectly, and is also evident in the fact that the layout chosen does
not immediately make it clear which maps the questions on the weather sheet arereferring to (this problem stems from this writer’s lack of layout expertise, but it is aproblem that most teachers who use authentic materials will face at one time oranother).
   It was chosen not to pre-teach or prepare students for questions 3A and 3B,
which is an option, if the class is particularly low or has a limited knowledge of worldgeography, as it was thought that the students probably had enough backgroundknowledge to answer the questions which related to a general knowledge of English
names and concepts for continents and cities.
   While answering these questions, the students were heard asking each otherwhere New Delhi was, and if it was a part of Asia, and, likewise, if Russia was aEuropean or Asian country, and which continent Moscow lay in. All of this showedthat the students comprehended the questions, and were using their own knowledge
and experience in conjunction with the information on the map, to answer them.
This shows a convergence of top-down and bottom-up processing to activate further
schema as they were needed (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1987, p. 221), resulting in an
integration of skills. This process, and the results of this process, can lead to a concept
of English as a communicative tool whose use extends beyond the classroom andacross cultures. Hadley (2001, p. 182) states that the last is an important aspect oflanguage learning.
   “As in real life . . .” where one action/skill supports another, the reading exercises
gradually evolve into exercises incorporating writing (Byrne, 1985, p. 25). A variety of― 91 ―

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No. 27tasks presented and skills explored is important in maintaining students’ interest andin fortifying and expanding skills covered (Byrne, p. 26), which also ties into thecyclical and “spiral” (Taylor, 1976, p. 317) nature of language learning. Therefore,
within the next exercise, which was a writing and speaking exercise, students went
back to, but expanded from, the questions the teacher had set, to make their own,
which they then directed to their classmates.
   Fanselow & Crymes (1976, p. 164) argue that we as teachers need to guidelearners to a realisation of authentic production and processing of target language via
pedagogical intervention. Keeping this in mind, if students at this level were
presented with weather charts “neat” and were expected to write comprehension
questions and a weather report without any guidance, they might not have enoughknowledge of the code to produce anything (p. 165). This is one of the major
criticisms of the use of authentic materials in the classroom (1976). However, theactivities preceding the writing ones were geared to the students’ predicted reading
and comprehension capabilities (as suggested by Hadley when using authentic materials,
2001, p. 206) and work to provide “adequate means” for students to reach goals which
are satisfactory for them and the instructor both (Fanselow & Crymes, 1976, p. 164).
   It is often argued that simplified materials are lacking in the natural redundancy
that occurs in authentic materials (Honeyfield, 1977, pp. 433–436), which can result ina loss of meaning and cohesion both in the text, and for the reader (pp. 433–436;
Hadley, 2001, p. 206 among others).
   The weather charts are not lacking in repetition or redundancy, but are perhaps
a little too redundant, in that the weather in Japan for this timeframe was fairly
homogenous. Therefore, not too much time was spent on the student generated
comprehension questions, for fear of waning interest. Perhaps this writer should haveselected the weather report with a little more forethought. Within this class, due totime constraints (and therefore lack of time to teach a more complex code), thestudents’ questions tended to focus on easy-to-locate, factual varieties.
   Examples of student use were similar to: “Map 2B, yesterday. It’s 25.2 degrees
minimum. Which city (is it)?”, although one student did incorporate the time of theweather as an important element for others being able to answer his question
accurately, which forced students to draw on inference as well as factual information(Carroll, 1976, 1985, p. 30, states that inference is an important first language reading― 92 ―

To Use or Not to Use: Authentic Materials in a Reading/Writing Lesson; A Studyskill. It is also a good skill to develop in second language learning).
   Once the speaking activity wound up, the students wrote their own weather
reports. Drawing on Taylor’s arguments (1994) that students are aware that they are
students participating in a language classroom, and that within itself holds its own
authenticity, it can be fun for the students to use their imaginations when it comesto writing the weather report, especially as the examples provided have similar
weather patterns, and are not necessarily good models for learners to use to illustrate
their understanding of content, new vocabulary and form.
   As the authentic forecast provided (see prior) is mostly passive, it is probably a
good idea to remind students of other future forms such as: “It will/is going to berainy” and, “There will/is going to be rain” and “Sapporo will/is going to berainy”, but “Sapporo will/is going to have snow”. Unfortunately, this writer did notforesee the linguistic challenges using the authentic model would cause, as outlined
below. If the teacher has time, and wants to spend time on the aforementioned
forms, they could be a good language focus for a follow-up class, or a rewriting
exercise.
   Further to the above, the passive should be allowed if students want to treat
their writing as a basic copying/substitution exercise. Some students asked if it was
all right for them to write like this, thereby showing their own knowledge of, andcomfort in, learning the code, coupled with a wish to revise their writing in the
future. Taylor (1976, p. 317) and Zamel (1987, p. 267) state that these are importantelements in developing writing skills.
   Reflecting one of the acknowledged potential problems of authentic materials
in regards to the randomness of its structure (Geddes & White, 1978, as cited in Hadley,
p. 188), some students wrote sentences similar to Student 3’s: *“Sendai is going to be
Rain is expected from next Sunday to Monday,” (see Samples of Student Language Use
Pertaining to the Activity). This was a problem that the teacher did not predict, as
mentioned above. Another being the combination of place name + active future form
+ have (as opposed to be) + noun, which is reflected in the students’ writing (whichuses be + noun). This also shows, though that new knowledge was in the process of
merging with the old, albeit not with one hundred percent accuracy.
   Even so, the writing produced was within the instructor’s expectations for
accuracy at this level (for a first draft) and feedback was given on the writing as a
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form of intervention, (as Zamel, 1987, p. 267 suggests is beneficial to the process), in
response to students’ questions. The instructor also felt that students mostly
comprehended the global notion of writing a weather report (see Samples of Student
Language Use Pertaining to the Activity).
   Though, unfortunately, time constraints and curriculum requirements did notallow it, this final writing exercise was a perfect opportunity to scaffold pre-learnt
skills to new ones (as implied by Taylor, 1976, p. 317) in the mode of a focus-on-form
activity, and the opportunity for students to rewrite in following classes.
   The use of authentic materials and the accompanying exercises seemed to arouseand maintain the students’ attention. They also contextualised and gave relevance tothe language students were exposed to and drew upon, which seemed to make theactivity both comprehensible and enjoyable for them. All of the above elements aid
the acquisition of language through the development and use of reading and writing
skills.

Conclusion   There is the authentic classroom (Taylor, 1994; Widdowson, 1978, as cited in
Taylor, 1994), the authentic material designed for the native speaker, and thesimulated authentic designed to give the learner the illusion of authenticity (Hadley,
2001). There is authenticity that lies in learner response (Fanselow & Crymes, p. 161,
1976) and simplified texts which “can be judged in terms of whether [they have] thenatural qualities of authenticity” (Day & Bamford, 1998, p. 61).
   Authentic material can make learning relevant and exciting for students (Hadley,
2001), and it can make it frustrating and confidence-draining (Day & Bamford, 1998,
p. 55). A lot is dependent upon the task which is selected to accompany the material(Hadley, 2001, p. 140), but even so, the selection of task can be fraught with practicalconcerns as unperceived classroom problems arise, or the logistics of sharing
authentic materials with large classes is faced.
   Authentic materials are found in most text books, as are simulated authentic
exercises, and teachers themselves produce material authentic in design to support,
or be the focus of their lessons. As such, given that “authentic” contains any numberof definitions, it is extremely hard to say whether one is for its use or against it.
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To Use or Not to Use: Authentic Materials in a Reading/Writing Lesson; A Study
Hadley’s endorsement to use authentic materials whenever possible (p. 188) is a good
one, but not necessarily a practical one, especially in an EFL situation with large classsizes. However, again, returning to the broad scope of the meaning of authentic,
maybe teachers are using such materials without ever realising it.
   Though only unmodified authentic materials were illustrated in this paper, thebroader study looked at the successful use of authentic, modified authentic andsimulated authentic materials in conjunction with textbook and form exercises tohelp develop students’ reading and writing skills, and the writer of this paper uses all
the above in a teaching context. Just as the nature of reading and writing is not a
linear process whereby students master one skill at a time, materials used, including
authentic, are not all of one type. However, all materials work towards balancing,supporting and stimulating learner development, when appropriately applied.

Notes
1. This paper deals with only one of the exercises, however, four were developed and used in theclassroom with learners of English as Kanagawa University in Japan. Further discussion on the otheractivities is available and can be obtained by emailing the author at flowerclip62@hotmail.com

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