Introduction -- Myth 1: authentic texts are inaccessible to beginners -- Myth 2: authentic texts cannot be used to teach grammar -- Myth 3: shorter texts are more beneficial for language learners -- Myth 4: activating background knowledge or making a word list is sufficient to prepare students for authentic texts -- Myth 5: authentic texts can be used to teach only listening and reading -- Myth 6: modifying or simplifying texts always helps language learners -- Myth 7: for learners to benefit from using authentic texts, the associated tasks must also be authentic -- Epilogue -- Appendices A-G: myth activities.

Local Literacies is a unique study of everyday reading and writing. By concentrating on a selection of people in a particular community in Britain, the authors analyze how they use literacy in their day to day lives.

A follow-up to the ACTFL Integrated Performance Assessment Manual published in 2003. This book provides readers with expanded guidelines for how to design IPA tasks to informthe backward design of a unit. Suggestions on how to provide effective feedback and howto improve learner performance are shared. Also included is a re-conceptualized rubricfor the interpretive mode and the addition of IPA rubrics for Advanced-level languageperformance.

This volume makes a unique contribution to the literature on materials development for language learning. It focuses on issues related to authenticity in materials development and includes research-based position statements, applications of theory to practice and developments of theory from observed practice. Each paper concentrates on a different aspect of authenticity and many of them introduce the reader to previously unexplored facets of authenticity. The chapters are sequenced so that the book moves from general discussion about the value of authenticity to reports of evaluations of authenticity to reports of the exploitation of authenticity in specific learning contexts. Many questions are raised, much revealing data is reported and analysed, and many pedagogic suggestions are made. The contributions here have been written so that they are of potential value to teachers, to materials developers, to post-graduate students and to researchers. They are written to be academically rigorous, but at the same time to be accessible to newcomers to the field and to experienced experts alike.

Ideas and activities for using authentic materials in the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classroom are collected here. Each activity centers on an audio, visual, or written text from an English language environment, including samples from many different genres: television, radio, and video; newspapers, magazines, and literature; maps, mail, and other documents; texts for academic and business settings; and food (menus, recipes, labels). Each teacher-suggested activity include a sample or synopsis of the authentic text used and a sample worksheet if used in the lesson. The activities focus on all language skills (reading, writing, grammar, listening, conversation), and acquisition of cultural knowledge is a focus of many of the exercises. Entries describe the target language skills levels, general and specific aims, necessary class and preparation time, suggested resources, step-by-step classroom procedures, grading notes, caveats and options, and references and further reading options. (Each section contains references.) (MSE)

This book examines how literary texts can be incorporated into teaching practices in an EFL classroom. It takes a multi-faceted approach to how English language teaching and learning can best be developed through presentation and exploration of literary texts.

This book, written by leading practitioners, brings together a comprehensive overview of TESOL.