Topic: Homonyms and polysemyContent Introduction Chapter I authentic materials

Here are some examples:
Broad questions about the whole of sample article 1.
1 Is the fixed-line phone a dead duck? Why? Why not?
2 How will “fixed-mobile convergence” work?
3 What are the opportunities of fixed-mobile convergence for fixed-line
operators?
4 What are “integrated operators” – and what are the advantages of fixed-mobile convergence for them?
5 How will this change the telecoms market?
6 How will this change users’ habits?
7 How should this be marketed?
You can show your class such questions before they read. They can then read the
article and, in groups, they can discuss the answers to the questions (in English only, of course) before presenting them to the rest of the group.
Using broad questions with the cut-off article
Present the same questions to your class before they read the cut-off article.
Then ask your students how many of these questions, or parts of these questions, they can answer already. Then split them into groups and get them to read the cut-off article to see how many more of the questions, or parts of the questions, they can answer. (This particular article stops at an interesting point, so many businesspeople should be able to anticipate a significant amount of what follows in the rest of the article!)
After they have discussed their answers with the whole class, let them read the second half of the article in their groups and pad out their answers.
Using broad questions with jigsaw reading
(This example is for a group of 12. You will have to alter this recipe a little for groups of other sizes.) Give everyone in the class a copy of your broad questions. Split your class into four groups of three.
Split the article into four pieces of approximately equal size (In my split article example based on the cut article, there is also a copy of the broad questions) and give each piece of article to each group of three people.
Each group then reads their part of the article and agrees on what it means. They then discuss how many of the broad questions, or parts of them, they can answer with their part of the article.
Each person in each group of three is then given a number – one, two or three. All the ‘ones’ become a group, all the ‘twos’ become another group and all the ‘threes’ become another group – so the four groups of three are now three groups of four. And each member of each new group has read a different part of the article. Now take back the different parts of the article!
Then each person in each group describes the part of the article they have read to the rest of their group in their own words, and each group then agrees on the order of the different parts of the article.
After that, each group discusses among themselves all the answers to the broad questions. A spokesperson from each group then presents their group answers to all the questions to the rest of the class. Claire Kramsch had a different view on authentic materials. In her book Context and Culture in Language Teaching (1996), she devoted one chapter to authentic texts and contexts. She agrees with Widdowson’s definition: “It is probably better to consider authenticity not as a quality residing in instances of language but as a quality which is bestowed upon them, created by the response of the receiver. Authenticity in this view is a function of the interaction between the reader/hearer and the text which incorporates the intentions of the writer/speaker… Authenticity has to do with appropriate response.”³
As an example, she mentions a German menu, which would not be authentic text if it was used in an English lesson to practice reading prices or learning adjective endings. It would be an authentic piece of text if it was used as a German menu. Next she says that cultural competence does not include the obligation to behave according to conventions of given speech community and that we should not want our student to behave like somebody else or plagiarize behavioural patterns. Behaving like someone else is not a guarantee that the community that speaks the language will accept the person.

Teachers should choose textbooks according to following guidelines:

1. 
   A new book should be examined carefully to check whether it provides sufficient cultural point of view.
   
2. 
   The teacher should make a list of cultural aspects in each lesson and check whether they are positive or negative.
   
3. 
   The teacher should look in detail at the exercises and consider whether they will support his intercultural activities.
   
4. 
   He should check whether the vocabulary, examples, grammar structures etc. are placed on some meaningful cultural background.
   
5. 
   Check whether the pictures and photographs are culturally related.
   
6. 
   Examine dialogues for cultural context.
   
7. 
   Re-examine textbooks that may be culturally biased. Check whether they are objective.