Authenticity, Authentic Texts and TEFL. A Psycholinguistic Perspective

Abstract

This chapter contributes to a rather unpromising debate on the role of authentic materials, especially texts, in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). The topic is central to the field in which texts feature prominently as the key element of language learning: Texts provide both language, content and cultural input, the material stimulus for interaction via reading and writing, as well as the source of feedback incorporation for language learning. An attempt is made to clarify the notion of authenticity in TEFL, including such aspects as the roots of the “authenticity” debate, i.e. problems with artificial texts, for which authentic texts were supposed to provide a remedy, as well as the feasibility of their proposed functions in foreign language teaching. To deal with these complex issues in a constructive manner we must appreciate the links between the nature and structure of the text and the mental processes which are activated in the learner's mind. For this purpose, I adopt a psycholinguistic perspective of language use and learning as verbal communication. The key source of information about the manner of lan- guage and cultural input processing in texts is reading comprehension with the resulting storage of the material, indispensable for language learning. This per- spective provides a realistic context for determining the nature and function of authentic materials in TEFL as well as their criteria of relevance to the language learner.