Integrating authentic materials in language education

Abstract

We live in an information society, where our everyday language is filled with terms such as information flow, information overload, information warfare, globalisation, knowledge management, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Communicating and conveying meaning through language in a world that is globally connected, yet linguistically and culturally diverse, is often a challenging task. At the broader level, access to information means power, but it also creates a variety of challenges. Accurate pronunciation and accent are crucial elements of sociocultural competence, as they greatly contribute to understanding and effective communication. In practice, human discourse often manifests as a series of partial sentences interspersed with interruptions and shifts in thought, commonly referred to as "run-on sentences." Natural conversations, typified by their spontaneity, markedly differ from the structured dialogues typically encountered in educational materials. Consequently, transcripts of authentic conversations exhibit a distinct disparity from textbook examples. This divergence elucidates the challenges encountered by advanced learners upon immersion in English-speaking environments, wherein their proficiency in formal vocabulary contrasts starkly with their limited exposure to colloquial speech. While formal education may impart theoretical constructs of linguistic norms, it often fails to adequately acquaint students with the nuances of actual spoken language.