ERIC Number: ED263770
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1985
Pages: 6
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The New Authenticity and the Preparation of Commercial Reading Texts for Lower-Level ESP Students.
Johns, Ann M.
Simplification of reading materials for lower-level English for special purposes (ESP) instruction may make texts comprehensible, but it may not make them much different from texts written 50 years ago. What will make them different is their authenticity, an approach characteristic of ESP, even at the lowest levels. However, authenticity is often confused with relevance. The "new authenticity" assumes that the authenticity of the situation in which a text is written is not as important for teaching as other text qualities, such as its ability to activate learning strategies during the course and to encourage learning beyond the course of instruction. Simplified texts can be written with the new authenticity if both rhetorical and linguistic features are considered, thereby maintaining the character of the unmodified text at several levels. Much of the learning strategy activation may be achieved by the teachers as they move through the text, demonstrating through mid-reading activities how readers interact with text and overcome the confusion that often results from overexposure to new material. Motivation, which is central to all learning, can be increased by the use of topics that activate students' prior content knowledge or that increase students' interest in a particular subject. The new authenticity will be important to the advancement of ESP. (MSE)
Publication Type: Information Analyses; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Teachers; Practitioners
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: In: CATESOL Occasional Papers, Number 11 p103-07 Fall 1985. (16th, San Diego, CA, April 1985). In: CATESOL (California Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Occasional Papers, Number 11, Fall 1985. p103-07.