This book explores authenticity as it relates to second language acquisition with a focus on the instruction of English as a foreign language. It discusses the theoretical issues surrounding authenticity and presents it as a complex dynamic construct that can only be understood by examining it from social, individual and contextual dimensions.

Authenticity is one of the most rampant buzzwords in ELT (English Language Teaching). Many have weighed in on what authenticity should mean and on how it may be achieved. The book at hand is an extensive analysis of authenticity as a term and as a concept within the academic field of ELT. The research data comprises virtually all definitions and conceptualizations of authenticity in the international ELT literature. However, only a limited number of texts contributes to what can be called an explicit negotiation of authenticity. A discourse analytical approach is taken to disentangle the hubbub of commentaries and to eventually extrapolate from it six distinct concepts which are attached to the term 'authenticity'. Michel Foucault's seminal theories are invoked, affording additional insights into discourse dynamics and power structures among individuals and institutions in ELT.

Adult language learners have specific learning goals that reflect their lives within a global society, and adults negotiate multiple and changing identities throughout their personal, academic, and professional lives. Chapters in Authenticity in the Language Classroom and Beyond: Adult Learners highlight how teachers have the ability to transform language instruction from a mechanical learning experience to a dynamic interaction to assist learners in reaching real-world goals. Rather than focus only on native-speaker norms of language production, English language instruction can provide adult learners with opportunities to create and act on their own texts, engage meaningfully with audiences, and develop interactions that mirror their purpose for learning. The chapters in this volume demonstrate how language teaching practices engage learners' inauthentic experiences, using and producing texts to meet international and localized communication needs. All the chapters in this volume demonstrate that authenticity is more than just the materials we use. Authenticity also means using language for real purposes. It means engaging students in collaborative learning, involving discussions, negotiations, and decision making. Authenticity is creating real uses for English, not just modeling native-speaker language and culture. With English increasingly being used as a lingua franca to connect second language speakers, authenticity takes on new meanings as we seek to develop learners who can face the challenge of communicating effectively in an increasingly globalized world.

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.

This collection addresses issues of authenticity in second language contexts from a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches along three principal themes: What is authentic language? Who is an authentic speaker? How is authenticity achieved? The volume responds to these questions by bringing together scholars working in a range of contexts, including with language learners in the classroom and in residence or study abroad, with a variety of second or additional languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. Contributions focus on authenticity as it relates to patterns of language and meaning, and to agency, identity and culture, and serve as an opening to an extended conversation about the nature of authenticity and its development in L2 contexts. This volume is relevant for students and scholars interested in learning about or investigating questions of authenticity and interaction in a wide range of language learning contexts.

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.