Reflection+on+Macmillian+Webinar+by+Zeynep+Deniz

=Zeynep Deniz= =**1734706 **= =** Reclection on Macmillian webinar **= =Sue Kay is a speaker in of the Macmillan Webinars. She is both a teacher and textbook writer. She Works with a language school related to Oxford English Centre. She really likes using textbooks because she thinks that they are good materials for drawing attention of students. The topic of the webinar is “Authenticity in Elt”. She explains it based on 3 aspects such as criteria to select, adapting an authentic text and authentic interaction between students. She defines the term authenticity like that “a classroom text is authentic if it was originally written for a non-classroom audience”. She means that being authentic is different from simplified and artificial texts. = =Firstly, she talks about the selecting criteria. It should be interest raising so, students’ engagement becomes easier. Also, it should motivate students to read the text. When they are willing to read, they can understand it more easily. Moreover, the complexity and richness of the text is important. It should provide students with enough input and students can get benefit from it. The last aspect is that it makes the chances of eliciting genuine responses increased. In my opinion, she can explain the criteria very well. Teachers should be aware of these criteria. Using authentic text is beneficial because students can relate the text with their lives and it does not make them bored. = =Secondly, she talks about how to adapt an authentic text. It may be necessary in some circumstances. For example, if the level of the text is above the level of the students, teacher should adapt the text. There are some ways to do it. One of them is to replace the unknown words with high frequency words. If the text includes difficult words, we can use easy ones instead of them. To illustrate, she shows us a text about a museum in Bilbao. In the text, writer uses “jungle of Bilbao” and it is a difficult word. She says that if we can replace it with “the city of Bilbao”, students can easily understand the sentences. Also, we can cut out the length and complexity of the text. We can arrange it according to our purpose. For example, if grammar structure is very high, we can separate long sentences and we can change tense or other structures. Another way is to omit cultural references from the text. They may be unnecessary and make the level of the text higher. Moreover, teachers should focus on useful phrases in the text. I agree with her in this point. Since it is an authentic text, students can obtain some phrases used in the real life. Sometimes we can come across with some unique words in authentic text. = =Thirdly, some information about authentic interaction is given the webinar. The term authentic interaction is used to describe a quality of classroom interaction which reflects the structure of real talk instead of traditional classroom talk. It occurs when students engage in activities on a personal level. It is a good way to increase motivation to second language acquisition. We can help students engage in activities with the help of the many ways. For example, teacher may relate them to a partner or she asks them true- false questions. As a result, students can be forced to engage in the activities. = =To conclude, using authentic text in the Elt classrooms is really beneficial. It motivates students to participate into the lesson. I will use authentic materials in my lessons because students can get some cultural knowledge thanks to them. Also, after I participate into this webinar, I learn how to select and adapt the authentic material. I am aware of the benefits of using them in my lesson. =

**Sue Kay Webinar**

Webinar Title: **Authenticity in ELT. Practical ideas for developing students' language skills** []


 * Comments**

First of all, thank you for sharing an interesting topic with us. I learnt some new things about authenticity in ELT classrooms thanks to this webinar. I was not familiar with 3 stages of authenticity: Selection, adaptation and authentic interaction. I think the selection stage is really important. We need to select materials considering students' interests. Therefore, they don't get bored easily. Also, as you mention, the richness of the material is significant. They should both enjoy and learn at the same time. Adaptation stage is quite a good way of implementing materials. We need to adapt some materials to students' level. However, when an authentic material is adapted, it becomes simplified or structured material and i think it loses its authenticity a little bit. Authentic interaction is also a new term for me and i think it can be implemented in classrooms because it aims real talk. However, in a classroom environment, to what extent is real talk possible? I am not sure about it. by Alp Kaan KILINÇ