From Genuineness to Finder Authenticity in Communicative Language Teaching

Abstract

The shift from traditional towards more learner-centered approaches to teaching has resulted in the concept of authenticity becoming central to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). As a relational notion, authenticity has to do with the interaction between learners and input materials in terms of appropriate responses, as opposed to its notion of genuineness as an absolute quality. It paves the way for language to be authenticated through context, as it encourages a use-to-learn rather than a learn-to-use approach. Using authentic materials requires a great deal of attention to be paid to not only the contextualization and authenticity of tasks, but also to the incorporation of genuine texts into task design, which itself has been revolutionized through modern technology. Using the Web as a technological tool has resulted in another version of authenticity, which might be in line with finder authenticity. The main aim of this paper is to argue that the notion of authenticity has come a long way from genuineness to finder authenticity.