CHUYÊN đề BỒI DƯỠNG HSG LỚP 9 MÔN TIẾNG ANH

Authentic Materials in
Acquainting Learners with World
Englishes
Table of Content
Part I: Introduction ………..……………………

1

Part II: Development ………….………………………

2

II.1. Language, Dialects and Varieties …………………………
II.2. Standard Language and World Englishes ………….…...
II.3. Authentic Materials ………………………………….…...
II.4. Implications in English Language Education …….…...…
Part III: Conclusion ………………………………………
References ……………………………………………….…
APPENDIX 1 ..………………………………………….…
APPENDIX 2 ..………………………………………….…

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3
5
7
9
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Part I: Introduction
Foreign language education has become a significant phenomenon in the present
age. Responding to personal or professional needs, people learn a foreign
language to qualify for overseas education, to communicate with colleagues in
international businesses, or to prepare themselves for round-the-world travel. In
order to understand the phenomenon, a lot of wide knowledge related to the
process of language acquisition, second or foreign language education, and
specific knowledge of foreign language teaching pedagogy, testing and
evaluation, etc. have become especially important. According to Cook (1999),
foreign language teaching has, broadly speaking, two goals: Firstly, students
learn the formal properties of a language and get some practice using it in
communicative situations, typically realized in the classroom. Secondly,
students actually communicate with people in an L2 environment, realized
outside the classroom. There emerge new areas of research in English Language
Teaching (ELT) including the relationship between ELT and World Englishes
(WEs), English as an International Language (EIL) and English as a Lingua
Franca (ELF). In many schools of WEs, EIL and ELF exists the interaction
between people (e.g., nonnative speaker-nonnative speaker; native speakernonnative speaker) in choosing a common language–i.e., English–to
communicate. Therefore, it is open to question that whether it is necessary to
teach

‘standard

English’

or

English

varieties

to

develop

students

“communicative competence” (Hymes, 1972). This is also a big challenge that
most teachers of English are commonly facing in such countries as China,
Korea, or Viet Nam as stated by Le (2012). Therefore, using a variety of sources
beside the textbooks especially authentic materials rooted in different Englishes
may bring a prospective outcome. This writing mainly aims at introducing some
sources for teachers to get authentic materials to use in English teaching to
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acquaint their students with a variety of English in the world. Because of the
limit of the article, the specific sociolinguistic aspect – regional dialects,
specifically of English, is taken into consideration to draw some implications for
foreign language education. The study consists of four points as follows:
1: Language, Dialects and Varieties
2: Standard English and World Englishes
3: Authentic materials
4: Implications in English Language Education
Part II: Development
II.1. Language, Dialects and Varieties
There have been a number of definitions of language, especially in comparison
with dialects. According to Trudgill (1978) “if two speakers cannot understand

one another, then they are speaking different languages.” (p.15) while
Wardhaugh (2006) challenged that definition by providing the examples of
Cantonese and Mandarin people in China, who will not be able to understand
each other in speaking but will be able in writing so he defined language as what
“can be used to refer either to a single linguistic norm or to a group of related
norms” (p.28). Fishman (1972) defined language to be “a superordinate
designation” (p.23), which shared the view of Trudgill (1978) in that languages
are “autonomous” (p.16). Put it differently, language is an independent linguistic
body including vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation which can help people
to intelligibly communicate with each other. For instance, some languages are
Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, English, Russian, etc.
One of the uses of language in society is to build and sustain meaningful
relationships among people (Spolsky, 1998). When we meet people for the first
time in a social context, our first reaction often includes speculation, on the basis
of their spoken language and dialects to know about where they come from, and

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what social class they belong to. Such speculation leads one to form a fuller
image and understanding of people, which may or may not be accurate.
Dialects, according to Trudgill (1978, p. 17), strictly speaking, refers to
“differences between kinds of language which are differences of vocabulary and
grammar as well as pronunciation”. Thus, dialects are ‘heteronomous’ (Trudgill,
1978, p. 16) or “a subordinate designation” (Fishman, 1972, p.23). In other
words, while language is independent, dialects are dependent. Language and
dialects can be distinguished in terms of size, in which a language is larger than
a dialect, and prestige, in which a language has a prestige but a dialect does not.
For example, Vietnamese is a language with a lot of dialects of different regions
along Vietnam and of different social classes in the society.

Dialects used to be regional but now they may be regional at one time and social
at another time. Because when mentioning the term dialects, in some people’s
minds, they are related to “provincial, perhaps not well educated”, many of the
scholars would rather use the term variety to connote its technical meaning.
A variety of language is defined by Hudson (1996, p.22) as “a set of linguistic
items with similar distribution” while by Ferguson (1972, p.30) as “any body of
human speech patterns which is sufficiently homogeneous to be analyzed by
available techniques of synchronic description and which has a sufficiently large
repertory of elements and their arrangements or processes with broad enough
semantic scope to function in all formal contexts of communication.” In terms of
these definitions, there are a number of varieties of English such as standard
English, American English, Cockney English, Indian English, etc. Varieties of a
language include all variation in terms of dialects, registers, pidgins, creoles, etc.
depending on one’s regional background, social class and network, ethnicity,
gender, age, and style, so on.
II.2. Standard Language and World Englishes

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From that perspective, according to Trudgill (1978, p.32), standard language,
“somewhat imprecise”, is a ‘proper language’ having prestige. He also stated that
“standard languages are the result of a direct and deliberate intervention by society”,
which must be passed through four processes of ‘standardization’ including
Selection, Codification, Elaboration of function and Acceptance (Haugen, 1966).
(1) Selection: a particular variety, which may be existing or not, of great
social and political importance is often chosen to be developed into a standard
language to gain prestige and be accepted by people.
(2) Codification: dictionaries and grammar books are often written by such
agency as an academy to fix the variety so that people agree on and then can

learn to produce correct forms.
(3) Elaboration of function: all functions must be possible to be used in
formal contexts such as in parliament, law suits, educational and scientific
documents, literature, etc. but new conventions for using existing forms are also
developed.
(4) Acceptance: the variety has to be accepted by the relevant population
usually as the national language.
Because most varieties of language change over time, the standard language
cannot remain unchanged as new lexical items and new conventions for using
existing forms are added. Thus, there has been a hot debate on standard English.
Trudgill (1978, p. 17) defined standard English as follows:
Standard English is that variety of English which is usually used in
print, and which is normally taught in schools and to nonnative
speakers learning the language. It is also the variety which is normally
spoken by educated people and used in news broadcasts and other
similar situations. The difference between standard and non-standard,
it should be noted, has nothing in principle to do with differences
between formal and colloquial language, or with concepts such as
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‘bad language’. Standard English has colloquial as well as formal
variants, and standard English speakers swear as much as others.
Historically, the standard English derived from the English dialects used in and
around London but even within standard English, there are a number of
differences attracting attention. The differences not only lie in vocabularies but
also in grammatical aspect. Any speaker can be said to speak various dialects
depending on the circumstances of a discussion: When chatting together, two
students from Southern America can speak in southern American English but
when they speak in a conference at their college in New York, they can speak in

Standard American English. Nowadays, English is not a single entity any longer
but it is widely mentioned as World Englishes taking into account all varieties of
English not only in the Inner Circle, which comprises the old-variety Englishusing countries namely the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand,
but also in the Outer Circle, which comprises countries where English has long
been used as a second language or official language in education, governance,
literary creativity, and popular culture, such as India, Singapore, South Africa,
the Philippines, etc.; and especially in the Expanding Circle countries where
English has various roles and is widely studied such as China, Korea, Japan,
Vietnam, etc. According to A. Suresh Canagarajah (2006), globalization and
digital technology have blurred the marginal line among native English-speaking
countries, second English-speaking countries and foreign English-speaking
countries and created new English. Thus, nowadays, people learning English are
not only to communicate to native speakers but also to speakers of other
languages. It is clear that the number of non-native English speakers outnumber
that of native English speakers. English now is not English of the UK or of the
USA but the global English or world Englishes. Many people now question that
what the Standard English is, the Standard British English or the Standard
American English; “if there are two, why not three? If three, why not a dozen?”
(Braj B. Kachru & Celcil L. Nelson, 1996)
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II.3. Authentic Materials
First and foremost, the definition of authentic materials should be taken into
account. In the literature of second language acquisition and learning, the term
"authentic materials" has been defined in different ways. Probably, the most
common definition is offered by Nunan (1999), in which authentic materials are
defined as "spoken language data that has been produced in the course of
genuine communication, and not specifically made for purposes of language
teaching and learning." Gebhard (1996) also helps to clarify the above definition

by giving examples of authentic materials that teachers have used in teaching
foreign languages. Some of his examples, which may serve as source material
for lesson planning, are: newspapers, TV commercials, quiz shows, cartoons,
news clips, comedy shows, movies, soap operas, professionally audio, (taped)
short stories and novels, letters, advertisements, radio ads, songs, documentaries,
and sales pitches.
In the last 20 years, the use of authentic materials in the ELT classroom has
drastically become a common practice and it is highly acknowledged that that
application has brought about many positive results. According to Brinton
(1991), authentic materials can reinforce students’ associating the language
classroom with the outside world. Gebhard (1996) sees authentic materials as a
way to "contextualize" language learning. When lessons are centered on
comprehending a menu or a TV weather report, students tend to focus more on
content and meaning rather than the language itself. Such materials provide
students with a valuable source of language input, so that they are not being
exposed only to the language presented by the textbooks and the teachers. Also,
some researchers indicate that more authentic materials are needed in the
classroom because of the wide disparity that is often found between materials
developed

specifically

for

English

language

teaching

and

real-life

communication. Porter and Roberts (1981) show several mismatches between
authentic materials and non-authentic materials in terms of spoken and written
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language. For example, conversations recorded for language texts often have a
slow pace, have particular structures which recur with obtrusive frequency, and
have very distinct turn-taking of speakers. Also, hesitations (such as “uh’s” and
“mm’s”) are often missing, and sentences are very well-formed with few if any
mistakes. Simultaneously, real-life records are rarely in such good quality. It is
easily noticed that background sounds as well as daily spoken expressions are
often included. In other words, what the language learners hear in class is
different from that in the real world. In many cases, the language used in
classrooms is a stilted use of real-life language, and authenticity is lost because
of a need to teach specific language points in a way that some teachers feel
would be more understandable for learners.
Brosnan et al. (1984) justify the importance of the use of authentic materials in
the classroom in this way:
a. Language is natural. Authentic language offers students the chance to
deal with a small amount of material which, at the same time, contains complete
and meaningful messages.
b. Students need to be able to see the immediate relevance of what they do
in the classroom to what they need to do outside it, and real-life material treated
realistically makes the connection obvious.
II.4. Implications in English Language Education
Because the number of nonnative English users is on a drastic increase

surpassing that of native ones, it has come to be the case that the interactional
contexts in which nonnative speakers use English with nonnative ones dominate
communication in reality compared to the fast shrinking of the interactional
contexts in which nonnative speakers communicate with native ones in English.
In particular, in most countries in the world, the majority of monolingual or
bilingual teachers (nonnative teachers) who may have never encountered nativeEnglish-used environment teach their students (nonnative students) who will
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become nonnative teachers in the future. Before teaching at school, most teachers
of English have never communicated with any native or even a foreigner when they
were at school or at the university. Their ability of communication in English could
just be seen through their grade at the university and they bring this assumption
with them to the school at which they are teachers of English. So they also become
teachers of English speaking in their own accent, surely not a standard English.
However, when communicating with foreigners including those coming from
England, America or from the Philippines, South Korea, etc., whether their accent
is Vietnamese one, provided that they can express themselves fluently and easily
make they understood, they can be successful in communication, and this is the
most important thing in their job. However, if they can get an English or American
accent, they can have a significantly positive effect on their students who always
long to listen to standard English but it is extremely difficult, not mention
impossible, to acquire standard English even when they spend some years in
London, let alone they have never been there. Therefore, the use of authentic
materials is a good way to acquaint students with the real-context sources of
English around the world, not only those coming from native English speaking
countries. Basing on the understanding of world Englishes, some implications can
be drawn out on English language education for teachers as follows.
Firstly, teachers of English should try best to increase the chances for students to
expose to different varieties of English instead of only one or two varieties,

which are considered ‘standard’. According to Le (2012, p.193), it is advisable
that standard English or ‘native speaker variety’ be ‘considered as a frame of
reference that signals EIL varieties’ because this helps to provide teachers and
learners with a vision and objective to aim for. To achieve this goal, teachers of
foreign languages should do some research on varieties of English in different
countries where English is spoken especially to prepare students for regional
vernaculars they are likely to encounter. They can also exploit various sources of
English like films, news, newspapers, etc. to broaden students’ exposure to
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world Englishes (some suggested websites to obtain authentic sources in
appendix 1). It is clear that functional view of the language, not the necessarily
native use, should be taught in ranged and deep explanation while drawing
students’ attention to the differences in use. Taking the pronunciation the
consonant ‘r’ in ‘cart’ as an illustration, while pronouncing the word with ‘r’ is
normal in the U.S., it is considered a bit rural and uneducated in some parts, but
not all, of Britain, especially in the globalization and integration age, many parts
of Britain is engaging in this type of pronunciation. Therefore, it is extremely
essential to raise students’ awareness of appropriateness and intelligibility of
communicative competence. This is the most critical element in foreign
language education nowadays rather than teaching students what standard
English is.
Furthermore, the way to evaluate students should also be adapted to fit the
changes in English language education. English tests should be standardized so
that students have chances to encounter Englishes not only of the U.K. or the U.S.
but also of India, Singapore, Philippines, South Africa, and even Spain, China,
etc. Moreover, evaluation and assessment should take on a dynamic aspect,
focusing on processes rather than on outcomes of standardized decontextualized
tests, i.e. the language proficiency and academic achievement of the students

should be considered by observing their communicative competence in both
spoken and written forms over the time.
However, this application in teaching is not easy for all teachers because it
requires them to devote a lot of time to searching for a variety of document from
different sources and adapt this material to their own classes. This process needs a
lot of attempt and hard work. Besides, teachers without good background English
competence can mislead students because of their lack of capacity in processing
the raw material of different sources, some of which may be unreliable (some
lesson plans made from authentic materials provided in appendix 2).
Part III: Conclusion
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In conclusion, this article has explored varieties of the language – English, and
its implications in English language education. It is clear that varieties of the
language should be taken into consideration in carrying out the language
education so that the best result can be achieved. Because of the development,
English now is not a single identity but world Englishes in which the varieties of
English in native English-speaking countries may be surpassed by the varieties
of English in nonnative English-speaking countries, so it is worth bearing this
fact in mind. Teaching English, therefore, means teaching students how to
develop learning awareness and strategies to communicate in English in the
global environment rather than in the Inner Circle countries. These trends
include the analysis of different genres of written and spoken language emerging
in contexts where English is spoken as a native language and also in global
contexts where other varieties of English are spoken. Hence, it is important to
note that foreign language teaching in a broader sense involves the teaching of
successful communication in foreign language through the use of an appropriate
variety, which can be enhanced by introducing students with a wide source of
authentic materials. Both teachers and students need not acquire a standard

accent provided that their English is comprehensible.

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References
A. Suresh Canagarajah. (2006). TESOL at Forty: What are the issues?. TESOL
Quaterly , 40, 1, 9-34
Bayyurt, Y. (2013) Current Perspectives on Sociolinguistics and English Language
Education. The Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, 3, 1, 53-78
Braj B. Kachru & Celcil L. Nelson. (1996). World Englishes. CUP: USA
Brinton, D.M. (1991). The use of media in language teaching. In M. CelceMurcia (ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, Boston:
Heinle and Heinle Publishers.
Brosnan, D., Brown, K. and Hood, S. (1984). Reading in Context. Adelaide:
National Curriculum Resource Center.
Cook (1999). Going beyond the native speaker in language teaching. TESOL
Quarterly, 33, 2, 185-209.
Ferguson, C. A. (1972). Language Structure and Language Use. Standford:
Standford University Press.
Fishman, J. A. (1972). Sociolinguistics. USA: Newbury House Publishers.
Gebhard, J.G. (1996). Teaching English as a Foreign Language: A Teacher SelfDevelopment and Methodology Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of
Michigan Press.
Haugen, E. (1966). Language conflict and language planning. The case of
Modern Norwegian. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press.
Ho, Thi Thu Trang (2014). Using Authentic Materials in Listening Teaching
Lessons. Presented at Vinhphuc English Teaching Conference for the
Gifted High Schools.
Hudson, R. A. (1980). Sociolinguistics. Great Britain: CUP.
Hymes, D. H.
(1972) Hymes, Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An

Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press
Kachru, B. B. (1986). The alchemy of English: The spread, functions, and
models of nonnative Englishes. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
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Le, Van Canh (2012). Teaching English as an International Language: A
perspective from the expanding circle. International Journal of
Innovation in English Language Teaching, 1, 2, 189-199.
Mc Kay, S. L. & Hornberger, N. H. (1996). Sociolinguistics and Language
Teaching (ed). USA: CUP.
Nunan, D. (1999). Second Language Teaching and Learning. Boston: Heinle and
Heinle Publishers.
Porter, D. and Roberts, J. (1981). Authentic listening activities. English
Language Teaching Journal, 36 (1), 37-47.
Spolsky, B. (1998). Language and Culture. Oxford University Press: Great Britain.
Trudgill, P. (1978). Sociolinguistics: An Introduction. Great Britain: Hazell
Watson & Viney Ltd.
Wardhaugh, R. (2006). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. (5th ed.). Singapore:
Basil Blackwell Ltd.

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APPENDIX 1
Websites to get authentic materials
- BBC (Online): />- BBC (Radio): />- CNN: />- Earthwatch Radio: />- Repeat After Us: />- CBC Podcasts: />- NPR: />- The British Council: />- Newsy: />- The Weather Channel: />- Schackne Online: />- Ted talks: />- English teaching materials: />- Exercises: www.englishdaily626.com
- Teaching and learning English:
- Teaching and learning English: www.ucan.vn
- One of the most reliable English newspapers: indiatimes.com

- Youtube: />
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APPENDIX 2
SOME SAMPLE LESSON PLANS
READING: AN ARTICLE
CHINA’S ‘VIOLENT PHILANTHROPIST’ GIVES AWAY FRESH AIR
(The guardian Weekly, February 2012)

I: Aims: By the end of the lesson, students will:
- be able to know more about a debatable philanthropist, Chen Guangbiao in China
so that students’ morality and humanity are raised together with their critical
thinking.
- develop reading skill as well as other integrated skills
II: Lexical items: words related to reading topic
III: Teaching aids: PC and projectors, handouts
IV: Procedure:
Stages
Teacher’s activities
Students’ activities
1. Warm-up
- Show the word ‘Philanthropist’ on the screen and - They don’t know/ If
ask students whether they know this word or not
they know, ask them
- Show some pictures of famous persons such as
the meaning or
Bill Gates, Geogre Soros for students to guess who explanation.
they are
- Guess

- Provide some information about their
achievements, properties and donations.
- Say that they are philanthropists
- Pay attention
- Ask students to define a philanthropist
- Show the definition of a philanthropist
A philanthropist is a rich person who helps the
- Give answer: They
poor and those in need
are rich, successful and
- Show the picture of Chen Guangbiao and ask
help other people who
students whether they know him or not
are underpriviledged.
- Show a short clip of Chen Guangbiao who is
- Most/All of them
giving fresh air cans for the people in Beijing
don’t know
retrieved from
- Watch the clip
- Ask students what is the man doing? What is in
the cans? Why is he doing so?
- Students give
=> Lead in: to know who the man is and what he is different answers
doing, study the article: China’s ‘violent
philanthropist’ gives away fresh air quoted in the
Guardian Weekly, February 2012
2. Pre-reading

- Pre-teach new words

Pre-teach some new words by delivering handouts
in which students have to match new words in
column A with their definitions in column B
- Call some students to write their answer on the

- Work individually
and do the task

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blackboard and check the correct answers before
asking all the students to read aloud the new
words.
3. Whilereading

4. Postreading

5. Homewor
k

Exericse 1: Y/N
- Deliver handouts of reading and ask students to
read the article and do the exercise 1
- Check the answers and ask students to explain
why they have those answers by pointing out the
cues.
Exericse 2: Answer the questions
- Ask students to work in pairs ask and answer the
questions

- Check the answers
Discussion: Do you think you would be an admirer
or a skeptic of Chen Guangbiao? Why
- Ask students to work in groups and discuss
- Call some students to present their ideas in front
of the class.
- Give some remarks on their presentations and
wrap up the lesson

- Give the answer and
then read after the
teacher

- Do the exercises

- Discuss and Give
presentations

Assign homework

Handouts
Write the words in column A next to the people described in column B
A

1. Ebullient one /ɪˈbʌliənt/
2. Descendant
3. Donor
4. Entrepreneur /ˌɒntrəprəˈnɜː(r)/
5. Environmentalist
6. Passerby

7. Sceptic
8. Sibling

B
A person who …
a. makes money starting new businesses.
b. doubts that something is true.
c. gives money to charity.
d. is full of confidence, energy and good humour.
e. walks past something by chance.
f. wants to protect the natural world.
g. is the brother or sister of someone.
h. is the grandchild, great-grandchild, etc of someone.

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17


18


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NEW YORK CITY TRAVEL GUIDE on Youtube.com
PREPARED BY Ho Thi Thu Trang – Halong Gifted High School
1. Who am I? Read the sentences and find out which city is being
described.

1. I am an apple.
2. I’m multicultural.
3. I’m famous for my theatres.
4. I love shopping.
5. And old lady welcomes you.
6. Yellow is my word.
7. I’m an island.
8. Visit me if you love musems.
9. Look up!
10. Film, film, films.
2. Watch the video, listen to the text and try to fill in the gaps.
New Yorkers like to think their 1 ______________________ is the centre of
the world. And who can blame them? Home to over 8 million people, the city is
2 ______________________ and fast, and posed with energy.
America’s

biggest

city

can

be

overwhelming

for

3

______________________ but you’ll find the street names make navigation 4
______________________And those yellow cabs are a great way to get around.
Manhattan is the 5______________________and soul of the Big Apple. And
within its neighbourhoods, there’s a distinct 6 ______________________ and
pace. Lower Manhattan, the city’s 7 ______________________disctrict bustles
from Monday to Friday. The 8 ______________________ of Time Square and
Broadway burns bright in Midtown. While dominating the Upper East End West
sides are Central Park, 9 ______________________ boutiques and those 10
______________________ brown-stone homes.
3. Based on the text, answer the questions:
1. If you want to do some shopping where would you go?
_______________________________________________
2. If you are interested in arts which museums can you visit?
_______________________________________________
3. How can you get to Liberty Island?
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_______________________________________________
4. Why is the Statue of Liberty important to immigrants?
_______________________________________________
5. Where can you find street art?
_______________________________________________
6. How about music? What kind of music can you hear at different parts
of the city?
_______________________________________________
4. Imagine that you are travelling to New York! Prepare a wish-list,
what you would like to visit and why.
Here are some suggestions:

"The rainforest song" by J.P Taylor
a. Cross out the words that are not in the listening
Listen to the first paragraph and cross out the words that you do not hear.
Here’s our beautiful song about a place,
That’s threatened by the entirely human race.
Want to let you and me know
We Want to let you know

b. Choose the correct option
Listen to the second paragraph and choose the correct option
Tropical PAIN/RAIN falls on tropical trees,
Tropical rainforest, won’t you PLEASE/ SEE,
Help us SAY/SAVE it now,
Help us save it NOW/KNOW.
c. Gap filling
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Listen to the chorus and fill in the blank
Oooh! it gives us ____________ to breathe.
Oooh! the animals call it ________________.
Oooh! its ______________help you and me.
Oooh! ______________ us save it before it’s gone.
d. Matching
Listen to the fourth paragraph and match a half in A with a half in B
A

B

1. They burn and

a. for their family

2. But we all know it's doing harm

b. to go

3. There's no place

c. somehow

4. Monkeys rush from tree to

d. cut it down to farm

5. Calling out for

e. coming now

6. Fire is

f. to the animals

7. Must escape

g. tree

e. Reordering the sentences/ phrases
Listen to the last part and number the sentences in the correct order
Here’s what we must do ___________

To let the forest just burn away ________
Got to say it proud __________
All the birds in all the trees ________
Got to say it loud ____________
Every insect and every leaf is important, too __________

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