Authenticity in English Language Teaching

Leo Will

Authenticity in English Language Teaching

An analysis of academic discourse

2018,  Münchener Arbeiten zur Fremdsprachen-Forschung,  Band 38,  266  pages,  paperback,  34,90 €,  ISBN 978-3-8309-3558-2

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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.

press

Wills Studie ist eine überaus detailreiche und durchdachte Diskursanalyse, die zu einer Reihe von durchweg aufschlussreichen Befunden kommt und neue Standards setzt, sowohl was den Umgang mit dem Begriff der Authentizität im fachdidaktischen Diskurs, als auch was methodologische Überlegungen und Herangehensweisen im Bereich von Analysen fachwissenschaftlicher Diskurse betrifft.
Barbara Schmenk, in: Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen 2/2020, S. 132-134.

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