Teaching Fair: working with authentic teaching material
The Teaching Fair is coming up again. On Thursday afternoon, 20 June, you can let your colleagues inspire you about innovation in teaching Lecturer Eline Sikkema will be at the information fair with her project on authentic teaching materials.
'Students often only come into contact with authentic material at a later stage of their language studies,' Sikkema says. 'First-year subjects aim primarily at developing vocabulary and grammar knowledge. I am now working on integrating authentic material into the curriculum of first-year reading courses.'
Language awareness, motivation and topicality
By including authentic texts such as newspaper reports, Sikkema hopes to give students a better experience of what Japanese looks like in real life. 'Authentic material often contains language expressions you wouldn’t normally encounter in a textbook, because the content hasn’t been adapted for language acquisition purposes,' she explains. 'By using original texts, you increase students' language awareness, while the realisation that they can already understand authentic material to some extent increases their motivation.'
In addition, authentic material provides students with a broader perspective. 'Integrating authentic material allows them to contextualise their language and grammar knowledge,' says Sikkema. 'By using short news items, for example, I can incorporate current affairs into the course material.'
Handbook
At the information fair, Sikkema interacts with colleagues about integrating authentic course materials and her forthcoming handbook. 'One of the many challenges teachers experience when introducing authentic material is the lack of concrete tools. So, I’m developing a handbook based in part on insights gained from revising the first-year reading curriculum.'
At the annual Teaching Fair you will find a poster market on educational innovation. You can also participate in workshops Showcase can be found here. You can register using this form.