Towards a New Approach to Authenticity in ELT

Abstract

The paper is a theoretical part of a doctoral research study that investigates the authenticity of Business English (BE) teaching materials used in a Tunisian higher education context. The notion of authenticity has been still problematic among English Language Teaching (ELT) researchers and applied linguists. The purpose of the study is attempting to suggest a localized approach to authenticity through the development of a new principled framework of authentic materials that will be valid for the Tunisian intermediate students of BE in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL). In more practical terms, the case study attempts to theorize a framework of authenticity based on surveying the literature on authenticity and subjecting it to a critical appraisal. Thus, an inductive research methodology approach is applied. The findings show that the authenticity of teaching materials is conditionally determined by surveying the profile of the students, their major stakeholders, and the context where materials are to be used. The implication of the study is that authenticity of the course materials is the result of the mediation of the needs and the demands of all the stakeholders and their context, bearing in mind that the teachers are likely to assume a primordial role in such mediation.