What makes a task authentic?

Review of Guariento & Morley (2001)

The quest of an authentic text is a familiar search for teachers of ELL students. Guariento and Morley summarize the ideas that an authentic text is an essential element of classes, and that the difficulty of finding such authentic texts is inherent within the teacher’s task. Texts that reflect, simulate or actually perform a task in the wider world are considered authentic. The difficulty of the texts must be considered, and careful modification of the difficulty level is possible without losing the essential authenticity. There is a danger that in oversimplification there is a loss that connection.

In a similar vein, authentic tasks are tasks that reflect, simulate or actually perform a task that serves a valid purpose within the wider world. There were four ways to consider tasks and whether they have what it takes to be authentic: 1) A genuine purpose, 2) a real world task, 3) the genuine task that is the learning process/classroom, 4) and then the consideration of individual students’ comprehension of the rationale behind each task (providing authentic motivation). While Guariento and Morley could not assure that all four of the considerations were relevant to each case where a teacher has to select tasks, knowing these considerations gives the teacher an opportunity to find an appropriate strategy (given each group of learners and subsequent revision of pedagogical strategy).

I am most interested the idea that students will find the classroom experience itself valid and authentic, as I am teaching older students. These students will be in a content sheltered class, so they will have achieved a level of functionality in the society that makes buying a train ticket seem quite pedestrian, I imagine. The authenticity struggles I anticipate encountering the most are ones where the kids are asked to reflect on the process of learning itself and upon the rationale for the learning. Then, a simplified (or scaffolded) reading of an American Literature text might lead to a role play, story, letter writing assignment, or other activity that would not be considered valid without the ability to draw on an older student’s world experiences to realize the authenticity of thinking and analyzing regardless of the actual activity.