Assessing and Designing Authentic Materials for ESL Classrooms of the Rural Schools of Haryana

Abstract

In the field of English language teaching (ELT) in general and in the field of newlinecommunicative language teaching (CLT) in particular, the term authentic material refers newlineto any teaching-learning material that brings real-life communication in English language newlineclassrooms. This study is primarily aimed at assessing the existing authentic materials in newlineterms of their efficacies followed by prescribing ways to overcome identified newlineshortcomings in the authentic materials used in the ESL classrooms of rural schools of newlineEastern Haryana. It has been found in almost all non-native environments that ESL newlinestudents are often not able to perform well due to sloppy/monotonous authentic materials. newlinePertinently it has been found in rural schools of Haryana that authentic materials for ESL newlineare not only ill designed but also ill taught. Chronologically, there should have been newlinechanges in the forms, objectives, structures and needs of the prescribed traditional newlineauthentic materials but unfortunately, there have been sluggish changes / reforms in that newlinedirection. The authentic materials available in the ESL classrooms of the rural schools of newlineHaryana is more oriented towards conducting summative assessments often through rote newlinelearning rather than learning the language instinctively. Given the stated problem, this newlinestudy hypothesizes that there is a need to design such authentic materials which could be newlinemore learning centric, result oriented and more pertinent to bring out desirable learning newlineoutcome. newline