Exploring the world with authentic materials and collaborative learning

Abstract

1. Introduction Purpose: This book is designed to provide authentic English for real communication. Rationale: Most of the afterschool programs in Korea focus on reading skills and grammar practices although they claim students should learn practical English. Therefore this book reflects the interests and needs of the students and aims to expose them to meaningful language use in the form of authentic materials and tasks. Target learners: 12 elementary school students, grade 6, mixed gender Proficiency: Intermediate-high according to the ACTFL Learning Context: Afterschool program in a public elementary school 2. Method Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) and Cooperative Language Learning (CLL). 3. Expected Outcomes Through this book, students will be motivated to read English materials with a variety of topics. Communicative activities and tasks will encourage them to generate the active use of language (Nunan, 2004). Student interaction will be maximized with cooperative projects and contribute to each other’s learning (Richard & Rodgers, 2001). Finally, they will develop communicative competence and improve the four language skills.