8.3 Authentic Materials, Realia & Text Exploitation

Authentic materials and realia on TKT Module 2

Authentic materials are texts or recordings produced for native or proficient users, not written as language-teaching exercises. Typical objects: menus, timetables, notices, news articles, podcasts, tickets, brochures. A coursebook reading that was written to teach present perfect is not authentic, even if it looks like an article. A real railway PDF that nobody simplified for learners is authentic, even if you later write an easy task for it.

Realia are real objects you bring into the room: fruit, packaging, tickets, a charger, a worn glove, a shop receipt. Realia are not automatically a lesson. They become teaching material when you attach a task.

TKT Module 2 asks reasons to use these objects and how to select and adapt them. OpenExamPrep independent study keeps the matching habit: text type to possible aim, and grade the task, not only the text. Items in this area punish two opposite mistakes: treating a coursebook page as if it were authentic when the stem wants a real-world object, and treating any real-world object as automatically better than a well-aimed coursebook page.

Why teachers add authentic texts

Authenticity. Learners see how the language looks and sounds outside the coursebook: layout, abbreviations, messy real notices, overlapping speech on a podcast. That is a reason when the aim includes coping with real-world text features, not when you only wanted another gap-fill of a form the book already drilled.

Motivation. Many adults light up when the paper is a real menu from the café downstairs or a real timetable they might use on Sunday. Young learners often respond to a real ticket or a real piece of packaging they can hold. Motivation still needs a language or skill outcome. A real menu with no questions is decoration, just as a fun game with no target was a trap in 8.1.

Exam-world texts. Some exam papers use notices, emails, and factual texts that resemble authentic genres. A skills-practice paper (8.1) can train the exam task. A real notice can train the same reading subskill (specific information) with authentic layout. Choose the object that matches the week's aim. If the aim is timed exam procedure, the skills book may win. If the aim is coping with a real notice's layout, the authentic notice may win.

Specific-information practice. Authentic texts are rich in names, times, prices, and conditions. That makes them natural for scanning and listening for details — if the task asks for those details and not for every unknown word. A timetable is a better specific-information object than a poem. A ticket is a better numbers-and-dates object than a long news feature.

These four reasons are not interchangeable. A stem that says the teacher wants layout and abbreviations from the real world is an authenticity reason. A stem that says the class is tired of tidy dialogues is closer to motivation. A stem that says the exam class needs another notice-reading paper may be exam-world skills. A stem that says they must find a time or a price is specific information. Pick the reason in the stem, then the object that can carry it.

Exploitation: grade the task, not only the text

Exploitation means what you do with the text or object after you have chosen it. The most important Module 2 idea in this area: grade the TASK, not only the text. You may keep a real menu (authentic, a little hard) and ask an A2 class only Find a drink that costs less than €3 and How do you order soup? You do not have to rewrite the menu into a coursebook paragraph before it is usable. You also do not hand A2 learners an ungraded legal contract and call it authentic, so it is better.

Standard exploitation sequence:

1. Gist before detail. A first task that answers What kind of text is this? or What is the notice telling people to do? stops learners from drowning in unknown words. Gist is a meaning check, not a vocabulary hunt.
2. Then specific information or detail. Times, prices, who must do what, which platform, which soup is cheapest.
3. Mine for lexis and functions after meaning. Only after learners know what the text is for do you pull platform, single/return, I'm afraid we are closed, or Please do not…. Mining first turns the reading into a vocabulary list and kills the authenticity reason. The text stops being a real-world object and becomes a word bag.

Classroom scenario: Anika brings a real bus timetable (a photo of the stop). A2 task 1 (gist): Is this a menu or a timetable? Task 2 (specific information): What time is the last bus to the harbour on Sunday? Task 3 (mine): last, harbour, platform and the function What time is the last…? She graded the questions, not the PDF. She did not ask them to read every footnote about public holidays, and she did not start with a glossary of twenty transport words before they knew what the paper was.

Classroom scenario: Reza wants something authentic for A2 and prints a three-page rental contract. That is the trap: ungraded legal text for a level that cannot survive the sentences. Authenticity did not make it appropriate. A short apartment advert plus a task (Which flat allows pets?) would have served specific information without the contract. If he still wanted obligation language, a one-line notice (Please do not park in front of the gate) is a better authentic object than a contract.

The same sequence applies to recordings. A 20-minute breakfast-radio podcast is authentic and usually too long. Cut to 90 seconds. Gist: Is this a weather report or a travel delay? Detail: Which ferry is late? Then mine delayed, harbour, passengers. Do not start with a transcript gap-fill of every weak form.

Realia

Typical function: naming, describing, comparing, prompting a function (Can I try this size?, I'd like to change this). Reason to choose it: the book showed photos of food or electronics; you want touchable objects for a lexical set or a shop role-play. Motivation often travels with realia, but motivation is not the task. Caution: realia with no task — a bag of fruit on the desk while you talk about something else is decoration. Also hygiene, allergies, breakable objects, and objects that are culturally sensitive. A real ticket can pair with a timetable text. A real charger can pair with a receipt. The object and the text can support each other; neither replaces a question.

Classroom scenario: Kofi brings three real phone chargers and two receipts. Task: Which charger matches which receipt? How much was it? Would you complain? The objects create an information need and a complaint prompt. If he had only placed the chargers on the desk to make the room real, that would be realia with no task. If he then taught a grammar worksheet that never referred to the objects, the realia were props, not materials.

Adapt realia the same way you adapt a worksheet: omit objects that add no language, simplify the questions, personalise (your charger, your receipt), change interaction (pair matching race, then quiet checking).

How to select and adapt

Length. A full newspaper page is often too long. Cut to one notice, one paragraph, or a 90-second podcast clip. Length is a selection filter in 8.1; it is the first filter here because authentic texts are often longer than coursebook extracts.

Cultural fit. A pub menu that assumes alcohol as the main topic may be wrong for some groups. A political news story may be too hot for a mixed class. A holiday flyer that assumes one religion may exclude others. Appropriacy is a selection filter, as in 8.1. Personalise or omit the offending section rather than forcing a laugh.

Date. Yesterday's sports result or last year's festival flyer can confuse or look careless. Check whether the text is still true enough for the task. A historic poster can work if the aim is past simple, not this week's times. A last-year timetable fails a specific-information aim about Sunday's last bus.

Readability. Layout, handwriting, glare on a photographed notice, and density matter. You can retype a notice and still keep authentic wording, or you can keep the photo and simplify the task. Readability is not the same as rewriting the text into a coursebook paragraph. It is making sure learners can physically see the words the task asks for.

Task design. Write the aim first. Then write gist, then detail, then an optional language mine. If you cannot write a gist task, you probably chose the text as decoration. Adaptation toolkit again: omit columns on a timetable; simplify the questions; personalise (your bus home); change interaction (pair scanning race, then quiet checking).

Classroom scenario: Jonas wants a brochure for a B1 recommendation lesson. The tourist PDF is eight pages. He omits six pages, keeps the facilities list, writes a gist question (Is this a hotel or a sports club?), two scanning questions (Is there a late checkout? How much is parking?), then mines facilities, included, extra charge. He checks the date on the prices. He does not photocopy the whole brochure because it looks authentic.

Text type to possible aims

Use the table as a matching key, not as a promise that every menu lesson must teach I'll have. A menu can also be a mixed-ability supplement: weaker pairs find three prices; stronger pairs write two order turns. That is 8.1 mixed ability applied to an 8.3 object.

Traps

Authentic equals automatically better. A tidy coursebook email can be the right text if the aim is a function the authentic text buries. Authenticity is a reason, not a quality score. If the stem offers a real contract and a graded complaints email, and the aim is B1 polite complaint, the email can win.

Ungraded legal contract for A2. Difficulty of the text plus an ungraded task is a failed selection. Grade the task or choose a shorter authentic genre (notice, advert, ticket).

Realia with no task. Objects are not aims. Fruit on the desk during an unrelated grammar slot is decoration.

Photocopying a newspaper with no purpose. A full page of news without gist or specific-information questions is not exploitation. It is paper. Copyright may also block a full-page copy; even when the school allows a clip, the clip still needs a task.

Classroom scenario: Carmen photocopies a broadsheet front page for authenticity and says Read it. No gist task, no detail task, no language mine. That is the newspaper-with-no-purpose trap. If she had cut one short notice (Library closed Monday) and asked What must readers do?, the same authentic genre would have served an obligation aim. She could then mine closed and Monday after meaning, not before.

Classroom scenario: Wei plays a 25-minute news podcast at A2 because authentic listening is better. The class hears a wash of speech and no gist question. That is the same trap in audio form. A 90-second clip plus What delayed the ferry? would have been specific-information practice with authentic sound.

Exam-style thinking

If the stem says the teacher wants real-world layout or motivation from a real object, think authentic text or realia — then look for whether the task is graded. If the stem says A2 learners get a contract, that is the level and task trap. If the stem says the teacher brought fruit and then taught a grammar worksheet that ignored the fruit, that is realia with no task. If the stem says learners mine unknown words before they know what the notice is, that is mining before meaning. If the stem says a newspaper was copied with no questions, that is no purpose. If two objects both look authentic, pick the one whose possible aim in the table matches the stem (menu for prices and ordering; notice for rules; ticket for numbers and dates).

OpenExamPrep publishes this as independent teacher-training study for TKT Module 2. Use official Cambridge pages for registration and the current module overview; use this section to practise reason, selection, and exploitation, not to treat authentic as a badge.

Using the exploitation chart

The three equal bars are an order, not a popularity contest. Gist first so learners know what the object is. Specific information second so the authenticity reason (times, prices, conditions) is actually used. Mine last so platform or I'd like is pulled from a text they already understood. Reverse the order and you get the mining-before-meaning trap. Skip the questions and you get the newspaper-with-no-purpose trap or realia with no task. If a text cannot support a gist question you can write in one line, choose a different text.