The Importance Of Argument In Foreign Language Teaching And Learning

Since the day the Latin entered the curriculum of schools as a foreign language, an infinite number of attempts have taken place to improve the methods of teaching foreign languages. Many teachers, linguists, and scholars have contributed to shaping the approaches to foreign language teaching as we see them today. Many different methods and approaches to language teaching have been proposed to improve language teaching and make it more suitable for the varying needs of learners. Almost every method was advocated by some and opposed by others. However, the contributions of those interested in language teaching and learning were not confined to setting general approaches or specific methods, they also suggested various concepts and ideas that,

Some scholars believe that any written or spoken text can be considered authentic if produced by native-speakers or the language community. However, Widdowson differentiated between two types of texts: genuine texts which are produced by the language speakers in real-life communications, and authentic texts which relate to how learners perceive the text and interact with it (Pinner, 2014).. Widdowson's distinction seems to be very coherent with Morrow's definition of authenticity as ‘real language produced by a real speaker or writer for a real audience and designed to convey a real message’ because both consider the source and function of a given text (as cited by Pinner, 2014). To some researchers, a text is authentic in its original context and once it is taken out of its context to the classroom context, which is different socially and culturally, the text turns to be pedagogic since it undergoes recontextualization (MacDonald, Badger, & Dasli,

Researchers who advocate the importance of authenticity have listed some benefits for using authentic materials. According to Little, Devitt & Singleton (1989), because of their communicative nature, learners enjoy authentic texts more than contrived texts that focus only on demonstrating the linguistic features of the language. Also, authentic texts enhance the chance of learner's acquisition since they provide a richer linguistic content; since learners' attention is drawn mostly to the content not the structure, they are more likely to subconsciously learn a greater amount of vocabulary and syntactic structures. Based on research on vocabulary development in the L1 which can also be applied to the L2, vocabulary can be learned by being exposed to them in context or by formal teaching. Using authentic materials and tasks encourages both ways of vocabulary development. In addition, authentic materials can eventually make learners immersed in the target language just like how they are in their first language and this promotes better acquisition of the target