Job Interview

Professional Teaching Articles.
February 2008
Preparing University EFL Students for Job Interviews in English:

A Task-Based Approach
Marcus Otlowski
Kochi University, Japan
Bio Data:
Marcus Otlowski is a lecturer in the Department of International Studies at Kochi
University. He holds a Masters in Applied Linguistics from Macquarie University in
Australia. He has been teaching EFL in Japan for over 20 years at a number of
universities. He specializes in Second Language Acquisition, sociolinguistics,
teaching methodology, and task-based materials design.
Abstract
With English as the de facto lingua franca of the global economy, more and more
companies, national and international, hold interviews for candidates in English.
Gumperz and Roberts (1991) note that ‘interethnic encounters’ pose a daunting
challenge for some learners; none more so than an English interview. Without the
necessary cultural or linguistic knowledge, learners can potentially create negative
impressions of themselves for interviewers. In an EFL situation, with limited time and
large class numbers, how can instructors prepare students for such interviews? This
paper reports on a task-based unit of work that was designed to activate the learner’s
linguistic resources, develop an essential lexis for an interview, and introduce the
learner to the cultural differences of a ‘western’ interview.
Key Words: task-based teaching, interview preparation, reflective assessment,

student needs
Introduction
Gumperz and Roberts (1991, pp. 78-79), after examining potential conflicts within
‘interethnic encounters’, stated that ‘… perceived problems which are partly due to
differences in cultural knowledge and partly to differences in rhetorical conventions
provide rich pickings to justify negative evaluations and refusals.’ Nowhere for a
second-language learner could there be more serious ‘negative evaluations and
refusals’ than in an ‘interethnic’ job interview. A learner, without situation-specific
rhetorical strategies and, at least, a fundamental understanding of the cultural
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Professional Teaching Articles. February 2008
differences between this particular speech event in their native and in the target
language, may unwittingly create a negative image of themselves with their potential
employer - a classic form of what Thomas (1983) labeled cross-cultural pragmatic
failure. While this paper outlines the fundamental steps in the construction of a task-
based unit, it also details a task-based approach to preparing students for a job
interview in the target language. The outlined approach promotes, in the learner, an
awareness of the cultural differences between the target culture and the learner’s own
culture. It also introduces useful rhetorical strategies by examining authentic job
advertisements, job selection criteria, listening tasks, watching simulated interviews
and using a task-based role play.
Research (Gumperz and Roberts, op cit; Roberts, 1998) suggests that Western and
Asian (and, by tenuous extrapolation, Japanese) interview processes are
fundamentally different, especially in regard to interpersonal relationships during the
interview process. A commonly held Japanese assumption is that the ‘western’
interview is a process for the applicant to actively ‘sell’ his/her abilities in a very
direct manner, whereas the Japanese interview is a situation for the applicant to show
politeness and respect towards the interviewer and his company. Furthermore, within
the Asian interview, the interviewee sees ‘relatively sharp, hierarchical distinction
between (their role) and the interviewer’s role’ (Gumperz and Roberts, p. 68; Roberts,
1998). Whether or not these assumptions of both interview processes are correct, an
interethnic interview is fraught with potential rhetorical and cultural pitfalls for the
incognizant learner. So, it was with some surprise to hear in an oral communication
class that a small number of students were planning to apply for positions with foreign
companies based not only in Japan but overseas, and that the interview process for
these jobs would predominantly be in English. This seemed the perfect opportunity to
develop a task-based unit on ‘a target task that a specific group of learners need to be
able to perform’ (Ellis, 2004, pp.208-9).
Unit Outline
Using Nunan’s (2004) suggested steps in task-bask design as a planning template, the
following sequential steps, pre-tasks and learner-roles were developed for the task-
based unit (see figure 1). For the task to maintain pedagogical integrity and maximize
conditions for acquisition, each step was designed as a precursor for the following
step, sequentially adding vocabulary and/or activating previously learnt language.
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Each step provided all, or a combination of, the following: useful vocabulary and
rhetorical structures; authentic listening practice; a cultural context of the task; and
preliminary practice before the introduction of the main task.
In addition to the six steps Nunan proposes for task design, an extra step, a task
reflection/repetition phase was added, giving the task a spiral form, thereby allowing
learners to continuously build on the language used to complete the first task and
improve their performance with a repetition of the same or similar task. Although
Nunan’s six-steps are a comprehensive plan of a task-based unit, Murphy (2003, p.
354) suggests that ‘Tasks should … involve learners in reflecting on the way in which
they carried them out, as well as on the language they used, thereby helping to
develop learner autonomy.’ This is supported by Skehan (1996) who believes that
learners will have a better understanding of the task’s objectives if the original task, or
a similar task, is repeated after reflection. As in the world outside of the classroom,
where repetitious linguistic events are the norm – exchanging, requesting and
providing personal information are just some examples - learners, through practice
and reflection, will develop their rhetorical ability in a manner more akin to how
young native speakers learn their first language.
Figure 1: Unit Outline

- introduction of the topic – warm up questions
- preliminary discussion – class, group or pairs –
Step 1: pre- on work and career expectations
Schema building task - reading of job advertisements from international
companies and schools
- noting and recording key words and expressions
- use model interview for pair or small group
work
Step 2: pre-
- asking and answering questions requiring the use
Controlled practice task
of useful words and expressions
- exchanging formal greetings and introductions
- listen to several native speakers being
interviewed for a job
- read the criteria listed for this job
Step 3: pre-
- check off the job criteria mentioned by each
Authentic Listening task
interviewee
- discuss the differences between a ‘western’ and
Japanese interview – group and class
- focus on sequence works, superlatives
Step 4: pre- - use of intonation
Focus on linguistic elements task - use of adverbial clauses of time; perfect and past
progressive
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- focus on using the studied rhetorical patterns and

structures in the task setting
Step 5: pre- - a small group interview task
Provide free practice task - practice of ‘western’ interview strategies (e.g.
formal greeting with a handshake)
- allow for innovation
- outline the objectives of the task – select
Step 6: company or applicant
main
Introduce the pedagogical - write out the job position and selection criteria
task
task - select jobs and prepare for interview
- interview potential candidates for the jobs
- report back to class on students selected by
company
- report on companies selected by students
- discuss problems experienced by the students in
Step 7: post
completing the task
Task reflection / repetition task
- students reflect on their areas of strength or
weakness
- instructor reports observations of the task
- repeat task with roles reversed
The Learning Context

This task-based unit was developed for a class of lower-intermediate to upper-
intermediate students from the Department of International Studies at a former
national Japanese university. Although the department does not offer a formal English
program, there are a number of courses taught, mainly by native speakers, in English
that provide motivated students with an English-only environment. This unit was a
part of one such course – an intermediate-level Oral Communication course. The
course consists of 15 90-minute lessons for one term. Each task-based unit takes
approximately four lessons, depending on the complexity of the task. The task
described in this paper consisted of four lessons, but, with modification, could be
easily reduced or extended.
A Task-based Unit: Job Interviews

Pre-task
Pre-task activities play an important role in preparing students for the main task; they
provide the necessary cultural context and linguistic strategies for the learner to
successfully negotiate and complete the required task. As Ellis (2004, p. 244) states,
‘The purpose of the pre-task phase is to prepare students to perform the task in ways
that will promote acquisition.’ Therefore, it is essential that learners spend sufficient
time doing pre-task activities to develop, activate and/or modify not only their current
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linguistic resources but also their cultural knowledge that may be relevant to the
major task.
To begin, schema building activities were given to the students to familiarize them
with the topic and to build up salient vocabulary and expressions. A variety of
techniques were used to do this. Students, for example, participated in pairs, small
groups and class discussions where they worked collaboratively asking questions
about ‘ideal jobs’, listing job selection criteria, and job types. During this time, new
vocabulary and expressions raised by students were listed on the blackboard for latter
discussion and, if applicable, practiced in groups. Alongside this, students constructed
their own list of useful expressions and vocabulary.
To set the task in a real-world situation, a variety of advertisements (mainly for
teaching positions and work related with the travel industry), taken from different
international newspapers and magazines, were copied and then distributed among the
learners. Learners were asked to read each job’s advertisement and the downloaded
position description and then make a note of essential criteria. This was then shared
with the class and added to the class vocabulary list.
Following the vocabulary activation stage, two-short tasks were presented to the
learners. The first was an ‘authentic’ listening task. It must be noted that the term
‘authentic’ here is hybrid and refers to native speakers role-playing an interview
rather than an actual interview due to the nature of an interview and the issue of
privacy. Notwithstanding this, the role-play allowed the learners to listen to native
speakers asking and answering questions about a teaching position at a university, and
it allowed them to compare their in-class generated vocabulary list with the dialogue.
Learners were asked, first individually then in small groups, to listen for and check off
any of the vocabulary or expressions listed in the previous lesson. From the checked
off expressions and vocabulary, the learners created short dialogues and practiced
them in pairs, and later, held free conversations in small groups. Many learners noted
during the listening task and through their own practice that certain grammatical
forms regularly appeared; for example, the past progressive tense and the use of
adverbial clauses. The learners realized they needed to tell the ‘interviewer’ what they
were doing at a specific time in the past – ‘While I was in Japan, I was working at
Sony. When I was at university, I was member of the soccer club.’ In pairs and groups,
students created and asked questions focusing on these forms.
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One benefit of pre-task work is that the learners generated a substantial amount of
the required grammatical forms. As a result of learners participating in language
activation tasks, student generated forms were a main part of the grammar input in the
unit. This is in contrast to a more traditional PPP (present, practice and produce) task
activity where much of the grammar and forms have been pre-selected by the
instructor or set by a text. Instead, in a TBL unit, the necessary grammatical patterns
are holistically ‘seeded’ (Ellis, 2004) in the structure of the pre-tasks, thereby,
maintaining the integrity of a ‘task-based teaching’ exercise, as defined by Ellis.
Main task
The role of the main task, according to Murphy (2003), is to ‘channel attention
towards the desired pedagogic outcome.’ In this exercise, the desired pedagogic
outcomes were the activation of the learner’s linguistic resources, practice of the
linguistic forms inherent in an interview, and to interact in an interview using a
different cultural paradigm. To achieve these outcomes, an ‘unfocused’ (Ellis, 2007)
role-play was designed that centered on the learners negotiating meaning rather than
focusing on form, and that allowed the learners to comprehend, manipulate, produce
and interact in the target language (Nunan, 2004).
The class of twenty students was divided into two groups: 5 interviewers and 15
interviewees. The interviewers and the interviewees were then separated so that each
group could work on their roles in the task. The instructor clearly explained to each
group their role and the expected outcome of the role-play. For the interviewers, their
expected outcome was to select the best job applicant for their ‘company.’ For the
interviewees, they had to choose their best three companies and then be interviewed
for those positions. The successful outcome for an interviewee was selection for one,
or possibly more, of the advertised positions. As there were only five companies,
learners were aware before the role-play began that not all interviewees would be
selected. Therefore, an element of competition, something akin to a real-world
situation, was added to the role-play.
Before the next class, each of the interviewers, working alongside the instructor and
using a standard template - developed from actual job advertisements cited during the
pre-task - wrote job advertisements for their company. As the original idea for this
task derived from students in the class preparing for interviews with international
companies, similar companies, positions and criteria for employment were written and
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then combined to create a job opening pamphlet that was distributed to the
‘interviewees’ before the next class. Each interviewee was responsible, before next
class, to read the openings, select the three positions they were interested in and
prepare for each interview. Interviewees were instructed not to embellish their
academic records, TOEIC or TOEFL scores, or their employment record; they were to
approach this interview as if they were recently graduated students.
The role-play was held in a large room, separated into five areas for each
interviewer. In front of each interviewer’s desk, there were three chairs. Each
interviewer had the choice to interview each applicant individually, in a pair, or a
small group of three. It is acknowledged that this arrangement may not authentically
reflect how an interview would be held outside the classroom, but due to time
constraints it was deemed an unavoidable condition of the role-play. One class period
of 90 minutes was used for the interviews. The aim of this class was for all applicants
to be interviewed by the companies that they had selected. Although the interview
process was not prescribed beforehand, most interviewers established an interview
pattern along the lines of the pre-task listening activity. First, they are asked general
questions about the interviewee – educational background, work experience, English
ability – then, more direct questions relating to the specific job – teaching experience,
human relations, and ‘What if…?’, ‘How would you …?’ questions. Finally, most
interviewers asked each applicant to explain why they thought they would be the best
candidates for the job.
At the completion of each interview, the interviewer made notes about each
candidate for future reference when selecting their applicant. Interviewees, as well,
took notes about each company and the position advertised. All students, after a short
period for consideration, then listed the company/applicant they had selected and the
reasons why. This information was then presented to the learners at the beginning of
the next class where it was used as a resource for a post-task discussion of the role-
play.
Post-task
The role of the post-task phase is to allow learners time to reflect upon, not only the
procedural aspects of the task and its outcomes, but, more importantly, ‘those forms
that proved problematic to the learners when they performed the task’ (Ellis, 2004, p.
258). As Murphy (2005) suggests, this is one way to assist learners to be more
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cognizant of their communicative strengths and weaknesses. Through reflection, and

repetition of the task, learners can review those areas that they deem to be weak or in
need of further attention, thereby promoting learner autonomy.
To begin the reflection process, the results of the interviews were announced to the
class. The interviewer for each company then took turns to explain why they chose
their successful applicant. Most successful applicants were chosen not only for their
English ability but also their ability to clearly explain why they thought they would be
good for the position advertised, or, as many students commented, their ability to ‘sell
themselves.’ From this discussion many students realized that they needed to be more
outgoing during their interview, and they needed to be able to give longer, more
informative answers, thereby showing the interviewer their ability to converse freely
and communicatively in English.
The second and main part of the reflection process was a written report on the task.
This report was divided into two sections: an assessment of their performance during
the task and an assessment of the pre-task activities and the main task itself. In the
first section, learners assessed their performance as suggested by Ellis (2004, p. 259) -
‘…to ask students to reflect on and evaluate their own performance of the task. … to
comment on which aspect of language use (fluency, complexity, or accuracy) they
gave primacy to and why, how they dealt with communication problems, both their
own and others, and even what language they learned from the task.’ The aim of this
reflective task is for the learner to become more aware, autonomous, and active with
their learning. From this feedback and from notes made by the instructor while
learners were doing the main task, a list of misused forms, common grammatical
mistakes and essential vocabulary was created and discussed in class.
The second part of this report was feedback for the instructor on how the unit, as a
whole, was viewed by the student. This feedback was then used to modify areas of the
pre-task and to make changes to the procedural elements of the main task. Learner-
based feedback on the task is essential for the instructor to improve not only the way
tasks are introduced to learners but also to find those areas that learners find more
relevant and useful than others.
Discussion
The original idea of this task-based unit was to give learners the linguistic resources
and opportunity to practice a ‘western-styled’ interview in an authentic situation, at
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least in so far as that is logistically possibly in an EFL context. Learners, through pre-
task vocabulary and form developing activities, had the opportunity to utilize not only
their pre-existing grammatical structures and language but also to use this ‘new’
language. The pre-task activities were designed to provide as many opportunities as
possible for the learners to be exposed to new language from authentic texts rather
than the instructor providing this prescriptively. With this new language, their pre-
existing linguistic knowledge, and awareness of the cultural differences between
western and Japanese interview processes, learners were deemed to be sufficiently
prepared to complete the main task. Therefore, success for this task would be three-
fold: one, learners would show they had sufficient linguistic resources to manipulate
and fluently use English in an accurate manner to create a favorable impression on the
interviewer; two, learners would display relevant context-specific cultural knowledge
during their exchanges; three, learners would feel that they had extensive unplanned
communication with a variety of ‘interviewers.’
Areas of Focus
a. vocabulary
The written feedback from learners clearly supports Murphy’s statement (2003, p.
358) that ‘the influence of learners on the task can jeopardize the task designer’s
goals.’ Even after allowing for extensive time during the pre-task phase to develop
and practice vocabulary and forms, many learners could not utilize the new language
successfully, and resorted to their pre-unit language resources. Reflecting on the task,
many students noted that they lacked ‘special term about jobs’, or remarked ‘my
vocabulary is lacking.’ The following are some of the more pertinent learner
reflections.
• we need more words; special term about jobs and more examples; maybe your
demonstration. I didn’t know how to continue the interviews
• It is difficult for me to find words for my opinion
• Usually I do not use words that special for the job, so I recognized that my
vocabulary is lacking.
• In Japan we end a interview with special sentences, but I do not know how to end
English interview
Significantly, one learner remarked upon a major difference between the interview
process used in the main task and in a typical Japanese interview. The learner
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remarked that, in Japanese, there are ‘special sentences’ – formulaic expressions –

that are used by all interviewees when thanking and leaving an interview. Although
the learner is a proficient English speaker, she did not know what these ‘formulaic
expressions’ were in English. As a result, she felt she lacked ‘accuracy’ in the manner
that she ended the interview. Clearly, as Murphy (2003) believes, no matter how
much planning goes into a lesson/unit of work, into activities to activate learnt
language, or into pre-tasks to expose learners to new language, there will always be
learners whose language resources are not sufficiently developed to complete the task,
and/or there will always be vocabulary and forms absent from the presented body. By
using a post-task reflection activity, those forms, vocabulary, or any other problems
can, collectively, be discussed and studied by the learners.
b. consciousness-raising
In regard to the consciousness-raising objective of this unit, the overall impression
from students was that the task was successful in showing and giving them a chance
to have an interview in English. As the comments from the learners clearly show,
most, if not all, learners realized the difference between the two interview types, and
felt that the task was a valuable exercise in preparing them for a future interview in
English. Learners remarked on some of the differences they found during the
interviews: ‘Japanese interview is question and answer style’, ‘Japanese interview
always tend to be passive one’, and ‘The biggest difference was that job seekers had
many opportunities to ask questions.’ From the feedback, most learners believe that
the ‘western’ interview provides more opportunity for the interviewee to ask
questions about the position, conditions and the company, questions they thought
would not be asked during a similar Japanese interview.
• I think that Japanese interview is question and answer style. This time I had to
sell by myself. That is the most different point. I think that foreigners are good at
telling about themselves and something to know, but Japanese people are poor at
explaining our opinion.
• In Japanese interview, we should use honorific words to show the politeness
and it is very difficult. Though in English, we do not have to take care about
honorific words. So I thought it was the good point of the interview in English.
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• I guess that we must try to be polite, modest and obedient in Japanese job
interview, but non-Japanese style is different. We must try to sell ourselves. This
is the biggest different that I found.
• Japanese interview always tend to be a passive one.
• Through the interviews, I noticed that the way of having an interview is really
different from Japanese style. The biggest difference was that job seekers had
many opportunities to ask questions.
Nevertheless, some learners’ reflections show a degree of generalization and,

possibly, cultural naivety that, if not corrected, would potentially cause what this unit
was intended to prevent: ‘negative evaluations and refusals’ stemming from an
‘interethnic encounter.’ Although the differences between the two sets of interviews
were clearly explained, discussed and viewed, it is clear that some learners have made
generalizations that are clearly not the case. For example, ‘Though in English, we do
not have to take care about honorific words’ and ‘I guess that we must try to be polite,
modest and obedient in Japanese job interview, but non-Japanese style is different.’
Clearly, the learners need to be made aware that, although English does not have the
same universally used set of politeness structures that Japanese has, there are forms
that are just as equally polite and formal. For learners to avoid any potential ‘negative
evaluation’ they should be conscious that the context of a ‘western’ interview, like the
context of a Japanese interview, is a situation where politeness is recognized as a
positive factor. Examples of this would be showing gratitude to the interviewer: ‘I
would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to come and talk to you today’
or ‘Thank you for giving me the time to come and discuss the position.’
Again, the usefulness and necessity of having students reflect upon the tasks is
clearly demonstrated in this situation. Without students providing some feedback
about their performance and, in the case of this cultural conscious-raising task, their
understanding of the cultural paradigms they are using, then the instructor is left
without the necessary knowledge to correct and change those areas of the task that the
learners did not perform well in, or misunderstood.

c. communicative chance
A final objective of this role-play was to give learners an opportunity to develop their
fluency in an interview situation, where they could activate their language resources
and interact in an unplanned communicative situation. As previously discussed, there
were areas in this interaction that some learners found difficult, mainly due to their
perceived lack of vocabulary. Nevertheless, a majority of students commented that the
length and amount of interaction exceeded other methods of practice they had so far
experienced in their studies. Others commented that, although the task was difficult
and challenging, it gave them a valuable opportunity to practice for an interview.
• The interesting point about this practice was that we could get much more
opportunity than before
• It was enjoyable activity because I could experience Western style of having an

interview, and could find out how to ask questions in job interview.
• It was just like a real interview, so i really enjoyed.
• I could have high-quality communication with others in English.
• It was a really exciting game, actually, now I try to be ready to do the job
hunting.
• In this practice, explaining my way of thinking well is really difficult, but that is
what I’m interested in.
• It was difficult for me that to give them my answer soon. Interviewer gave me
unexpected questions, so I took long time to collect my thoughts.
The feedback and observations made by the instructor suggest that an unfocused
task-based approach to developing communicative ability in this particular speech
event, an interview, is effective. Learners had more opportunity to focus on fluency
and complexity compared to more prescriptive and restrictive communicative
practices. Yet, as with all forms of communicative language practices, improvements
can be made to the structure and the implementation of the task to improve learners’
interaction.
Task Assessment
Using Ellis’s (2004, p. 8) assessment of task success - ‘Ultimately the assessment of
task performance must lie in whether learners manifest the kind of language use

believed to promote language learning’ – the objectives of the task were achieved.
During the task, learners activated their pre-unit linguistic knowledge, while utilizing
the new language developed during pre-task activities. Furthermore, they showed
their ability to interact and communicate in a different cultural paradigm.
Nevertheless, for some students, a lack of content-specific vocabulary, or an over-
generalization of the cultural norms of the interview process, impeded their task
performance.
Some researchers (Swan, 2005) have questioned TBL's ability, compared to more
traditional grammar-focused courses, to provide linguistically rich material for
learners. The findings from this unit could be interpreted to concur with Swan’s
concern: the learners did not have sufficient vocabulary to successfully complete the
task due to the inherent design of task-based instruction. However, Oxford (2006, p.
10) suggests a different explanation: ‘… individuals have a limited capacity for
attention … so when a task is more cognitively demanding, attention is diverted from
formal linguistic features – the basis of accuracy - to dealing with these cognitive
requirements.’ Comments from the learners and the instructor’s observations support
this explanation. Due to the complexity and intensity of the task, learners ‘diverted’
their linguistic resources from the language studied during the pre-task stage and
reverted back to pre-unit learnt language. Because the task required learners to react
in real time to a dynamic conversation that consisted of a series of unrehearsed
questions, the focus of attention for most learners was processing the input, as
promptly as possible, for meaning and a possible response. As a result, some learners
found it difficult to locate the correct form or expression during the task, and instead,
relied on expressions and forms they could produce without over utilizing their
already stressed linguistic cognitive functions.
Furthermore, considering the extensive class work done during the pre-task phase,
involving reading authentic texts, watching an example of the main task, discussions
on the topic and a variety of forms of practice, any claim that the task might be
perceived as linguistically poor is probably not fair or valid. Communicative events
are dynamic; the language that will be used during an event cannot be predicted. If it
could, then the job of teaching English would become far easier. The aim of the pre-
task stage of task-based learning unit is to develop the necessary language and to
activate previously learnt language for use in the main task. If the activities carried

out during the pre-task are extensive and intensive, then learners can be exposed to a
linguistically rich lexis.
Teaching Implications
Reflecting on the interaction of the learners with the task, it is clear that some areas
could be modified and/or extended to provide learners with more intercultural
pragmatic awareness and to lessen the cognitive overload some learners experienced.
One area was the activation of the pre-task generated lexis. To improve the activation
rate of the generated lexis, repeating the main task over the length of the course may
lead the learners to become more familiar with the interview dialogue, thereby,
lessening the demands placed on the learner to respond immediately using pragmatic
appropriate language. With rhetorical experience comes the rhetorical knowledge of
what to expect during a speech event.
To increase the learners’ socio-cultural knowledge of a ‘western’ interview, the
instructor could possibly role play an interview -a suggestion made by one student in
their reflection on the task - with another native speaker. Learners could then ask
and/or answer questions about the role play. The ensuing discussion would allow the
learners to ask questions to each native speaker about why they reacted or answered a
question in the way they did. Such discussions may lessen the anxiety some students
have towards such linguistically challenging tasks while also giving them essential
socio-cultural background knowledge necessary to complete the task.
Yet, as Kumaravadivelu (1991, p. 106) succinctly states, ‘mismatches between
teacher intention and learner interpretation may be inevitable, but they need not be
totally negative’ (author’s emphasis). Because a few learners found the task
challenging and, in some cases, could not perform the task in the planned manner, it is
suggested that the class as a whole benefited; their difficulties prompted class
discussions and revision of key lexis that was practiced when the task was repeated.
Instead of immediately repeating the task and experiencing similar difficulties, the
discussed problems, instead, became valuable learning points that helped the learner
to focus on better communicative accuracy, fluency and complexity during the
repeated task.
Instructors should not be discouraged if the interaction between the learner and the
task does not go as planned. The often-stated adage ‘We learn from our mistakes’
should be kept in the forefront of all instructors’ minds when observing tasks and
learners interacting in unintended ways. If learners are asked to reflect on such a task,
then it is possible that a key teaching or planning point may appear that will enhance
not only the learner’s experience and promote the learner to be more autonomous with
their learning, but also improve the instructor’s ability to create a more effective unit.
This knowledge, acquired from unforeseen events, can be beneficial for both the
learner and the instructor.
Conclusion
To prepare learners for interviews in English, the task-based approach outlined herein
can be an effective way to provide learners, in an EFL environment, the chance to
experience a ‘western’ style interview process. If a variety of schema building
activities are used and recycled during the pre-task stage, students can develop their
fluency and accuracy. Through class discussions and reading of authentic materials
students can be made aware of the cultural differences between the two interview
processes. Although some learners had difficulty with the task, it is suggested that, if
instructors want to provide their learners with the best possible chance for them to
practice their English ability and obtain a degree of cultural insight into the
pragmatics of a ‘western’ interview, then units such as this one are one possible
solution. In comparison to a prescriptive approach, where learners practice only the
language that has been presented by teacher or found in a textbook, a task-based
approach allows the learners to process and react to language in an unscripted natural
way that more commonly reflects what happens in a real communicative event.
References
Ellis, R. (2007). Task-based language teaching: Sorting out the misunderstandings.
Paper presented at the meeting of East Shikoku JALT, Kochi University, Kochi,
Japan.
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Personal Authenticity through Authentic Materials,

Authentic Tasks, and Negotiation
Tuula Lehtonen
University of Helsinki
Bio Data:
The author has worked as a lecturer in English at the Language Centre of the
University of Helsinki since the year 1989. Her topics of academic interest include
vocabulary learning, language needs at the workplace and teaching content through
English/English-medium teaching. She holds an MA from the University of Helsinki,
Finland and an EdD from the University of Leeds, UK.
Abstract
In this article, I examine the concept of personal authenticity (van Lier, 1996), using
student diary entries collected during an English for academic and professional
purposes course with a negotiated syllabus. Signs of personal authenticity – a concept
related to autonomy - are traced in the entries. These signs suggest that personal
authenticity emerged because the students were able to negotiate many aspects of
their learning. In addition, open-ended tasks that carried real life transfer value
enhanced the likelihood of personal authenticity. What was also important from the
point of view of personal authenticity was the use of materials that were relevant to
the students’ real life needs. As these findings are context-specific and stem from a
localized approach, further research in Asian and other non-European cultural
contexts is needed on the rise of personal authenticity through the use of authentic
materials, authentic tasks, and negotiation.
Key words: personal authenticity, authentic tasks, negotiation, take up of opportunity
Introduction
In this article, I examine the concept of personal authenticity (van Lier, 1996), using
student diary entries collected during an English for academic and professional
purposes course with a negotiated syllabus. Signs of personal authenticity are traced
in the entries. These signs suggest that the use of authentic materials, authentic tasks,
and negotiation helped students create personal authenticity in my context.
I first discuss the concept of personal authenticity and the context of this study as
well as the data collection process. In the section that follows, I analyze signs of
personal authenticity with the help of the concepts of negotiation, authentic tasks and
authentic materials. The relevance of personal authenticity and these concepts is the
focus of the discussion.
Personal authenticity
Although the concept of personal authenticity (personal relevance) has been discussed
in the literature on learner-centred pedagogy to an extent in the past (e.g., van Lier,
1996; Williams & Burden, 1997), it has remained somewhat intangible, under-
researched and overlooked, unlike the concept of autonomy to which it is linked. For
example, Wenden (2002), in her overview on learner development and learner-centred
approaches, does not mention personal authenticity explicitly, although personal
authenticity and learner centredness are, at least intuitively, intertwined.
To understand what personal authenticity entails, a brief look into the concept of
authenticity is needed. Authenticity is often perceived from the point of view of texts:
the use of authentic language data is often considered one of the keys to learning a
foreign language. However, the concept of authenticity covers a wider sphere.
Widdowson writes
Authenticity (…) depends on a congruence of the language producer’s
intentions and language receiver’s interpretation, this congruence
being effected through a shared knowledge of conventions. (1979, p.
166)
Widdowson clearly extends the concept: the main focus is no longer on a text that is
‘genuine’ or ‘unaltered’ but on the interpretation of it. Over the years, the concept of
authenticity has been elaborated further. For example, it has been suggested that
materials do not have to be authentic, but a learner’s reaction to them should be
(Rudby, 2003, p. 45). And in task-based instruction, a task is understood to have ‘a
relationship with real worlds activities’ (Lyster, 2007, p. 74). One of the ways of
considering authenticity is with the help of personal authenticity.
Personal authenticity has to do with being able to do things worth doing, in a
manner that suits the learner (Lehtonen, 2000). Whatever the learner does should take
place in a meaningful setting. What is meaningful might depend on, for example, the
learner’s background, on the learner’s future motivations or current needs. According
to van Lier,
[i]n personal authenticity all the elements of awareness, autonomy,
and authenticity come together. Authentic persons know what they

are doing, and attend in relaxed or focused ways, in accordance with
the demands of the situation. Authentic persons are also autonomous,
in the sense of feeling responsible for their own actions, and able to
deal with choices. Finally, authentic persons validate (authenticate)
learning opportunities as they occur, create their own learning
opportunities when the circumstances allow, and need no coaxing to
take learning action. (Van Lier, 1996, pp. 143-144)
As shown in this quote, personal authenticity is linked to autonomy. Autonomy can be

defined as ‘the capacity to take control over one’s own learning’ (Benson, 2001, p. 2).
However, personal authenticity refers to the learner’s ‘commitment to and genuine
interest in the activity in hand’ (van Lier, 1996, p.143) and to ‘the sources for the
motivation to engage in learning activities’ (ibid.). Schwienhorst (2003, p. 168) writes
about three learner autonomy principles, one of which is ‘[a] learner who experiments
with language and participates in the learning environment.’ This definition is close to
van Lier’s views on personal authenticity. It is clear that the relationship between
authenticity, autonomy and awareness is tricky and that they feed into one another.
For example, it is likely that an autonomous learner, aware of her/his learning and
able to take control over the learning situation, finds it easier to discover personal
authenticity than a learner without these qualities. In this article, I use personal
authenticity to refer to the commitment or interest created in the learner based on 1)
how relevant the learning activity (tasks, materials, negotiation) is, 2) how useful the
learner find the activity and 3) how the activity is linked to what needs to be mastered
out of class.
We can postulate that each student finds personal authenticity in different ways, as
Williams and Burden (1997, p. 164) claim when discussing the use of learning
strategies. As personal authenticity varies from one individual to another, it proves a
challenge to anyone intending to do research on it systematically. Despite the
challenge, research into personal authenticity is needed, because discovering the types
of conditions, for example, tasks and materials, that seem conducive to achieving

personal authenticity in many individual learners would benefit all teachers with a
group of individual learners to teach as individually tailor-made learning is sometimes
difficult to arrange and as some overarching parameters are likely to exist at least in a
teaching context where learners share a similar background. A teacher ought to
provide each learner with opportunities to learn in different ways and to find his or
her own personal authenticity, but a teacher is unable to do so unless some type of
general condition parameters having to do with the teaching situation are set up.
These types of condition parameters can be unveiled by listening to individual voices
and by establishing what they have in common.
Research questions
My aim is to investigate what in a teaching situation helps students find personal
authenticity and what they have in common in the field of personal authenticity. What
trends can be noticed in students’ realizations of personal authenticity that would help
a teacher, faced with the task of providing opportunities to a group consisting of
individuals? Although these questions have a local nature, I hope the findings will
encourage other practitioners carry out similar experiments, as it is possible that the
educational system, for example, may play a role in the adoption of ideas connected
with personal authenticity and autonomy (e.g. Sert, 2006).
The setting
The Marketing English course, equivalent to three European Credit Transfer System
(ECTS) credits, was, at the time this research was carried out, part of the study
requirements for Master's level students of Food Marketing at the University of
Helsinki, Finland. Before the course, most students had taken ten years of English at
school and had gained the equivalent of 4.5 ECTS credits in reading and oral skills,
either by passing tests or by taking courses at the University. All the students had
been expected to read hundreds of pages of required reading in English and many had
used English in international contacts. Despite the seemingly similar backgrounds, the
students’ skills ranged from level B1 to C1 according to the European Framework of
Reference global scale (Council of Europe, 2001, p. 24). B1 stands for a lower level
independent user who ‘can understand the main points of clear standard input on
familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc.’ (Council of
Europe, 2001, p. 24), and it is equivalent to the minimum score of 457 TOEFL PBT
Total (TOEFL, 2005).C1, on the other hand, is the level of a lower level proficient
user who ‘can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognize
implicit meanings’ (Council of Europe, 2001, p. 24). C1 is equivalent to the minimum
score of 560 TOEFL PBT Total (TOEFL, 2005). All in all, 16 students took the
course and earned the credits. The students were, on the whole, positively attuned to
taking the course.
Interconnected tasks
At the beginning of the course, I negotiated the course aims, contents, materials and
evaluation with the students, using the know-how gained in previous courses. In
addition, the Department of Food Marketing and I had carried out negotiations in the
months before the course started. The negotiation process yielded for example:
Tasks that involved individual work
• Writing at least 4 journal entries, reflecting on one's own experiences of using

/learning English in-class and out-of-class (I language-edited these entries, if
the student so wished)
• 4 hours worth of language-related work of free choice, details negotiated with
me (many students chose to write their CVs)
Tasks that involved group/pair work
• Choosing an academic article from a selection provided by the department

• Process-writing a summary based on the article and sending it to the joint
mailing list (before sending it off, the student had rewritten the summary
twice)
• Being in charge of running a meeting on the topic discussed in the article and
activating the rest of the students
• Collecting important general academic and subject-specific vocabulary or
phrases from the article, giving the list to the rest of the group and creating a
test based on the collection
• Participating in the evaluation meeting with the department representative

Some of the tasks had a clear focus on language aspects (form), others on
communication (function). In addition, the tasks with a focus on communication often
acted as a starting point for discussions on language aspects.
Data collection and analysis

The data come from student journal entries collected from 10 female and three male
students (i.e. the handwritten entries of three students were excluded as only
electronically submitted entries were analysed). The data were verified in an end-of-
course discussion and in the individual one-on-one consultations to check the parts
that were unclear. The data consist of a total of 52 entries less than half a page long.
These entries served several functions. They provided the students with writing
exercise they had asked for and gave them a chance to reflect on their learning and
other matters concerning the course. They also provided me with invaluable feedback
on the on-going course.
The following instructions were formulated in the first session, after a phase of
negotiation:
In your four journal entries (about one third of a page or longer each), I would
like you to reflect on what has been going on. You may write about positive
experiences, new insights, learning, confusion, desperation - anything that has
to do with this course and you using English here and elsewhere. In other
words, you may write about your own feelings, you may write about the other
course members, you may comment on the tasks and the teaching + your
learning.
In addition to giving you an impetus to write in English, this task aims at

making you evaluate your own language learning and use and at making me
aware of what went on.
Clearly mark the weeks you write about please!
The entries show student perceptions and are therefore somewhat ‘prototypical’
qualitative data. They were analyzed with a focus on evidence of personal authenticity.
In other words, signs of events, feelings and realizations that seemed to have made
sense to the learners or that failed to do so were coded. The following categories were
used in the final analysis: personal authenticity and 1) negotiation, 2) authentic tasks,
and 3) authentic materials. These categories emerged after a lengthy reading and re-
reading process. In the analysis, the materials were coded three times. The results of
the analysis were shown to a group of peers to discuss and give feedback.
Signs of personal authenticity in the data

The verbatim entries illustrated that learner differences were evident in the extent and
depth of reflection. One end of the continuum can be characterized with entries by a
student who merely listed what was done in class, the other end with entries by a
student who was analytic in her planning, doing and evaluating. The following
focuses on what the students wrote about negotiation, materials and tasks from the
point of view of personal authenticity.
Negotiation and personal authenticity

The data show three different types of what the students perceived as negotiation:
beginning-of-the-course negotiation, where the course tasks and goals were set up;
negotiation with the department representative, where the main focus was on the
integration of the course to the content teaching of the department; and negotiation of
tasks in groups, where students had to make sense of what the task entailed and where
students tended to subdivide the task.
As stated earlier, the course started with a session where the course syllabus was
negotiated. Evaluation of this beginning-of-the-course negotiation is evident here:
I think it was a very good idea that we discussed the goals and contents of
the course together on the first day, that we didn’t just get set list of tasks
from the teacher. This could well be done on other courses as well in order
to get students to be genuinely interested in what they do during different
courses. Female student 1
Being able to influence what takes place on a course seems to have the potential of
increasing active engagement, and thus personal authenticity.
Students wrote positive comments about the visit of the department representative,
which in a wide sense can be interpreted as negotiating the content of future courses –
an important factor for the teacher. The following is an example of the importance of
negotiating issues related to the English course and the students' studies in general:
It was a very good idea to invite [the department representative] to come
and discuss matters concerning our department and the Marketing English
course. Many new things came up which I think was very useful to all of
us. Some of the things we talked about didn’t even have anything to do
with the English language itself. Female student 7

The relatively open-ended tasks encouraged the students to approaches where they
could transform one task description to a task of their own or, as in the following, to a
successful group task through negotiation:
Our meeting! Our Article was quit boring, because it handles very basic
marketing issues and is very theoretical texts. So we X, Y and me decided
to keep different kind of meeting and not to bore other with our dry article.
And I had noticed that you remember things much better if you can
participate and think things yourself. We decided to found a bakery
company "Bun Bakery". We came up that we have a marketing problem
and other can help us solve it. It was time to keep our meeting. At first I
was nervous, like always. But after all, I thing it went quit well. Female
student 5
The localized approach that values the know-how of all members in the learning
process (see Kumaravadivelu, 2001 and 2003 for the concept of particularity),
possible because of the expertise and experience of all the participants, seems to have
offered the students on the course a sense of responsibility and ownership. Crabbe
(2003) writes about learning opportunities that learners encounter and sometimes fail
to take up. It would seem that negotiation can create a learning opportunity that
encourages students to take up what has been offered.
The idea of negotiation is embedded in the paradigm shift going on in the
language teaching/learning literature and practices where the teacher is no longer seen
as one who transfers knowledge but as one who helps students construct knowledge
(e.g., Breen & Littlejohn, 2000, Smith, 2003). Negotiation has been accepted in many
circles, although it is clear it was initially met with criticism, such as the lack of
externally delivered, pre-course understanding of what the course should involve (e.g.,
Clarke, 1991). However, negotiation is likely to enhance the chances of taking
responsibility during the course, thus encouraging autonomy (see Breen & Littlejohn,
2000; Smith, 2003) and, most likely, personal authenticity, as seen in the entries. This
type of negotiation ‘enables learners to exercise their active agency in learning’, claim
Breen and Littlejohn (2000, p. 20).
Authentic tasks and personal authenticity

Authenticity of tasks appears mainly in comments on the meetings that were based on the articles the students read.
This task simulating real life gave rise to personal authenticity and evoked these comments:
Hardest task of the presentation was the coordination of the progress and to
get the class discuss on the matter we had set. I think this exercise was quite
useful for all of us and prepared us for the real life and for the real meetings.
Male student 1
I find the meeting I chaired very useful for me. I am always a little nervous
when I am presenting something in front of the class. And this time I had to
speak in English. My plan was to read my speech direct from the paper, but
I am happy I changed my mind in the last minute and decided to go this
presentation though on board and speak, not read. I think everything went
quite well and it was much nicer to speak, not read. I can't read when I am in
real situation either. Male student 3
In addition, the data gave rise to comments about CV writing that most students had
opted for. In these cases, the students reflect either on ‘killing two birds with one
stone’ or on the demands of similar tasks they will face again in the future:
Any way I think it was very teaching to do that CV task. And plus it was a
good coincidence that my mentor from Valio [the biggest Finnish dairy
company] just asked me to do the same thing - a CV in English. It
motivated me much. Female student 2
There were cases where the act of putting together a CV in English was seen as a
mind-broadening experience, allowing the student to deep-process and develop
her/his personal authenticity.
Today I worked with my CV which was one of the assignments for the last
week. I think it is important to practice how to make your CV in English
because many companies require that nowadays. I used my Finnish CV as a
model but I still had problems. Everything else were quite easy but defining
the tasks of my earlier work experience was very difficult. It is difficult in
Finnish too and when you try to write things down in a proper way in
English it requires an extra effort for doing so. Some of the work titles in
Finnish are a little bit infinite and so are the explanations what you have
done. It is very difficult to find good translations for those.
I also had to do some “research” when I was writing the part of positions of
responsibility. I have been involved in a lot of things but I wasn’t sure about
the English equivalents so I needed to surf in the Internet for a while to find
the correct translations […] I just had to make [the culturally difficult ones]
up. I’m afraid I will have same kind of problems in the future too. It is hard
to find correct terms for things in English. There is not much help of
dictionaries. Female student 3
Producing a CV was a popular task among the students, chosen by a majority as one of the optional tasks. However,
CV writing posed difficulties to some, as exemplified in the following. The task seemed too abstract in the following
student’s current situation where there was no real need for writing a CV, thus personal authenticity is lacking.
First I’m not so used to CV even in Finnish. I have done only one or two
CVs in my entire life. It was quite difficult to decide what to include in my
CV. What work experience is relevant to put in CV and what isn’t? What
to tell about the works what I have done? What about my activities and

other interests? Should I tell something about some specific courses which
I have took?
I know that it all depends on the work what I am applying for. But now in
this quite early stage of experience in my working life when I don’t have
that much knowledge my CV would look worthless. And the main reason
for my lack of decisiveness was that I didn’t have any certain job to apply
for. Female student 2
Students, when given freedom to choose optional tasks, seem to need more guidance
than given on the course where some students clearly chose tasks not relevant to them,
maybe because of a lack of relevant options or lack of own initiative.
On the basis of the above, it is reasonable to claim that tasks with transfer value
help students find personal authenticity and thus motivate them. The clearer or more
imminent the transfer is the greater the chance of personal authenticity.
Authentic materials and personal authenticity

Most of the comments about the authenticity of the materials tackle the articles that
the department had given the group. The articles presented an overview of different
schools of thought in marketing, but the students were not explicitly made aware of
this until the representative from the department visited the class. Despite the
negotiations between the teacher and the department representative to guarantee that
the work in the language course would be authentic and serve both language learning
and subject (marketing) learning, the use of authentic articles and tasks did not
manage to help all students authenticate their learning experience. Most students felt
the articles were not very demanding. Rather, they considered them either old or
boring:
Our meeting was based on Leslie de Chernatonys article 2001- The Brand
Management Odyssey. The article was quite old, written in 1996, so it did
not give us any new information. Actually I am quite familiar with the
subject because I am doing my master thesis about brand management.
Male student 2
There is a clear dilemma here: sometimes real life tasks are boring, but still need to be
carried out – a theme that should have been brought up with the students.
What was considered interesting and worth studying were materials that allowed
the students to find personal authenticity. For example, an article with information
previously unknown to the students or information that allowed them to further

process their thoughts seemed to fill the demands for authenticity, as the following
example indicates:
... So the summary task was a real challenge for me! [...] I had to read the
text several times before I started to understand the ideas that the writer
was presenting. Luckily there was x who helped me a lot in getting the
point!
Summarizing a text can be tricky in my opinion. Specially then, when the

text is difficult and it is hard to point out the most important things in it.
And the particular text that we had consisted of various different areas that
all seemed to be important on the authors view. Female student 7
Discussion and implications

In this section, I aim to answer my research questions that were: What elements in a
teaching situation can help a student find personal authenticity and what do they have
in common in the field of personal authenticity? What trends can be traced in the
various students’ reflections?
Personal authenticity seems to have the potential of emerging when a student
learns in an environment with negotiation and open-ended tasks that carry transfer
value. Crabbe (2003, p. 20) suggests that the take-up of learning opportunity is
influenced by personal factors such as affect, style/experience and motive. Despite
these individual differences, most students in my context found different forms of
negotiation and open-endedness meaningful as they allowed them to do what suited
them and what supported their learning goals.
It can be argued that curricular negotiation can give rise to curricular authenticity
(van Lier, 1996, pp. 145) and negotiation can help create a joint culture (Bruner, 1986,
p. 127). These in turn, can help in the creation of personal authenticity through the
opportunities offered that make sense and engage. According to Breen and Littlejohn
(2000, pp. 19-20), negotiation gives a boost to the learner’s active agency. The data
give support to this claim. Breen and Littlejohn also claim that negotiation can help
extend the teacher’s pedagogic strategies. The negotiation that took place throughout
the course this study describes, in the form of student diaries, allowed the teacher to
reflect on what was going on and also created a learning opportunity for the teacher.
Negotiation cannot thus be considered a one-way street: both parties can benefit from
it.

It seems paramount that a link exists between the materials and tasks, and the
student’s present and future, and that materials are relevant (e.g. Tomlinson, 2003).
When students are able to create an entity of the fragments dealing with language
learning and the other (often more important) dimensions of their lives, language
learning/using becomes authentic and responsibility is truly lifted from the teacher to
the students. As van Lier (1996, pp. 136-144) correctly points out, authenticity is
much more than authentic (real) texts. Authentic texts (in the sense of real) become
authentic only if there is a gap to be filled in the student’s mind, i.e. if the student
finds the text and the task relevant to her/his real life needs. Schwienhorst’s (2003)
MOO Virtual Environment worked well, although it did not function in the way
virtual environments ‘in the real world’ function. However, his students seem to have
been able to find personal authenticity and they were autonomous in that they were
exploiting the opportunities offered and participating in the learning environment
(Schwienhorst, 2003). What is noteworthy is that in the process of creating personal
authenticity through the use of authentic materials and tasks, a learner can be claimed
to become autonomous in the sense that he/she ‘is able to … take and assume
responsibility for his/her learning decisions’ (Schwienhorst, 2003, p. 167).
Conclusion
The approach taken in the context where this research was carried out seems to meet
the parameter of particularity, one of the parameters that Kumaravadivelu (2001 and
2003) advocates when writing about his post-method approach. Particularity, i.e.
taking into account the local realities, in the form of negotiation and open-endedness
concerning materials and tasks, helped my students in creating personal authenticity
and autonomy. However, as this research took place in one local context, it can offer
only the beginnings of a global recipe for the emergence of personal authenticity.
Therefore teachers need to experiment in their own contexts, with the help of reports
from other teachers, and report on their findings, to be able to contribute to the
discussion on personal authenticity. It is important to establish whether the trends
exposed in this article are prevalent in other contexts. To what extent do other
contexts show the relationship between personal authenticity and negotiation, and
personal authenticity and authentic tasks and materials? Do students in other contexts
find personal authenticity in the same way? Do they find the same kind of issues
personally authentic? Do the opportunities offered have to be tailor-made to meet the
needs of each learning environment or do the opportunities offered in my context

work in all learning environments? Reporting on research in other local contexts is
needed.
References
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Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
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Job Interview

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Professional Teaching Articles.

Preparing University EFL Students for Job Interviews in English:

Key Words: task-based teaching, interview preparation, reflective assessment,

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Figure 1: Unit Outline

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- focus on using the studied rhetorical patterns and

The Learning Context

A Task-based Unit: Job Interviews

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cognizant of their communicative strengths and weaknesses. Through reflection, and

• It is difficult for me to find words for my opinion

remarked that, in Japanese, there are ‘special sentences’ – formulaic expressions –

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Nevertheless, some learners’ reflections show a degree of generalization and,

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• It was enjoyable activity because I could experience Western style of having an

• It was just like a real interview, so i really enjoyed.

• I could have high-quality communication with others in English.

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Personal Authenticity through Authentic Materials,

Key words: personal authenticity, authentic tasks, negotiation, take up of opportunity

and authenticity come together. Authentic persons know what they

are doing, and attend in relaxed or focused ways, in accordance with

the demands of the situation. Authentic persons are also autonomous,

deal with choices. Finally, authentic persons validate (authenticate)

learning opportunities as they occur, create their own learning

opportunities when the circumstances allow, and need no coaxing to

take learning action. (Van Lier, 1996, pp. 143-144)

As shown in this quote, personal authenticity is linked to autonomy. Autonomy can be

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Tasks that involved individual work

• Writing at least 4 journal entries, reflecting on one's own experiences of using

Tasks that involved group/pair work

• Choosing an academic article from a selection provided by the department

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Data collection and analysis

In addition to giving you an impetus to write in English, this task aims at

Clearly mark the weeks you write about please!

Signs of personal authenticity in the data

Negotiation and personal authenticity

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Authentic tasks and personal authenticity

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Authentic materials and personal authenticity

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Summarizing a text can be tricky in my opinion. Specially then, when the

Discussion and implications

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needs of each learning environment or do the opportunities offered in my context

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