Importance of Authentic Language in Textbooks

Bachelor of Education (English Language)
Bachelor of Arts (Language Studies)

Assessment Cover Sheet

Course Title: Introduction to Linguistics (ENG1324)

Lecturer: Wang Lixun / Jessica Lee / Clairine Chan / Andy Chin / Kataoka Shin / Tim Taylor *
(*delete as appropriate)

Tutorial Group ___________2_______________

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|Assessment Task 3: Individual Written Essay |

Date Due: _____________10/12/2012___________________ Date Submitted: _____________10/12/2012_________________ Student Name: ________On Pun Wai, Kelvin________________ HKIEd Student No: ____________11042687______________________

Topic 2: Speech and Writing

The way most Hong Kong students speak English has always been criticized to be too unnatural and clumsy. The reason behind this phenomenon is that they try to speak exactly the same with what they would write when expressing ideas. However, speech is not just writing read out loud as speech and writing represent different codes of English respectively. Most Hong Kong students have the misconception that all dialogs should be in complete manner with complex sentence structures or grammar included whenever they speak in English. This kind of misunderstanding is probably built on the inauthentic models of spoken language demonstrated in textbooks they have read for over a decade. In this article, features characterize authentic and inauthentic English shown in two separate texts would be examined.

Referring to the content of the text entitled “Now and Then”, this is a typical sample text written in inauthentic language with dialogs which are specially made up to incorporate teaching point of the usage of “used to” and “now” for making