Introduction

In the previous four chapters I have gone over the discussions about authenticity from various positions, and explained how it stands in our current super-diverse, multilingual society where a hyper-centralised and yet disembodied version of the English language floats around the globalised world, changing shape and colour depending on who you are, where you are and how you look at it. This could be what Fairclough (2001) refers to as the globalisation of discourse. It has been something of a personal quest for me to get to this stage. Most of this chapter is in fact a synthesis of the ideas put forward by scholars as part of the ‘authenticity debate’ (Mishan, 2005). Having dissected the concept of authenticity as much as possible, it is now my intention to reassemble the main points in a way which attempts to highlight the relevance of these discussions to the present environment of English as a global language. In this chapter I will explain how authenticity can be viewed as a continuum, and how this continuum can be used to evaluate the appropriateness of learning materials selected for language teaching classes. The continuum is also envisioned as a way of empowering learners and allowing them to get a better understanding of English, which is for many of them merely a subject to be taught and learned rather than a living language. The global position of English also makes it more abstract, and although many learners know English is important in the world, many of them will find it hard to see how it relates to them directly. In some cases, English and the institutional pressure that surrounds it can become a disadvantage, especially for those wanting to pursue careers in other languages (Piller, 2015; Zhang, 2011). On the other hand, for many others, English is a language that frees them from a prescriptive identity imposed upon them by their own society, and conversely they are able to express themselves more freely and authentically in English, despite it being their second language.