Reconceptualising Authenticity for English As a Global Language

This book examines the concept of authentic English in today’s world, where cultures are in constant interaction and the English language works as a binding agent for many cross-cultural exchanges. It offers a comprehensive review of decades of debate around authenticity in language teaching and learning and attempts to synthesise the complexities by presenting them as a continuum. This continuum builds on the work of eminent scholars and combines them within a flexible framework that celebrates the process of interaction whilst acknowledging the complexity and individual subjectivity of authenticity. Authenticity is approached as a complex dynamic construct that can only be understood by examining it from social, individual and contextual dimensions, in relation to actual people. Authenticity is a problem not just for language acquisition but one which affects us as individuals belonging to society.

Richard S. Pinner (PhD, University of Warwick) works for the Department of English Literature at Sophia University, Tokyo (Japan). He is interested in the areas of authenticity and motivation in ELT. He recently co-edited a book with Richard J. Sampson called Complexity Perspectives on Researching Language Learner and Teacher Psychology.