Authenticity as a methodological category in theory and practice of foreign (English) language teaching

   This paper reviews the issue of authenticity in teaching and learning foreign languages with the aim of evolving new approaches to mastering language and developing communicative competences of the English language learners up to the level of native language proficiency. We define authenticity as a methodological category and typologize its components. The paper clarifies such concepts as “authentic learning”, “authentic teaching methods and technologies”, “educational-authentic materials”, “authentic speech behavior”, and “authentic speech”. The leading research methods are a theoretical analysis of scientific literature, content analysis of pedagogical literature, mathematical data processing, and the analysis of personal empirical experience of teaching foreign languages. These methods allow us to develop the theoretical framework for conducting a pedagogical experiment at the second (final) stage of our study. The authors present a set of pertinent training exercises aimed at exposing the English language learners to the authentic language. Finally, the paper discusses the issues and practices of teaching authenticity in the English language classroom and offers teaching materials and general recommendations for English language instructors.

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