Authentic Tasks in the Classroom

The topic for discussion in our CALL class this week was authentic tasks. Authentic tasks are defined as text that is 'created to fulfil some social purpose in the language community in which it was produced.' (Little, et al. 1988:27) I think that any language educator would agree that teaching real world communication to your students would be extremely helpful to them. Our reading this week, "Text and task authenticity in the EFL classroom" by Guariento and Morley, brings to our attention some of the current issues dealing with authenic tasks. These issues include 1) when and how we should be introducing authentic tasks and 2) the questioning of task authenticity.
While I was reading about these issues, I immediately thought about my low level classes. Should I be doing authentic tasks with them? Is it even possible? Well, early on in our class discussion forum this week, I commented that I had attempted authentic tasks with these classes, and I didn't have much success with them. I even went as far as to say that I thought it was 'impossible' to do with them and I wouldn't try it again in the future. But after thinking about it a little more, I remembered doing some real tasks with them earlier and being successful. In these instances, I was much more prepared for the class. The materials that were used were much more convincing. The students not only had a great time but also stuck to the target language and gained a lot from the activity. The authors of the article refer to Widdowson (1978) who believed that "...simplification can take place, within the conventions of a given language field, while maintaining authenticity in the sense of learner response. The text has to engage the learner's interest and impress him as being in some way relevant to his concerns." (ibid:90) Execution is the key. Regardless of student level, teachers must make the task appear authentic to the students. If this is achieved, the possibility of success greatly increases.