Authenticity and authorship in the computer-mediated acquisition of L2 literacy

This paper examines what becomes of the two tenets of communicative language teaching-authenticity of the input and authorship of the language user--in an electronic environment.After a brief review of relevant research in textually-mediated second language acquisition, we analyze two cases of computer-mediated language learning: a) the construction of a multimedia CD-ROM by American college learners of Spanish, and b) the use of Internet relay chat by a Chinese high school learner of English.We discuss what kind of L2 literacy the students acquire through the computer medium.We find that a communicative approach based on the use of authentic texts and on the desire to make the learners author their own words has been changed by the physical properties of the electronic medium and the students' engagement with it.Authenticity and authorship have given way to agency and identity and the presentation of self.Indeed, computermediated communication leads us to rethink the authentic, the authorial, and, ultimately, the communicative itself.Authenticity and authorship have been the two poles between which the teaching of reading and writing in a foreign language has oscillated in the last 20 years.Since the 1980s, communicative pedagogies have stressed the importance of teaching authentic texts used by native speakers in culturally authentic contexts of use, rather than pedagogically doctored texts.Omaggio Hadley's injunction in 1986 (p. 41), "A proficiency-oriented methodology emphasizes the use of authentic language in instructional materials wherever and whenever possible," was reformulated in much the same terms in 1993 (p. 82), "The contexts for language practice should be devised, as much as possible, from culturally authentic sources," that is, from sources sanctioned by the authority of native speaker use.Through the use of authentic materials for listening and reading instruction, learners should be able to acquire "usable skills" in reallife situations (see also Grellet, 1981, p. 7;