Before leaving on my trip back to the States I was really looking forward to getting away from it all. I never expected that I would suddenly be obsessed with the search for authentic materials. However, in planning the trip I started to consider what I wanted to bring back to Japan. The list of things for the classroom started getting longer than the personal items. So, before leaving I listed all the materials I would try to look for. Nothing big, nothing heavy and nothing expensive became the rule.

Where to look

First, I had to categorize what I wanted based on what I knew I could probably find easily. The airport and plane of course are an excellent source of such material. Among others on my 'shopping list' were; airport information guides (San Francisco International Airport was a great resource, while my final destination, Boston was not), menus (small shops inside shopping malls were an excellent source of simple one page menus that you could take home and could be easily used in the classroom). Not only were the proprietors willing to have you take them, they also turned out be useful for in-class activities. Information desks around the city offered a wide variety of information that was free and could be used in classroom activities.

Finding something of interest to students

I have always thought that travel guides helped make my classroom activities more interesting. Travel guides that you had to buy here in Japan will cost you a lot but the information desks in Boston had a free booklet called Panorama which listed activities, movies, theater and sports along with maps and schedules which turned out to cause a lot of excitement in my junior college classes as students asked about movies that looked interesting or concerts featuring singers they knew or liked. This even had a small section in foreign languages, including Japanese, which the students thought was really funny. They enjoyed explaining what the Japanese said. (I didn1t tell them that I had a translation of it on another page.) They turned out to be good translators.

Since traveling is a major activity I felt that students could benefit from schedules and maps that were readily available. The MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) provides you with small schedules that can be easily used in the classroom. Along with this route maps for the trains and subways give the students the visual stimulus they need to ask questions and practice real-life situations.

Movie theaters proved to be a great resource as a few had information sheets on what movies were playing along with explanations of the ratings system and a synopsis of the movies scheduled. The signs in the lobby of the movie theater provided a variety of information but as I quickly learned never take pictures inside a movie theater lobby. I wanted a picture of the snack bar signs but was quickly told by a security guard that this activity is strictly forbidden. He was stunned when I told him why I was taking the picture. Aside from the problems I had, the material on movie ratings and explanations of the upcoming movies helped make several lessons a great success as the students were inspired to ask a great many questions and showed a keen interest in understanding something they were seeing for the first time.

People don't talk

Collecting the materials was not without its problems. Along with the trouble at the movie theater there were other situations where people simply didn1t talk! At the front desk of my hotel in San Francisco the clerk just stared at me as I approached. Any respectable English book sold in Japan would never offer up this situation to students! Taxi drivers were not as chatty as we often believe them to be. The ride from the airport to the train station was in silence. I told him where I was going, he drove, he stopped, I looked at the meter, paid him, said thanks and that was it. Not very conversational but would probably put my students at ease if they thought they wouldn't need to engage in conversation like that. While buying the train ticket I approached the counter and said, "One way to Ipswich". He said, "Four fifty". I slipped the money into the slot below the bulletproof glass, took my ticket and moved on. Flight attendants never said more than a few words and when serving drinks did not even bother to speak, as they simply arched their eyebrows as if to say, "What do you want?". I was beginning to think that talking was really unnecessary.

Material overwhelming?

Among the materials I wanted were announcements that I heard. Unfortunately, they were all in places where it was impossible to make tape recordings because of airline rules or simply the noise. Therefore, I did a lot of speedwriting. Telephone calls to airlines and movie theaters produced some excellent material. Again, this could not be recorded so I was writing like a madman. Students found these transcripts of airline announcements, telephone and movie very interesting and it also helped me to remember that the speaking speed the students encounter in America will be much faster than that which they hear from me in my own classes or on taped material for EFL. The thought of being confronted with this speed of language both interested and worried the students. However, when they were given transcripts of some of the things I heard they were relieved to find that the language used was not as complicated as they had first feared. Of course, many materials I found would overwhelm most students, especially those from official government sources. Since many of my students are preparing for careers in the travel industry I want them to have experience with a wide variety of material. By simply focusing on small segments of airport guides, customs forms, menus etc. the students need to focus for shorter periods of time thus making the material less threatening in the classroom.

Difficult to acquire

Two types of material were very difficult to acquire. First, a hotel registration form was very difficult as the few hotels I asked (including ones I stayed at) refused to part with this valuable material; however a more aggressive family member was able to secure one very easily. The second difficulty was in a hospital. I didn1t want to be a nuisance in such a place but I felt that a hospital registration form might be useful for students. Living in a small town was helpful here as another family member simply called a friend at the nearest hospital and I had my registration form.

Conclusion

While the collection of materials took up part of my vacation it was an exercise that yielded wonderful results. I tried to plan what I would look for in advance but in fact simply in the process of enjoying my vacation I was coming across a great deal of material for the classroom. All that was needed was to take the time to gather it, put it away for safe keeping, get it back to Japan in one piece and of course fit it in my suitcase.

You should always be on the lookout for materials. The best places to find materials in Boston were at shopping malls which had interesting and useful advertisements, floor guides, directory information and other shopping materials, banks which had a variety of forms requiring information that students may need to convey at some point in their lives. Small shops such as sandwich shops, coffee shops etc. often had paper menus that you could take with you. These were often very simple but with enough language to grab the interest of even my junior high school students (although this was the only authentic material I have exposed this age group to). Employment applications were also readily available and these too require the students to understand and offer information. Sports programs, such as from an American baseball game attracted the interest of many of the boys and even got the quieter students to ask about players or other things they found here.

There are many more possible sources of material for our classrooms, and I hope that many more teachers will take the time and the minimal extra effort needed to help make their classrooms more inviting to the students through authentic materials.