I’ve recently been trying out a well-known language learning app and found myself translating such gems as The ducks eat a strawberry. Personally, I’ve never seen a duck eat a strawberry and it’s not something I can imagine ever needing to communicate!
That’s a bit of an extreme example, but I think it illustrates the point that for most language learners, authenticity is important. We want to learn the sort of language we’re likely to come across or need to use in the real world. Awkward examples and made-up texts are both demotivating and potentially counterproductive as they provide unrealistic models. This is probably true for all learners, but especially so for students who already need to deal with authentic texts (or will soon need to) for work or for study. Otherwise, they can find themselves unprepared to deal with the texts they come across and feel cheated by the mismatch between classroom materials and the real thing.
This presents a challenge for materials writers; do we use absolutely authentic texts which students might struggle with or do we simplify them in some way but risk losing the element of authenticity?