In a very perceptive article, Widdowson (1976) pointed out that ‘authentic’ or ‘authenticity’ can be viewed in a different way. Authenticity is not a characteristic of texts, but is the result of the interaction between a reader and a text. If a learner reads a text, and responds to it in a way that we might expect of someone who comprehends the text, then reading the text is authentic for that learner.

The strand of meaning-focused input involves incidental learning through listening and speaking where around 98 per cent of the running words are already familiar or pose no learning burden to the learners (Hu and Nation 2000).

There is now considerable research (Ellis 1994; Spada 1997; Long and Robinson 1998) which shows that deliberate intentional learning has positive benefits in language learning and learning from input, partly through consciousness raising. Research in vocabulary learning (Nation 2001: 263–316) has shown that intentional learning produces faster and better results than incidental learning.

The strand of meaning-focused output involves incidental learning through speaking and writing. Learners’ focus is on communicating messages. The justification for a meaning-focused output strand has a theoretical basis in the work of Swain (1985) and experimental support from research such as that of Joe (1998) and Newton (1995), which show that learning can occur, and is enriched, when learners produce language. Swain argues that having to produce messages makes the learners look at language in a new way. Language features, particularly grammatical elements, that were given little attention in listening and reading, gain a greater importance in production when learners are pushed to make choices in how to say something.

Research on developing speed reading with language learners (West 1941; Cramer 1975) has shown that, with the use of simplified material, substantial increases in speed are possible within reasonably short periods of time.