I read all these articles and posts about how the classroom is not an authentic place and I can’t help thinking that my students, as secondary school pupils spend about seven hours a day in a classroom, you can’t get much more real than that, can you?

Even for adults at evening classes or taking lessons within their company, surely their English class is a real part of their day or week.

Why do we suggest these moments lack authenticity? If you go jogging once a week, it is still an authentic moment, so why do we act as if English lessons occur within the Matrix and need something extra to make them “real”?