Authentic Materials for Teaching English

 

The Definition of The Authentic Materials

Authentic Vs Non-authentic Materials

1. Sources of Authentic Materials

2. Criteria for Selecting and Using Authentic Materials. Important factors in selecting Authentic Materials

3. How can Authentic Materials be used in the Classroom

4. Types of Authenticity

5. Arguments for and against the use of Authentic Materials

6. Story books and Authentic texts

Samples of Authentic texts and tasks enclosed

 

Authenticity in the foreign language classroom

 

Authentic Materials:

•“Any material which has not been specifically produced for the purpose of language teaching”;

•“Authentic materials are texts produced by native speakers for a non-pedagogical purpose”.

Authentic Vs Non-authentic Materials:

Authentic MaterialsNon-Authentic Materials

Language data produced for real communication purposes.They are specially designed for life learning purposes.

They may contain false starts, and incomplete sentences.The language used in them is artificial. They contain well formed sentences all the time.

They are useful for improving the communicative aspects of the language.They are useful for teaching grammnar.

(Adams, 1995; Miller, 2003)

 

What are authentic materials?

 

The important thing to start with is to narrow down the meaning of authentic materials. Yes, it is obviously a worthwhile thing for the students to have meaningful experiences in the classroom, to make language learning an educational process of self development and discovery as well as the learning of a language tool. But this has little or nothing to do with authentic materials. For using authentic materials simply means using examples of language produced by native speakers for some real purpose of their own rather than using language produced and designed solely for the classroom. Anybody who takes into the classroom a newspaper article, an advertisement, a pop song, a strip cartoon, or even a bus ticket, is using authentic materials. Teachers have always introduced such realia into their classrooms, and always will. The question really is whether it is helpful to their students.

Sources for Authentic Materials: (Miller, 2003):

•Newspapers and Magazines.

•Radio.

•Television/Video.

•Internet.

•Authentic texts, story books.

Example of Authentic Materials: (Hedge, 2000; Baird, 2004)

Spoken: TV commercials, films, news items, weather forecasts, airport and station announcement, radio talks, interviews, and debates.

Written: recipes, articles, train timetables, advertisements, brochures, poems, application forms, and instruction for use of equipment.

Criteria for Selecting and Using Authentic Materials:

A. Important factors in selecting authentic materials:

•Textual authenticity.

•Suitability of content.

•Compatibility with course objectives.

•Exploitability.

(Lee, 1995)

В. At which level they can be used?

This issue has been surrounded by controversy in the field of language teaching. Some researchers such as Kilickaya (2004) and Kim (2000) claim that authentic materials can be used with intermediate and advanced level students only. On the other hand, others believe that all levels of students, even lower levels, are able to manage using authentic materials (McNeil, 1994; Miller, 2005).

 

How to select authentic materials

 

The first criterion to me is that they are motivating or that the exercises that can be done with them are motivating. Roadsigns such as “End of urban clearway” may say nothing to non-drivers, and even to drivers may yield little that can be done in the classroom. The same with petrol pump signs or the notices in railway trains. But something like the train timetable or the ticket presents things that are relevant to the students knowledge of the foreign culture or to their functional needs when visiting it; they may also be used for various types of simulation activities and information processing activities in the classroom. Newspaper headlines, and the articles beneath them, also may give more general interest; graffiti may give an insight into a more popular side of life.

The second linked criterion is that they are not too ephemeral. If they are already of historical interest, there seems little point in using them. Either the teacher has to use things which are as up-to-date as possible or which have a timeless quality about them. It is still possible to discuss the Minimum Lending Rate (MLR), while it is no longer possible to discuss the Rampton brutality except as a thing of the past.

Thirdly, they have to be organised in some way. There’s nothing worse than entirely disconnected bits of authentic language that are not linked to other aspects of the teaching. The obvious way to make this link is through themes; most of the examples I've quoted could be linked by the theme “Travelling” because that