The importance of using authentic materials in English classes

The teaching of English as a foreign language or as a second language exists in all parts of the world. Since English has become an international language more importance is being laid on teaching and learning it effectively. Materials are designed to provide appropriate exposure to the learners and enrich the language learning experience. Exposure to natural language plays a vital part in the language acquisition process. Authentic materials that are derived from the culture of the target language give positive attitude towards language learning rather than those specially designed for language learning. However, in most of the classes students are taught using traditional materials and audio materials that do not prepare them to encounter real life situations. Authentic materials act as a vehicle in bringing the target culture nearer to them. It is worthwhile to know what authentic materials are. Using examples of language that are produced by native speakers for their own purposes and newspaper articles, advertisements, pop songs, strip cartoons are considered to be the authentic materials.

Authentic materials are print, video, and audio materials students encounter in their daily lives, such as change-off address forms, job applications, menus, voice mail messages, radio programs, and videos. Authentic materials are not created specifically to be used in the classroom, but they make excellent learning tools for students precisely because they are authentic. Authentic materials are sometimes called contextualized materials which we come across in daily life. Many scholars have defined the term authentic materials in different ways but every definition has one common characteristic that authentic materials have exposure to real language and its usage in its own community. Most of scholar announced their points about authentic materials, such as Jordan, Nunan, Herrington and Oliver, Harmer, Bacone&Finneman, Miller, Otte, Thanajaro, Berardo, Kim, Clark, Kilickaya, Martinez, Norton & Sprague, Mcknight and others. Above mentioned names of researchers defined the term authentic materials and divided several kinds of types or categorized. Besides, scholars argue that the use of authentic materials help students to bridge the gap between classroom knowledge and their capacity to participate in real-world events. For example, [1; 78] refers to authentic materials as any material that has not been specifically produced for the purpose of language teaching.[2; 347] define authentic materials as those that have been produced to fulfill some social purpose in the language community in which they were produced. On the other hand,[3; 48] suggested a new pedagogical term, called “authentic learning”. This term is directly related to the students’ real life and prepares them to face and deal with real world situations. Authentic materials are mainly for communication among people [4; 121]. For example, newspapers are for reporting local and international news; VCD and digital versatile disc DVD are for entertainment. It is obvious that authentic materials are used in daily life and not created for the purpose of language teaching.These materials are written for real-life communicative needs, in which the writers intend to transfer some messages to the readers.

The use of authentic materials for English language teaching is a topic which has been discussed for many years by experts in the field and teaching professionals. Most teachers have their own opinions about their use and practicality in the classroom. Most of them like the idea of using authentic materials but avoid using them due to the lack of knowledge of how to select an appropriate text (either written or audio), doubt about how they can be exploited and the belief that students may not find the material stimulating or may find it too difficult. Some less experienced teachers may, after an unsuccessful attempt at using material from an authentic source, decide that it is safer and less time consuming to stick to the prescribed course book.

There is no doubt that today English teachers have a lot of choices in terms of teaching materials. Choosing them we are to keep in mind that we should focus students’ attention not only on vocabulary and grammar structures but prepare them for real communication where the knowledge of culture is sometimes crucial. Thus the use of authentic materials can help solve this problem. The majority of scholars define authentic materials as materials which are designed for native speakers; they are real texts, designed not for language students, but for the speakers of the language. Furthermore, the use of authentic materials is an important principle of communicative language learning and it contributes to the development of an individual learning style and learner autonomy, also it is effectively. In real life we come across some real situations, so that time using authentic materials is beneficial for us. Basically, authentic materials provide the following benefits:

• •    motivation to learning;

• •    authentic cultural information;

• •    real language presentation;

• •    creative approach to teaching

First of all, use of authentic materials is encouraged by many researchers because they are frequently up to date. They have a positive influence on earners; motivation, comprehension and satisfaction. They inspire students to learn language provide cultural information, give exposure to real language and allow a more creative approach to teaching. [5; 312] add that whenever students have selfconfidence they will learn a language faster. Scholars confirm that authentic materials contain language data and communication which improve students’ communicative skills. They are also channels for communication that deliver messages and meaning to learners [6; 53].

Authentic materials refer to texts we encounter in everyday life. They usually demonstrate language in use for some genuine communicative purposes. Our teachers may find it difficult to incorporate authentic materials into the classroom because they are not native speakers of English. In spite of not being native speakers, we think we should know how to use authentic materials and our learners can use authentic materials at intermediate and advanced level.