The role of authentic materials in communicative language teaching

Choosing appropriate materials for communicative language teaching is one the pressing issues of teachers these days. The materials should meet the needs of the learners as well as they should motivate students to learn language enthusiastically. While choosing them we should 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. This can be achieved by the usage of authentic materials. 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. [4] Basically, authentic materials provide the following benefits: motivation to learning; authentic cultural information; real language presentation; creative approach to teaching.

Many proponents of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) have advocated the use of "authentic," "from-life" materials in the classroom. These might include language-based realia, such as signs, magazines, advertisements, and newspapers, or graphic and visual sources around which communicative activities can he built, such as maps, pictures, symbols, graphs, and charts. Different kinds of objects can be used to support communicative exercises, such as a plastic model to assemble from directions. Different scholars understand authentic materials differently. For instance, Tomlinson asserts that “an authentic text is one that is produced in order to communicate rather to teach. And an authentic task is one which involves the learners in communication in order to achieve an outcome, rather than practice the language.” [2].

Authentic materials are such materials which may not have been specifically designed for classroom use, but for use in real-life situations. In the case of CLT, such materials are obtained from the real life environment, and brought into the classroom without necessarily making alterations. They may include, among others, newspapers, restaurant menus, recipes, maps, reports, and instructional manuals [1]. In addition to the use of authentic materials, the teacher in a CLT classroom has to design tasks and activities that also reflect the actual use of language in real-life situations. For instance, such tasks that may involve learners into exchange of ideas through interaction, like group work, and pair work, are desirable in CLT. Thus, authentic instructional materials boost the teaching strategies and promote learners’ active language production.

Teachers and students are naturally attracted to authentic texts. Finding that you can read something designed for a native speaker is motivating, and developing strategies to deal with ‘real’ texts enables students to read more confidently and extensively outside the classroom. But, teachers also need to consider just how helpful the authentic text we choose actually is for our students. Authentic texts can be helpful at any level. Beginners need simpler types of texts as compared to advanced students who have previous knowledge. That is why teacher should be very critical and take into consideration issues like the difficulty, the interest and the topics. Many of the features of authentic texts are far more complex than we might realize at first glance.

The use of authentic texts in classrooms is important as it performs a lot of functions:

• -    Widening and reinforcement of language knowledge;

• -    Language material training;

• -    Development of abilities in oral speech;

• -    Development of abilities in written speech [3].

Working with texts, a teacher can use the following exercises:

• 1.    Pre-reading (aimed at title work, contents prediction, grammar and vocabulary work);

• 2.    While-reading (aimed at general perception, identification of interesting parts for a reader, meaningful parts selection);

• 3.    Post-reading (aimed at comprehension check, text interpretation, abilities to find specific information) [3].

Regarding the advantages of authentic texts is that it is possible to find interesting and relevant texts for your students from your own reading of internet, journals, and magazines. It also helps students feel confident in their language abilities and develop a sense of cultural belonging. With the help of authentic text materials, learners are supplied with the words and expressions used in real life context. When students face with similar situations, they manage better in face-to-face communication. The use of authentic materials in listening and reading skills provide students with the idea they can obtain from real language and observe the relevance of classroom activity to their long-term communication.

By the way of conclusion, utilization of authentic materials improves the communication abilities and cultural acquisitions’ of learners. The proper and systematic use of these authentic materials prepares students for the real communication.