23 texts, visual stimuli, newspapers, magazines, live radio and television, video clips
and much more Lund, 1992. There are endless lists of useful materials for the language classroom. The focus is mainly on newspapers and radio stations. As with
other media, there is no point in asking students to just go to the web and read some texts or others. There needs to be a task, preferably one in which meaning is central
and has some connection to the real world. Treasure hunts and other information searching activities are probably the most useful. More and more sites have
interactive sections which contains message boards and where students can chat with native speakers.
c. Advantages and Disadvantages of Authentic Materials
Using authentic material in the classroom might have advantages and disadvantages. Following are some advantages and disadvantages taken from several
sources.
1 Advantages
Using authentic material in the classroom, even when they are not done in an authentic situation, is significant for many reasons, amongst which are:
a Students are exposed to real discourse, as in videos of interviews with famous people where intermediate students listen for gist.
b Authentic materials keep students informed about what is happening in the world, so they have an intrinsic educational value. As teachers, we are educators
working within the school system, so education and general development are part of our responsibilities Sanderson, 1999.
24 c Textbooks often do not include incidental or improper English, while authentic
materials do. e The same piece of material can be used under different circumstances if the task
is different. f Language change is reflected in the materials so that students and teachers can
keep abreast of such changes. g The teacher can have students practice some of the micro-skills Richards, 1983,
e.g. basic students listen to news reports and they are asked to identify the names of countries, famous people, etc. ability to detect key words.
2 Disadvantages
Although using authentic materials have disadvantages, there are very strong reasons to use them. The disadvantages taken from several sources are:
a They may be too culturally biased, so unnecessarily difficult to understand outside the language community.
b The vocabulary might not be relevant to the students immediate needs. c Too many structures are mixed so lower levels have a hard time decoding the
texts. d Special preparation is necessary which can be time consuming.
e With listening: too many different accents. f The material can become outdated easily, e.g. news.
d. Authentic Materials for Teaching Listening
