Authentic Materials

Authentic Written Materials

• Newspapers

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Authentic materials, in terms of English language teaching, are any media that use English for real communication in an English-speaking community, as opposed to media that have been devised purely for the purposes of teaching or learning English. They may be divided loosely into authentic listening materials and authentic written materials.

"Authentic" refers to the materials, not to the English. It does not necessarily mean "correct" English or English spoken by first-language speakers, although by its nature it generally will be. The English found in authentic materials is real, in actual use, with all its flaws and inadequacies and immediacy. It includes authentic language features such as broken sentences, hesitation, interruption and interjection (authentic listening materials) or headline vocabulary, exotic fonts and abbreviations (authentic written materials).

Authentic listening materials include songs, videos, films, radio programmes and television shows, as well as harder to come by materials such as recorded phone conversations, airport announcements, pilot's announcements.

Authentic written materials include: newspapers, magazines, web pages, leaflets, posters, bus tickets, backs of Cornflakes packets, advertisements including classified ads, cooking recipes, horoscopes, maps, basic instructions, user guides or operating manuals, menus, timetables, signs, letters, emails, comic strips. Some of these materials will be very hard to find in some countries or towns.