Authentic materials are books, movies, songs, newspaper articles, web pages, and any other resources that have been developed specifically for native speakers. They are not made for English students or simplified for English students. They are the real thing.
Using authentic materials in the classroom is highly motivating, since students have a chance to be exposed to the real language. However, we face a big challenge when we try to find this kind of material.
I use the opposite approach. I don’t usually try to find things. I let them come to me. I keep my eyes and ears open. Sometimes I’m watching a movie and I notice the character said a sentence in the present perfect.
I try to remember that, and then I try to find the movie or the scene on a DVD or on youtube. Sometimes I’m listening to a song and I notice the singer used the passive voice. I write that down and later try to find the song. That’s not so hard to do. It’s a lot of work, though. However, it’s totally worth it.
Many teachers don’t use authentic materials because they feel they’re too hard for students to understand. That might be true in many cases, but it’s up to the teacher to choose a movie, a scene from a movie or a song that is suitable for his or her students.
You don’t have to use the whole movie or the whole song. You can use just a segment which illustrates what you are teaching or whatever you want to practice. Authentic materials can help you supplement your lessons, by showing the language you are teaching used in what I like to call “real life.” Students can see that real people use this kind of language in real situations. And this feels good.
Take a look at a few examples of authentic videos.
This is a video I put together using several scenes from different TV programs where the Present Continuous is used.
After showing this kind of videos to my students, I usually tell them to start paying attention to the movies and TV programs they watch and to try to identify that specific structure. It is very interesting to observe that after they have studied a new structure, they start recognizing it everywhere. This happens because they become aware of the new structure.
As I mentioned before, keep your eyes and ears open. If you do, you will certainly find lots of interesting materials that will help your students to learn more.
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