The important of the authentic
materials
There are many
references to authentic material in the ELT literature. Books and
journals contain thorough explanations of why it should or should not be
included in lessons, and how it is to be used or best exploited. But those
authors who support the use of authentic material have in common one idea:
"exposure".
In other words, the
benefit students get from being exposed to the language in authentic materials.
The definition of authentic materials used in this paper is taken from Peacock
(1997): materials that have been produced to fulfill some social purpose in the
language community. Widdowson's (1990) differentiation of the terms "authentic" and "genuine
material" has been a seminal one in the field so I should like to mention
it here: Authentic would be material designed for native speakers of
English used in the classroom in a way similar to the one it was designed
for. For example, a radio news report brought into the class so students
discuss the report on pollution in the city where learners live. Most of the
time, though, this material is used in a genuine way, in other words,
not in the way it was intended, but in a somewhat artificial way. For example,
a news article where the paragraphs are cut up and jumbled so students have to
put them back together in the correct order.
In the
other hand, there are some advantages of using authentic material. the first
one Students
are exposed to real discourse, as in videos of interviews with famous people
where intermediate students listen for gist. The second 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),The third They can produce a sense of achievement, for
example, a brochure on England given to students to plan 4-day visit. And then Language change is
reflected in the materials so that students and teachers can keep abreast of
such changes . Then they can encourage reading for pleasure because they are
likely to contain topics of interest to learners, especially if students are
given the chance to have a say about the topics or kinds of authentic materials
to be used in class. The last one is Textbooks often do not include incidental
or improper English.
In conclusion, authentic materials is useful for
students in order to increasing their ability in teaching and learning process,
so they feel that they are in the real situation as suitable with the target
situation of target language.
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