Authenticity in Our Language Classrooms

In order to help our students learn English more effectively, we teachers of English need to place an equal emphasis both on designing suitable teaching materials and making use of effective teaching methodologies. Of the two types of teaching materials; namely authentic and non-authentic materials that are being used nowadays in schools and universities in most EFL countries, the use of the former type is becoming increasingly more popular. The textbooks we are currently using to teach English to our students in our university, especially the English I and English II textbooks, carry both types of the materials. This article briefly examines to what extent our students can exploit the authentic materials presented in our textbooks to their advantage, and also explores some of the recommendations made by experienced scholars with regard to the important factors to be considered in the selection of the required authentic teaching materials.