The Importance of Authentic Materials and their Integration in the Foreign Language Class

Abstract

In order to encourage foreign language teachers to use authentic materials during their classes, we have compiled some advantages that have been brought forth by some studies conducted on this topic. We believe that audiovisual and multimedia technologies are a very valuable source of authentic materials, which represent not just the language, but also the culture, traditions, behaviours and history of the country being studied. The teacher can use these materials, after he has done a careful selection and he has to integrate them by teaching them, so that he can use them in didactic activities according to the specific objectives. After the study done with the network, there have been selected some addresses where foreign language teachers can find proper updated authentic materials, attractive and motivating, but also didactic materials created with authentic materials from teachers and experts, which enable the closeness of the language to the varieties it represents.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n6p27