The Use of Authentic Materials in the Teaching and Learning of English as a Second Language

Abstract

Language teaching in Nigeria, whether in private or public schools, is in most cases bedevilled with teacher and course book-oriented activities. Little attention is given to students-oriented activities. An ideal language -learning classroom should be one that gives room for students’ participation by tapping the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The use of authentic materials, such as newspapers, magazines, songs, internet, animations, movies, phone messages, greeting cards, calendars in language teaching is a step towards communicative language teaching. The aim of this paper is to improve the teaching of English language from the traditional method of using textbooks and teacher-only approach to the teaching of English language by incorporating the use of authentic materials. The advantages of authentic materials include making language learning friendly and motivating. One disadvantage of using authentic material is that they may contain complex and irrelevant structures that may make learning difficult for the learners particularly at lower level. The paper recommends that language teacher should choose materials that arouse great interest and have a communicative purpose.