The. Ministry of higher and secondary special education

What are authentic materials?

Authentic materials are audio, print and video materials that have not been designed for deliberate use in the English language classroom.
Authentic materials may fall into two main categories - print and auditory.
Let’s check out some examples of authentic materials from each category:

What is authentic discourse?

In his 2011 paper, “I prefer Not Text”: Developing Japanese Learners’ Communicative Competence with Authentic Materials, Alex Gilmore picks out a definition of authentic discourse that Keith Morrow made back in 1977:
a stretch of real language, produced by a real speaker or writer for a real audience and designed to convey a real message of some sort
Hence, stretches of “real language”, for instance, from political speeches and audio advertising, are wholly detached from the contrived discourse omnipresent in coursebooks. 
The purpose of an authentic text is to communicate information. In contrast, 'imaginary' texts and dialogues found in textbooks tend to illustrate and expose specific language points.

The problems with coursebooks and contrived discourse in EFL classrooms

During the first few years of my teaching career, I was oblivious to the wide-ranging advantages of using authentic materials with students.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t tear myself away from the coursebooks and contrived discourse.
That's right. I was afraid to step out of my comfort zone.
I now know that writers come up with this contrived discourse to illustrate specific points in linearly designed structural syllabuses. Hence, authors’ intuitions produce misleading models of the target language.
Take a look at these two contrived auditory samples from the fourth edition of New Headway Upper Intermediate (2014). I’ll make some comments below them. Planning the odd class around such authentic materials would have broken up the monotony of using coursebooks and boosted my students’ motivation levels.
First of all in this post, I define what authentic materials are, and also consider a definition of authentic discourse. After that, I assess the problems with coursebooks and contrived discourse in EFL classrooms. I then go on to analyse the issues with using textbooks and relying on contrived discourse and materials. Then, I briefly explain why a teacher’s self-written texts can create intrigue among learners. After that, I offer three tasks connected with various discourse types which are ideal for use in the classroom. Finally, I highlight the advantages of using authentic materials in the EFL classroom.