35 Authentic Language Teaching Materials Thatll

Bring the World to Your Class

Sick of the same old, same old?

Looking to jazz up your language classes?

Why not consider throwing some authentic materials into the mix?

Authentic materials can be extremely useful when teaching a foreign language class. While its
of course necessary to approach many grammar topics with more traditional textbooks, using
authentic materials in the target language has many varied benefits.

Authentic materials are often more recent and can therefore be more interesting to students, as
they pertain to current events that are of interest to them. Authentic materials also provide a firm
answer to that age-old student question: Will I really use this language for anything cool?

Thanks to authentic materials, the answer to this question is always a resounding yes!

Of course, using authentic materials in the language classroom isnt as easy as simply buying a
native language newspaper. As the teacher, you must do your research and discover not only
which authentic materials are useful but how to best take advantage of them in the classroom.

Luckily, were here to help!

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take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Authentic Language Teaching Materials Thatll Put the

World in Your Hands
Current Events Stories
Authentic current event stories are some of the easiest materials to get your hands on for the
foreign language classroom, thanks to modern technology. Many foreign language newspapers
are available online, so you can access articles in just a few clicks:
Spanish: Try El Diario de la Prensa, which is published in New York and La Opinion, which is
published in Los Angeles. Both of these papers have the added benefit of pertaining to current
 events that may be relevant to your students. El Pais is a Spanish-language newspaper from
Spain which reports news from Spain and the Americas. Its also available in an English-
language version, making it ideal for translation exercises.
French: Try Le Monde, which is the most widely-read newspaper in France. France also has a
strong tradition of satirical newspapers likeCharlie Hebdo and le Canard Enchain, which can
be fun reads for students.
German: Der Spiegel, Die Zeit and Die Welt are all popular, well-researched and reputable
newspapers covering international and domestic German news stories.
English: The New York Times is an excellent choice for American English, while British English
is better sourced via The Independent or The Guardian.
Chinese: Seek out Chinese news articles in papers like Huanqiu, which also offers an English-
language version.
Japanese: try Yomiuri, a more conservative paper, or Asahi, which is more liberal.

Sourcing your materials is only half the battle. Its important to set your students up for success
by pairing materials with appropriate lessons and activities.

Using current events for reading comprehension

For beginners, for example, it might be interesting to pick a very short article (100-200 words)
and have them work together to summarize the article. More intermediate students could be
asked to respond to the article or even have a debate. Advanced students may be asked to write
an opinion piece reacting to the article.

Whatever lesson you choose, be sure that enough class time is devoted to explaining the
directions of the assignment before asking students to work alone or in pairs. Start by passing the
materials around and asking some general comprehension questions, for example:

Is this more a political or personal interest story?

What section of the paper do you think this article comes from?

Once youve done this, begin looking more closely at the article, either via comprehension
questions or through class discussion. Once youre sure that all of the students understand the
article, you can then address the lesson you wish to teach and the assignment you intend to have
your students complete.

Using current events for listening comprehension

You can use the same resources to teach a listening comprehension lesson.Many of the
newspapers above offer news stories for the radio. To keep exploring, you may want to track
down some radio programs in the target language for use in the classroom.
 While you should take the same approach in presenting these audio materialseasing students
into comprehension before asking them to formulate a responseyoull have to consider several
other factors should you use a listening comprehension resource instead of a written resource.

Firstly, dont attempt to use an audio clip thats longer than 1 minute. Itll be too difficult
for students to remember everything that theyre listening to, and valuable class time will be used
up listening to it over and over again.
Plan great comprehension questions. When coming up with your general comprehension
question, aim for one with an answer that can be found near the middle of the recording, so
students have a chance to get used to listening to it.
Stay organized. When coming up with further listening comprehension questions, make sure to
write them in the order in which the answers will be found. This way students will not become
flustered if they miss onethey can simply move on to the next question.
Bear in mind that, unlike recordings made specifically for listening comprehension, authentic
listening comprehension materials are spoken very quickly and intended for native speakers.
Listening comprehension activities with authentic materials are generally best reserved for
intermediate or advanced students. Remember that some languages, like Chinese, will pose their
own unique challenges for listening comprehension.
For both these currents events materials and the upcoming fiction materials were about to
discuss, dont forget that you have FluentU to employ as a teaching tool.
FluentU takes real-world videoslike music videos, movie trailers, news broadcasts, interviews
and inspiring talksand turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

FluentU has its authentic videos leveled across six skill levels, and every word is carefully
annotated so that learners have plenty of support. For any subtitled word you can view an in-
context definition, relevant image, audio pronunciation and multiple example sentences. Simply
click on a word to see how its used in other videos across the site.
 If you want to teach a language with fun videos, then FluentU's a pretty good bet!

Theres even a learn mode featuring active learning tools like multimedia flashcards and
vocabulary lists.

Say goodbye to spending hours searching for good videos on YouTube and say hello to
focusing on actually teaching your students! FluentU will provide tons of inspiration for lesson
plans, in-class activities, homework and long-term projects.

Fiction Materials

Current events arent the only authentic materials that you can use to get students interested in
learning a foreign language.

While fictional materials can be more difficult to use in the classroom, when studied properly,
fictional materials are a great resource for students when it comes to learning the language. Plus,
theyre great for helping students understand the foreign culture associated with their new
language.
Comics and cartoons
Beginning students may not be ready to be fully immersed in long fictional materials, but you
can always source comics from international dailies. These short fictional scenes can be
studied with students and even imitated via their own comic strips produced in class for a fun
activity.
 You must be sure to select comics that students can understand! Remember that humor is very
often just as muchif not moreabout culture as it is about language. Make sure that the jokes
in the comics will be comprehensible to your students, or endeavor to address the topics in the
comics in class to give them the tools to understand.

Books and films

Beginning students can also be shown short films, particularly films made for
children and animated features.

Consider showing them films with subtitles, either in the students native tongue or in the
language of the film.

One interesting approach can be to use subtitles in the native language for the first half of the
film, allowing students to get used to the actors voices and the words in the film, before
switching and putting the subtitles in the target language for the rest of the film. This gives
students the ability to check their comprehension against the written form, which is easier to
understand, but to start to move away from translation and into strict comprehension.

While each language has its own films that can be used for this technique, one good resource to
bear in mind for any foreign language is Disney films. Disney films have several benefits:
theyve been translated and dubbed into most languages, and theyre familiar to most students.
Students know the storylines and, depending on your students, they may even have some lines
memorized by heart! Theyre a fantastic resource for beginning and intermediate students.

Intermediate and advanced students can progress into authentic resources created for native
speakers. Consider devoting an entire unit to the study of one film or one book. Use it as a
primary source for vocabulary, grammar points and discussion topics. In order to source these
materials, try some of the following resources:

Spanish: Our list of Spanish movies will definitely help you choose some new favorites for the
classroom. This guide to essential Spanish books is perfect for advanced learners, while this
guide is aimed at beginners and this one is for intermediate students.
French: Try Time Outs Top 100 French films or our list of French booksfor French learners
or French drama series.
German: For resource inspiration, refer to this great list of recommended German
movies or these timeless classics of German cinema. Weve even got some helpful insights on
learning German movies prepared for you.
English: This list of English language movies will ensure fun in the classroom!
Chinese: Try Time Out Shanghais Top 100 Chinese Films, and be sure to see our
favorite Chinese movies.
 Japanese: Japans rich television and anime culture means that choices are nearly infinite
check out our list of modern Japanese classic films as well!

Strive to get a handle on this teaching approach using authentic materials in the foreign language
classroom.

Soon youll come up with a host of unique ideas on how to make these techniques your own!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can
take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)