TESOL Irkutsk

In the ideal world schools, teachers could have all the books and materials they need however the reality is somewhat different in a way that teachers often have to create their own materials to either supplement the course books or replace sections that are not suitable for the class. To a number of students, materials created by the teacher are more interesting, more relevant and welcome change from a course book. These materials can be divided in to two groups: authentic materials and created materials. Authentic materials are about anything a native speaker would hear or read for example magazines, newspapers, songs, poems, brochures etc. whereas created materials are usually designed by the teacher to supplement materials from the course book for example crosswords, word search puzzles, flash cards, role-play cards, gap-fill activities and picture stories. We use authentic materials because they are real and therefore more interesting and motivating, students gain confidence when they understand them and they can be geared to the interests of a particular group of students. It should be noted that course books usually consist of a set of materials which include, student?s book, workbook, cassettes, teacher?s book and in some cases a video.