ITTT Glossary – Authentic and Non-Authentic Materials

The term materials can apply to virtually anything that a teachers uses to help the teaching process in the classroom. Common teaching materials include items such as worksheets, newspapers, pictures text books and video recordings.

These materials are usually classed as either authentic or non-authentic depending on their origin and the ways they are used. Authentic materials refer to materials that have not been designed or adapted for use in an English language classroom such as magazines, newspapers, video clips and song lyrics.

Non-authentic materials on the other hand are anything that has been specifically designed to aid the teaching process such as worksheets, text books and instructional CD’s or DVD’s.