Authentic Materials in the Foreign Language Classroom: Teachers and Students’ Attitudes and Dispositions

It is quite common that the non-authentic frameworks where foreign language teachers could find themselves faced by manufactured pedagogical materials in foreign language classrooms, may seem artificial and unrealistic to both teachers and students, questioning whether learners are being prepared appropriately for communicative real life contexts in the modern time societies. The present study, then, represents a small-scale attempt to explore teachers and students’ attitudes and dispositions towards the use of authentic materials in the Algerian University. To this end, 87 first year LMD students as well as 06 EFL teachers from the English Department at Blida 2 University took part in the study. The findings from semi-structured interviews, surveys, and class observation, showed that nearly most participant teachers and students welcomed the idea of using less contrived and more realistic materials in the foreign language classes. In addition, both EFL teachers and students hold positive attitudes towards the valuable language opportunities that authentic materials could offer to meet the realness of the real world outside the foreign language class, which would positively affect the students’ foreign language skill