The goal of a language class is to learn a language. Any text that supports authentic learning is an authentic text. You're an ELPA state, ELPA  virtually requires simplified texts at the first three levels.  In her study on Long-Term English Learners, Margarita Calderon calls for texts specifically made for ELs (see Factor 2, EL Appropriate texts).

http://tiny.cc/nebELPA

http://tiny.cc/jw-calderon-allington

Learning materials that are useful can be adapted and modified to make it 'authentic', if you need authentic stuff. The important thing is the student's interaction with the material to gain a good command of English.  The peace corp language teachers did a great job without spending too much time and effort on teaching materials, and without any worry as to whether it's authentic.  Many of us who were taught by those dedicated people have become native speakers of English.  Thanks.

I think authentic materials are very important, especially in teaching English for hospitality and tourism employees. For example, the use of owned material from the learner's job has an immediate focus which a mass-produced textbook probably does not have (Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998). In addition, these kinds of materials are based on the learners' experiences which give them even more authenticity. 

Could you please expand on what you mean by real world resources ?

Anna -- I guess that I mean materials that are not created for EFL but are found and used for EFL.  Examples might be news from news websites, TED Talks, movies or TV shows, or anything else that is created for native speakers but can be used to teach English. 

I feel teaching should be a mix of theory and practice. It applies to all disciplines. Real-world material is definitely important. But the classics can not be ignored. From the real world students and teachers should be able to develop new theories, otherwise there is no progress to knowledge development. From the real-world one should be able to take the refined materials otherwise wrong message may be conveyed. You have to do it otherwise you find the outputs are devoid of wisdom and imagination. There is a serious lack of these two attributes in today's learning environment.  

Hello Michael,

Concerning this issue, I often remember an argument from my TESOL masters days. (The original point may have been made by Alan Davies, though I cannot precisely recall.) The general argument seemed to be that rather than the authenticity itself of materials, what is important is how teachers are able to present materials to learners that may allow them to 'authenticate' the materials. I found a version of this argument online in the book Language for Specific Purposes by Gollin-Kies et al. (2012) in section 2.3.1 [sorry Google doesn't display the page of the book where the following citation appears; I paste the URL below for details] "Seidhofler suggests that teachers of foreign languages may have greater insights into culturally and socially appropriate pedagogies, they can 'authenticate language so students 'can make it their own in various contexts of use (236), and they also have insights from a shared L1 into the kind of errors learners are likely to make, and how to avoid them.'"

This general idea seem to concur with some of your respondents' messages above.

https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=CpKkCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT40&lpg=PT40&dq=Alan+Davies+it%27s+learners+who+authenticate&source=bl&ots=Gdh8v_3pwd&sig=ZLksOLs2iudc_BgGD9YUOoVRis0&hl=ja&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj96euDhPnLAhXl2qYKHdfGB04Q6AEIJzAB#v=onepage&q=Alan%20Davies%20it%27s%20learners%20who%20authenticate&f=false

Personally, I prefer authentic materials. Nowadays, EFL teachers misunderstood Comprehensible Input, somuchas they stress too much on exlaining language points, assuming that the more students understand, the more they take in. Actually, they ignore a fact that language learning is equal to skill acquiring, which the core is practice. My own English learning experience might be a case in point. When I was a English major, we had to read English Classics such as A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Treasure Island etc. Sure, I could not understand fully at the end of each semester, it was really a tough job. Two years later, most of us made it without formal instruction. I benefit a lot from this authentic reading experience. This was the only way we could be exposed to authentic English. And now, I had no any problem reading any authentic materials including professional articles. My point of view is, at tertiary level, authentic materials might be a reasonable option.

Many thanks for your explanation. I am not an English language teacher. Until my retirement i was a senior lecturer in nursing and in the past in midwifery. However, the principles of teaching are same in any field and I would think that a combination of the real world resources, text books and lecturers will work better than concentrating on just a particular type of resources. I don't see lectures as pure lecturing as there are many methods that could be applied , e.g. verbal expression, case studies, group work and feed back, demonstration, role play/acting, simulation, discussion, questions pause and answers and so on.  I believe all these are applicable in any lesson provided the context, venue, time of the day, length of session and numbers invloves in learning and teaching are appropriate. Hope this helps

Whether to use authentic materials also depends on what kind of students you have. I mean their English proficiency. If the students are of very limited ability in English, maybe those EFL textbook materials with controlled difficulty level will be better. Here in my university, students are usually of intermedium level, and we often use authentic materials, such as TED talks, movie clips or newspaper articles, but these materials were carefully chosen ones that we believe students can generally understand with efforts. What is even more important, I think, is that the tasks should be well designed to fit different levels. For students of lower level, easier tasks should be given.

Hello Michael,

I am not sure I have much to add, but the use of authentic materials in the ESL classroom is an interesting question.  If you are referring to the “owned material from the learner's job” described above by Jeffrey Stewart Marrow, then I agree.  However, if you pull authentic materials like job ads and applications into your ESL class, are they truly authentic, as they have been removed from the original context.  When you are speaking of other lower level ESL classes the reality is that many authentic texts could be too difficult, whereas the more advanced ESL classes might gain more from the use of authentic materials. The one goal for using authentic materials in the class is to help connect the somewhat artificial classroom environment with the real world outside of the class. In my class, I do use authentic materials, but with lower level students I grade the task and not the materials.  

Dear Professor Marek,

From my experience in EFL, it works satisfactorily to give students adapted materials for class practice, and then ask them to find authentic ones to finish their assignments.

Using adapted materials is more like an orientation that will give them some information of what they need to know and are expected of.  But students need to learn what it is like to actually use their language skills, and that's when authentic materials are needed. I usually ask students to choose their own authentic materials relevant to the lesson from authentic sources, and present their work to their class every time. This, I've found, helps push students to study authentic materials despite the difficulty as they choose the materials by themselves.

So I'd say it's not necessary that learning materials need to be all authentic. But students do need their experience of authentic materials--say 80%--to experience the actual use of the language and language skills.  

Sincerely,

Cameen

I think that authentic language learning is important as it helps with contextualising any target language. Besides, authentic materials add a realistic sense in other teaching/learning contexts. In this co-authored paper, we dealt in depth with authentic materials online and how they can be employed for language learning and practice:

Abdelhafez, H. A. & Abdallah, M. M. S. (2015). Making It 'Authentic': Egyptian EFL Student Teachers' Awareness and Use of Online Authentic Language Materials and Their Learning Motivation. Journal of Research in Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Technology (JRCIET), An International Quarterly Refereed Educational Journal 1(1), (January 2015), 129-168. Association of Arab Educators, Egypt.

Article Making It 'Authentic': Egyptian EFL Student Teachers' Awaren...

Yes, I think learners should be exposed to authentic materials. By doing so, learners are not only exposed the target as used in real situations, but they are also given the chance to be in touch with the target culture. As for the level of difficulty, teachers should select materials that match learners mental and linguistic capabilities.