Abstract:
Within the realm of English Language Teaching (ELT), the concept of
authenticity of materials has been given a significant attention from researchers ever
since the emergence of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach.
Nonetheless, it is hard to determine whether EFL teachers are keen to use authentic
materials with tertiary students in EFL contexts such as Turkey. The present study
aimed at investigating the perspectives of Turkish EFL teachers on using authentic
materials at the tertiary level of education. In this regard, an online survey
questionnaire was completed by forty-four teachers, while ten of them further
participated in semi-structured interviews. Corresponding outcomes showed that the
teachers exhibit a favorable attitude toward the utilization of authentic materials in
their EFL classes and that they were fully aware of their impact on their students’
language development. The findings also revealed that the majority of teachers prefer
using authentic materials as a primary source, believing that those materials provide
their students the opportunity to interact with real language, improve their language
skills and assist them to become proficient in learning English as a foreign language.
Furthermore, the findings of this study suggested that educators perceive accessing
authentic materials to be an easy process.
