The Need to Develop Authentic Materials in Teaching Grammar Communicatively for Iranian High School Students

Teaching and learning grammar in Iranian high schools based on the communicative approach of the newly published textbooks tend to lead students to apply the grammatical pattern in sentence patterns not to apply them in communication. That is, the grammatical materials used in the newly published textbooks have been used for the specific purpose of providing grammar practice. In a research done on authenticity of Iranian English high school textbooks by F. Zarrabi (2015) the feedback received from the teachers’ and the students’ responses, such textbooks lack the authenticity of natural English in terms of content and presentation. The materials are not generally presented from the easy to hard order and they are mainly void of cultural and communicative points. Therefore, the study is primarily aimed at discussing the effects of using authentic material in teaching grammar communicatively and examining the need for English language teachers and course designers to develop authentic materials for grammar instruction communicatively for Iranian EFL students. The results of the study indicate that the need for English language teachers to use authentic materials in teaching grammar to give the opportunity to the students to expose to the real use of language.