Longman Dictionary of

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authentic materials
achievement or performance using test tasks that resemble real-life
language use as closely as possible.
see ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT, PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
authentic materials n
in language teaching, the use of materials that were not originally developed
for pedagogical purposes, such as the use of magazines, newspapers,
advertisements, news reports, or songs. Such materials are often thought
to contain more realistic and natural examples of language use than those
found in textbooks and other specially developed teaching materials.
authenticity n authentic adj
(in teaching)
the degree to which language teaching materials have the qualities of
natural speech or writing. In language teaching a distinction is made
between materials that have been specially prepared to illustrate or practise
specific teaching points (such as reading passages, listening texts, or model
conversations) and those that have been taken from real-world sources.
Texts which are taken from newspapers, magazines, etc., and tapes of
natural speech taken from ordinary radio or television programmes, etc.,
are called authentic materials.
It is argued that these are preferred classroom resources since they
illustrate authentic language use.
(in testing) the extent to which test tasks correspond to language use in a
non-test (i.e. target language use) situation.
authoring system n
(in COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING) a computer program which is designed
to allow teachers and materials designers to write a computer lesson without
requiring them to learn how to write a PROGRAM. The teacher concentrates
on creating the lesson material, while the authoring system
handles such things as the exercise format and the processing of answers.
autoassociative adj
see ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY
automatic processing n
the performance of a task without conscious or deliberate processing.
In cognitive psychology, two different kinds of processing employed in
carrying out tasks are distinguished. Controlled processing is involved
when conscious effort and attention is required to perform a task. This
places demands on short-term memory (see MEMORY). For example a
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