Using Authentic Materials in a Spanish Class: Impact on Students\u27

A Spanish classroom offers the opportunity to use authentic materials as teaching resources. Materials such as songs, movies, poems, and newspapers, just to mention a few, may be used. These materials, if chosen carefully, may enrich students\u27 cultural knowledge, vocabulary, reading and writing skills, amongst others. On the other hand, non-authentic materials such as textbooks with audios and written pieces can be used as well. This study attempted to determine if there was any impact on using authentic materials on students\u27 cultural knowledge and vocabulary development. The participants included 19 high school students enrolled in a Spanish class for native speakers. It was the goal that through different means of data collection, the results may contribute to research in this needed field