NEWS MEDIA AS AUTHENTIC MATERIAL
IN THE EFL CLASSROOM
Autumn Jackson, English Language FellowUNMUL, Samarinda
“Current Events” & Using News Media
For which classes? Which ages? Which grades?
As supplement or as a base for a lesson Why use news?
Textbooks have limits; news is up-to-date (Banville, 2005)
Authentic materials are important – and may also facilitate authentic communication (Banville, 2005)
Being aware of current events is important; news introduces students to both “cultural and linguistic concepts” (Chandler, 1990)
Reading level?Legislators in Connecticut Agree on Broad New Gun LawsBy PETER APPLEBOME | Published: April 1, 2013
HARTFORD — More than three months after the massacre of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., state legislative leaders announced on Monday that they had agreed on what they called the most far-reaching gun-legislation package in the country.
It would require new state-issued eligibility certificates for the purchase of any rifle, shotgun or ammunition; mandate that offenders convicted of any of more than 40 weapons offenses register with the state; require universal background checks for the sale of all firearms; and substantially expand the state’s existing ban on assault weapons.
Using News Articles in Class
Reading, listening,and content comprehension
Article structure
Writing in specific genres
Example Activity: Story Jigsaw
Class activities using a news article
Students match the pieces of a story one story: put the pieces in order many stories: separate the stories and then put
them in order
Match headlines: many headlines to many stories choose one headline from a collection for a
single story
News Story Structure Headline, Lead, Body
You can learn a lot from a headline…
Example Activities: Newspaper Headlines
Media headlines in English usually have unique grammar “rules” (or guidelines)
Class activities: Determine the grammar of headlines
(teach, find, review) “Translate” or “rewrite” (not “correct”)
headlines Write your own headlines
Headlines Grammar Guidelines Eliminated articles (no “the,” “a,” “an”)
Bomb found at Bonn rail station Missing “be” as main verb
DJs ‘heartbroken’ over nurse’s death Missing “be” as helping verb
Many missing in Philippines typhoon Tense changes:
Present often used in place of past Brazilian 'genius' architect Niemeyer dies
Future indicated by to + verb Facebook to overhaul its privacy controls
For more, see Yoneoka (2002) (or Google “newspaper grammar”!)
News Media Resources The Jakarta Post
The Jakarta Globe
Voice of America: Learning English http://learningenglish.voanews.com/
BBC: Learning English http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/
Time For Kids (from Time Magazine) http://www.timeforkids.com/
New York Times: Learning Network http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/
Final Reminders DON’T:
choose a news story at random force students to take sides on very sensitive
issues let a debate develop into a political or moral fight
DO: be sensitive to topics and student reactions recognize both or many sides of an issue encourage students to be critical about the
presentation of issues (look for biases) remember that news articles may be difficult!
Resources Banville, S. (2005). Creating ESL/EFL lessons
based on news and current events. Internet TESL Journal. http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Banville-News/
Chandler, C.E. (1990). Using newspapers in the ESL literacy classroom. ERIC Digest. http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED321619.pdf
Yoneoka, J. (2002). Newspaper English. Seminar paper. Link to Yokeona's Text
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