Newspapers tell us the news, and inform us about how today is different from yesterday. They provide us with some clues and some information to help us better understand our rapidly changing world. They arrive at our homes, on our laptops, and in our libraries.
But what about our English classrooms? How often do you use newspapers in your ESL classes?
Newspapers allow students to expand their vocabulary, follow current events, and deepen their understanding of our rapidly changing world. As a former journalist, teaching English with newspapers and magazines seems absolutely natural. My standard homework requires students to select, read, summarize, and evaluate an article of their choice and bring to class for a discussion.
Students provide the basic background information:
Title author
publication date
length # of sources:
List five new or important vocabulary words:
The ESL students also make some judgments:
What’s a key quote?
What’s the main idea? Why?
Finally, students answer three other questions:
What did you learn in this article?
Why did you choose the article?
How would rate the article on a scale of 1-10? Why?
Students pursue their own interests – with some guidance – and develop a stronger English vocabulary that they want and need for their personal and academic development. Naturally, they bring in topics and articles, in English and from the internet, from around the world. This regular homework activity creates an engaging, informative classroom atmosphere while allowing students to “create” some course content.
Many ESL and EFL teachers, however, often feel reluctant to use newspapers. Sometimes teachers feel that newspapers distract from their textbooks; sometimes it adds elements of uncertainty. I suspect, however, that many English teachers also don’t quite know how to effectively deploy newspapers in their classrooms. The newspapers in classroom movement remains more of an ideal than common practice in the United States.
American newspapers would like to change that fact. The New York Times wants ESL teachers to add their quality international paper to the curriculum. Here’s an excellent 4-page primer outlining 10 Ways to Support English Language Learners with the New York Times . And despite the descriptive headline, the informative article actually outlines over 25 activities and provides links to dozens of exceptional educational resources for both students and teachers. Students can find archival photographs to write postcards from the past, research their birthdays in history, find tourist information on their hometowns for oral presentations, and compare and contrast how different countries approach global problems. Worksheets have been developed for an online vocabulary log, understanding prepositions, and a problem-solution organizer.
Bottomline: This exceptional, flexible teacher’s resource makes using newspapers much easier for novice English teachers and time-starved experience ESL instructors.
Can all English classrooms use newspapers? No. Yet many low level and intermediate classes can use Easy English Times, USA Today, or the local English paper and focus on simpler, shorter headlines and articles. High intermediate and advanced students, however, can – and I would suggest should – try to read serious newspaper such as The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times.
So let’s help our students and bring newspapers into our classrooms.
Our students, after all, want to understand their world – in English!
Why do you want to learn English? What are your interests and priorities? Why not create your own, independent English language program this summer – for free?
Learning English, on your own and according to your own wishes and needs, has never been easier. Everyone with internet access can become autotelic, or self-directed, in creating their own educational program. Naturally, ambitious English students, innovative ESL educators and EFL schools have embraced these possibilities. Why not you?
The endless web continually offers pleasant surprises. This weekend I spent time on four more exceptional free websites for English teachers, tutors, and students: ESL video; USA Learns; BBC Learning English; and YapPR. You might find them valuable too.
ESL Video - This relatively new site allows you to watch short video clips, take an online quiz, read the transcript, and improve your listening comprehension. This smart, effective approach makes the site valuable for you, English teachers, and tutors.
BBC Learning English – The BBC takes its once imperial obligations to spread English seriously. This outstanding website includes the latest news in audio, transcripts, and sometimes video in clear English.
USA Learns – The popular U.S. Department of Education website for adult immigrants and future American citizens also offers video lessons for lower level English students. The new citizenship, for worse or for better, only requires a second grade English level. As an American educator, consider me disappointed that the expectations and standards for our new American citizens is so very low. By the way, one way the administration can build support for immigration reform is demand higher standards for citizenship and expand adult education ESL and open more EL/Civics classes. As Obama used to say, “yes, we can!”
YapPR – This innovative public relations site highlights short music videos, amusing commercials, and AP news stories with English transcriptions for English language learners. Designed for English students from around the world, it also includes materials in several languages. Does the public relations element bother me? Not really. The transcription feature provides valuable information for students which outweighs the apparent “pay to play” selection bias.
This is the best time – so far – to learn and teach English. We have never had so many resources available – often for free -to explore and experiment with new technologies. So be the captain of your own lifeboat, pick your English goals, and become an autotelic English student today.
Why state the obvious? Why take turns asking questions? Why ask follow up questions?
Common sense and social skills don’t seem to be universal. Conversation skills remain a vital soft skill that many scientists, engineers, shy people, and English language learners struggle to master. A key technique is just asking simple questions to keep a conversation moving forward.
Asking follow up questions can provide clarity and allow our conversation partners to elaborate on details. English teachers, especially when reviewing fluency skills, can introduce common phrases to help ESL and EFL students improve their fluency. Use these simple phrases to go beyond hello and create better conversations.
And?
So?
Where?
When?
How?
Why?
Meaning?
You can also encourage your conversation partner with simple phrases.
Go on!
Tell me more!
Sounds interesting.
Smiling and nodding your head also indicate interest and encourage your conversation partner. Yet asking follow up questions and turn taking remain key elements of a natural, satisfying conversation. Everyone in a conversation should both be and feel included, and asking questions remains essential in both superficial and deep conversations. English teachers can gently remind their ESL students of this technique as part of fluency.
Sometimes a picture, or in this case, an interactive map is worth a thousand words.
The United States continues to attract more legal immigrants and refugees each year than any other nation in the world. We also have an estimated 10 million immigrants who have crossed the borders without waiting for their official invitations. People travel thousands of miles to start new lives here, and join the long history of our immigrant nation built on ideas rather than bloodlines. Each immigrant has an idea, a hope, and a dream of what their life could become somewhere in our vast nation.
Where are immigrants building their new lives? You might be surprised. The consequences for our public school are quite significant with dramatic increases in the need for English as a Second Language (ESL) – or third or fourth – language classes for both adults and children.
Check out this New York Times’ Interactive Map of English Language Learners across the United States that documents their growth since 1996 – and the side chart on the continuing achievement gap. Personally, I was surprised by the depth and width of new immigrants across the United States, including such places as Indiana and North Carolina.
English reigns supreme as the international language for business, media culture, and academic research in 2009. Some experts even estimate that more individuals speak English as a second, third, or fourth language than as a native tongue. What are the practical classroom applications of this situation for English teachers?
Let me be more specific. Should British English or American English be the standard for English language learners? What about an International English with a focused vocabulary of perhaps only 3,000 practical words? Or are we drifting toward a wide diversity of different English dialectics, perhaps even separate languages that some scholars call World Englishes? Would the location of the classroom matter? Do the goals, ages, and perceived needs of the English language learners determine the answer? As TESOL members know, this topic has become a very hot debate in the field of applied linguistics, EFL, and ESL.
My recent visit to Vietnam – and intensive interviews with over 20 English language learner at an international high school – have certainly clarified some of the faultlines. For instance, if a Vietnamese high school senior wants to study in Australia, Britain, Canada, or the United States, they clearly must meet a much higher standard of English competency. High academic standards remain essential, especially for ambitious students seeking admission to competitive universities.
Yet, as Kirkpatrick notes, the vast, vast majority of Vietnamese studying English will never study or work abroad. Nor is the typical Vietnamese English student likely to immigrant to an English speaking country. What standard of English should the typical Vietnamese worker aspire to speak? Why? Context, as ever, seems essential. Perhaps, as Kirkpatrick argues, Vietnamese will develop a distinct version of English to meet their needs – and word endings are dropped.
My TEFL.net book review outlines the Kirkpatrick’s controversial thesis, his principal examples, and central arguments. It also includes my perceptions of the limits and difficulties with his increasingly influential perspective. Naturally, I hope you read it – and share your reaction with me.
English Teaching Professional, a glossy magazine for ESL teachers and language school directors, gave a glowing review and strong recommendation to Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics.“In sum, Compelling Conversations is a recommended resource for teachers who want to make their conversation classes more learner-centered,” wrote reviewer Hall Houston. “It should be especially appealing to those who who to escape the confines of the Presentation-Practice-Production approach and do without a formal grammatical or functional syllabus. It reflects the authors’ considerable professional experience, and would be a notable addition to any English teacher’s bookshelf.” The review also features a large copy of the book cover. Wow!
Houston also writes, “In my own teaching, I have found questions and quotations to be highly effective in promoting student discussion.” The review continues. “Questions are useful in that they require a response from the listener. Asking them also helps students master the tricky rules of the interrogative.”
“Quotations are brilliant flashes of wit expressed in the shortest space possible, often just a sentence or two,” observes Houston. “The authors have compiled a formidable collection of quotations by famous people from Napoleon and Aristotle to Tom Cruise and Sylvester Stallone. Some will have the students roaring with laughter ‘My movies were the kind they show in prisons and airplanes because nobody can leave.’ – Burt Reynolds), while others require careful introspection (‘Love is not just looking at each other; it’s looking in the same direction.’ – Antoine de Saint Exupery).”
The reviewer goes on. “The authors also add some wise proverbs here and there. My two favourites were ‘Recite “patience” three times and it will spare you a murder’ and ‘When money talks, truth keeps silent’, which are from Korea and Russia.” Houston, by the way, is the author of the outstanding ESL textbook The Creative Classroom: Teaching Languages Outside the Book. Coming from Houston, these words are especially pleasing.
My co-author Toni Aberson also appreciates that Houston, an English teacher working in Luzhu, Taiwan wrote the review in a British magazine with British spellings about an English textbook published in the United States. This international element adds a special delight to a long, three column review. “I just love it!”, exclaimed Aberson. We certainly live in a wonderful time to be English teachers.
While I my copy of English Teaching Professional two days ago, the January 2009 issue has been out for at least a week. The review appears on p.44 in Issue 60. Subscribers can access the full review at http://www.ETProfessional.com.
This positive book review might help explain the recent surge of class set orders. It also helps explain the sudden collection of emails and calls from Vietnam, Russia, Italy, and Canada in the last week about Compelling Conversations and possible collaborations. The appreciation of fellow ESL professionals gives me additional confidence, joy, and popularity. Sweet!
