The Language Teacher
November 2001
News Chat
Morris Kimura, Eric Gustavsen, and Valley Peters,
School for International Trainingat Tokyo Jogakkan Junior College
QUICK GUIDE
Key Words: News, speaking, skimming, scanning
Learner English Level: Beginner to advanced
Learner Maturity Level: College and university
Preparation Time: 5 to 10 minutes
Activity Time: 30 minutes, follow up may take longer
This class looks at news in a more communicative way. It is suitable for lower-level students as well as higher levels and can be used to bring current events and news stories into any class. We found it highly motivating for students as it allowed them to discuss current events and entertainment news in English in a fun and focused way.
Activity Objectives
- Students will become familiar with current news through newspapers or the Internet in English.
- Students will be able to use skimming and scanning reading strategies.
- Students will be able to write about current news in their own words, focusing on answering the 5W1H questions (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How).
- Students will be able to read or listen to a news story in English, take notes, and summarize it verbally.
Procedure
Step 1: Finding current news
Students are asked to find an authentic current news article that interests them. They are free to choose any topic or story they like. This can be assigned as homework, or the teacher may bring English newspapers or magazines to class. Other options for news resources include school or public libraries and the Internet. We highly recommend <www.japantoday.com> as the news articles are short and concise.
Step 2: Skimming and scanning the news
The teacher introduces skimming and scanning strategies in class such as reading for key words, reading headings and sub-headings, and reading the first and last sentence of each paragraph. Practice this first with the same article for the whole class before having students move on to their own articles. Next, students practice skimming and scanning with the articles they have chosen and answer the questions on the news grid (see Appendix) as they go along. The purpose of the news grid is to focus students' reading on the main points of the article and to prepare them to share and summarize it verbally in class.
Step 3: Sharing the news -- News Chat
After the news grid is filled in, students share their news in pairs. One partner asks the questions from the news grid while the other answers in her own words, using her notes from the grid. This takes about three or four minutes. The students asking the questions also take notes on their partner's news story in the second column on the news grid. After the task is done, students switch roles. During News Chat, students can ask follow-up questions to get more information. To provide more speaking practice, the chat can be done in a fluency circle with students changing partners three or four times repeating the same information each time.
Step 4: Summarizing the news
After students have shared their news, they choose one news story that they want to summarize. Using their notes from the second or third column on the news grid, they summarize a classmate's news story in their own words. This can be done in pairs, small groups, or in a fluency circle.
This activity became a routine in our classes at the beginning of each class. Students were focused and interested in each other's news. We did not put a limit on the news topics students could choose from so they brought many varied news items from politics to entertainment. This diversified the discussions and brought the interest level up for the students. Through this activity, students learned not only language skills but also made new discoveries about the world around them in the target language.
Pre/Post Activities
Grammar focus
Before or after doing News Chat, teachers can present a grammar focus. As an example, we worked on:
1) reported speech "I heard that.... / CNN reported that ....."
2) formation of wh-questions
Reading strategies
Other reading strategies such as previewing and predicting (looking for information and making guesses about what the article is about) can be introduced and practiced.
Writing: Using the news grid, students can work on their written skills by writing one paragraph describing the news that they heard from their partner.
Discussion/Debate: After the news chat, the class can pick one news story or topic on which to have a discussion. Teachers can work on discussion or debate skills to foster critical thinking. Depending on the topic, this is a good way to get students to practice forming and expressing opinions and to bring out cultural issues.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Heather Gately, Margaret Kim, and Jaimie Scanlon who taught the "Issues in the News" course at Tokyo Jogakkan Junior College or contributed to this article.
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Who/what was in the news? |
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What happened? What did they do? |
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When did it happen? . |
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Why? . |
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Other information . |
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| Give your reaction, an opinion, and reasons to support what you think. | . | . | . |
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