An excellent activity for vocabulary building and "Real English" practice
We are fortunate in that the Nashville Tennessean has a program called
Newspapers in Education. Through the generosity of the newspaper and individuals and organizations that contribute
to this program, we are able to access the Tennessean website and download articles. If your local newspaper
doesn't have such a program, you might see if they would be willing to start one.
I use the newspapers in several
ways:
1. I ask each student to read an article in English from the newspaper, a magazine, the internet, etc.
His homework that night is to read the article carefully. The following class, each student gives a five minute report on
his article to his group, and the group discusses the article. I am fortunate to have volunteers to help me with this exercise.
I have a native English speaker at each table, with five or six students. These volunteers answer questions about
unfamiliar words or phrases, and occasionally explain a little about the background of the article. If someone is not partipating
actively, they will usually ask his opinion. I allow about an hour for small group discussions. If several students have
chosen the same article, indicating more than the usual interest, I will ask one of them to present to the entire class and
get general discussion going on this topic. I find that this is a real learning experience for me as well as for the students,
because I hear many diverse points of view on topics of interest.
2. I will occasionally copy an article or column
and have the students read it aloud in class, and then discuss it. I find especially useful columns written by Saritha Prabhu,
a young writer who is a native of India, who frequently writes on topics that are of great interest to my adult immigrant
students. Click on the link below to sample one of her columns.
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