1. News Media as Authentic Material in the EFL classroom
Autumn Jackson, English Language Fellow
UNMUL, Samarinda

2. “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)

3. Reading level? Legislators in Connecticut Agree on Broad New Gun Laws
By 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.

4. Using News Articles in Class
Reading, listening,
and content comprehension
Article structure
Writing in specific genres

5. 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

6. News Story Structure
Headline, Lead, Body

7. You can learn a lot from a headline…

8. 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

9. 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”!)

10. News Media Resources The Jakarta Post The Jakarta Globe
Voice of America: Learning English
BBC: Learning English
Time For Kids (from Time Magazine)
New York Times: Learning Network

11. Final Reminders DON’T: DO: 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!

12. Resources
Banville, S. (2005). Creating ESL/EFL lessons based on news and current events. Internet TESL Journal.
Chandler, C.E. (1990). Using newspapers in the ESL literacy classroom. ERIC Digest.
Yoneoka, J. (2002). Newspaper English. Seminar paper. Link to Yokeona's Text

13. Contact Info
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