click here for the site
This site is a teacher's dream. It has an enormous amount of topical material on it, prepared in a manner that means it is very easy to 'download and teach'. The site consists of an archive of news items, to which a new story is added every three days. These are all current affairs stories, but are on a wide variety of topics such as politics, sport, news, health, celebrity. It would be hard not to find something that would be relevant to your learners. Each article is also available as a podcast for listening practice.
This side of the site is its main focus, and you could be forgiven for using only that, but in fact, there is a wealth of other material here, too - interactive quizzes, dictogloss activities, matching, hangman, flashcards. The are also links to Sean Banville's blog which has some great ideas for classroom activities and methodologies, and to his other websites which include News English. com (a site with easier news items) and Listen a minute.com, which has easier listening activities. And all for free - the man deserves a knighthood!
Why is the content good for language learning?
The content is generally of quite a high level. However, the texts are generally quite short (some are marked 'easier') and so, with preparation it isn't unreasonable to think that this could be used with intermediate level students or above. As has been noted - the content is authentic newspaper text and as such, with repeated use, will help learners to develop the vocabulary they will need for reading text of a more formal genre. This might be particularly applicable to learners who are aiming to use their English in a context of academic study or business.
How you use this will depend on the facilities available to you. Even in a class with no computers, the text and some of the activities can be printed off and photocopied for use in class. If you have access to computers, the possibilities are more numerous. Possibilities include predicting content and checking against the text, written or aural and using the games and quiz software to increase learner's awareness of vocabulary, collocation and structure. It would also be easy, given the amount of material on the site, to set up a jigsaw reading/ listening exercise where each pair int he class have the autonomy to choose a text that interests them, read/ listen to it and subsequently report back to other learners what they have found out. Tasks could usefully be set for homework, and there is sufficient variety of material and activities to help to maintain learners' interest and motivation.
As the text is all newspaper based, the themes are largely of interest to older teenagers and adults, so the site is not so useful for teachwers of yound learners. Also, as has been noted, the level makes it less suitable for learners under intermediate level. Apart form that, the only difficulty in using this excellent site is in being selective abot the material you use - there is simply too much and it can be a little overwhelming! It is perhaps a little churlish, though to be ungrateful when confronted with such riches!
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