You might wonder and be amazed why I do not recommend using newspaper articles in your classrooms especially in high school and first year college levels. There are several reasons of this blog.
1. It is too difficult for these students to understand.
2. It is impossible for these students to use the articles as model in their language use.
3. It might hinder students' motivation in learning English.
I know what you are thinking right now. (Yes, I know I'm crazy) You might be thinking that the theory of language learning proposes the (i+1) theory or zone of proximal development (ZPD) proposed by Vygotsky is supposed to be an ideal learning environment in which language learners to be succeeded in learning, they need to be exposed to the higher level of their language proficiencies. However, the newspaper article is not appropriate to be used in the high school and first year college levels because the language used in the newspaper articles is way too high. they might not be able to imitate language use for their own sake. Also, the difficulty might in fact hinder student's motivation.
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Hi Bee,
ReplyDeleteI'm a Japanese English and German teacher, Masatoshi.
I can understand what you want to say. But it depends on the students and the articles. For some students, news paper articles are difficult and they lose interest. For some students, some articles are not so difficult.
We have to see the academic levels of students.
Masatoshi from Japan
I agree with Masatoshi--it really depends on context. Some students may actually find it interesting to read the papers because they are "real stuff" and current, and not some old fake content in textbooks. So we shouldn't dismiss the papers altogether. I myself remember learning English from the papers, by myself and in class in Thailand. We read short (200 words or so) articles. I didn't like it that much but in the process I did learn more vocab and current events.
ReplyDeleteIf you think it's too difficult for your students, then pick the ones that are appropriate to your students' level and prep them for the reading.
yep! that's why I didn't say "must discard", but I said "might" instead. Also I am talking about high school level or first-year students in college, who are already struggling with producing comprehensible sentneces.
ReplyDeleteIt all depends on the contexts. However, you can recommend students to practice reading something in which they are interested in.
The process of writing newspaper articles from journalism perspective is to inform "their" readers, which explains why the newspaper article has many jargons. They need to present themselves to others that they are professionals. Our students are not their target groups, but learning to become one.
By using newspaper articles, students should have high level of language proficiencies.
Before learning English grammar, writing articles is a good exercise of basic writing and information skills, I think. Through article writing, students learn that they have to give least information for readers, i.e. 5W1H, who, whom, what, where, when, and how.
ReplyDeleteWe have to know that writing is not only English grammar but also giving information.
Therefore, writing articles must be a good exercise for high school students and freshmen.
Masatoshi
Masa San, did you mean the "most" information to readers?
ReplyDeleteI don't say "saficient" information but want to say "necessary."
ReplyDeleteEnglish teachers have a tendency that they only focus on "English." However, English is a language before English. If students don't have skills for writhing simply at the same time logically, English grammar doesn't work.