ESL News Lessons

Lessons based on current events in the news provide rich opportunities for advanced ESL learners. The lessons are real and relevant. Other aspects which make these sorts of lessons a good choice for the classroom include, in no particular order:

Interesting. After all, most everyone reads the news, particularly the human interest pieces.

Challenging. Even when rewritten to include particular vocabulary and/or grammar, the real and relevant aspect also makes them slightly more difficult than the usual lesson.

Refreshingly different. A lesson focused on real topics instead of textbooks offers something new.

Useful. Students can use the information from the lesson to gain different perspectives on hot topics, and use that information when talking with friends and colleagues.

What's more, because the students may likely have discussed the same and/or related issues in their native language, retention of grammar and vocabulary improves, as does accuracy and fluency, because the ideas are already somewhat familiar.

It takes more than just an interesting article and off to class you go. Many articles in the news end up as too long for a sixty- or ninety-minute class, or too difficult. You definitely don't want to use the entire lesson dissecting the piece one line at a time. Nor do you want an article that doesn't lend itself to supporting activities, such as a debate. Consider the following:

Length. Choose an article roughly 200 or 300 words. This ensures that fifty percent or less of the lesson can be devoted to reading and understanding the piece, which includes any key vocabulary and/or grammar. It also means that the remaining class time can be devoted to activities based on the article. The students should be able to read the article silently in less than ten minutes.

Appropriacy. Some students may find a particular subject offensive. Others may find it uninteresting. Of course you can't please the entire class, but remember the age, background, and gender of the students when selecting a news article.

Activities. As has been mentioned, the activities should support the content of the article. When selecting the piece, you should easily imagine warm-up activities, opportunities for debate and role plays, and so on. If you, as the teacher, can't think of accompanying activities, how can you expect the students to easily jump into the article and activities on which you eventually decide?

Now that you have an article idea, you need to do some preparation. First, it may be necessary to rewrite the piece. In fact, I highly recommend that you do so. This allows you to adjust the language around particular grammar, if necessary, as well as insert important vocabulary words for the students. You can also add idioms and phrases.

You next need to think of relevant activities. What will you do in the warm up? How about vocabulary exercises? What kind of activities will give students the chance to use the language points and the information from the article?

Here are just a few ideas:

warm-up idea #1: Students speculate on the topic based on the headline. Some headlines cleverly use the language, which allows students to work in pairs and talk about what the article may contain.

warm-up idea #2: Give students several questions related to the article. For example, if the piece is on global warming, some easy questions to discuss and activate pre-existing knowledge include:

• Do you think global warming is a problem?

• How concerned are you about global warming?

• What do you do to protect the environment?

warm-up idea #3: Students brainstorm words and ideas related to the article. Again, the students are using and sharing pre-existing knowledge on the topic, which will help when they begin to go through the article.

vocabulary idea #1: After you have selected ten key vocabulary words for the lesson, students break up into pairs or groups and look through the words, check dictionaries, and collectively understand their usage.

vocabulary idea #2: Students do a synonym match with the key vocabulary. Even better, students first brainstorm additional words around the synonyms, then complete the synonym match. This gives the bonus of additional words to connect with the target vocabulary, and improves comprehension and retention of the language.

comprehension idea #1: Provide students with a set of questions before reading the article. This helps target their reading around the key ideas.

comprehension idea #2: Allow students two minutes to read through the piece. Of course, they likely won't finish, nor will they fully understand the contents. That's fine. Pair up the students to discuss what they read and remembered without referring back to the article. Next, let the students return to the article for another two-minute read to confirm and add to the previous conversation. Pair up students once more for another discussion.

comprehension idea #3: Break the class into groups based on the number of paragraphs in the article. For example, an article with four paragraphs would necessitate groups with four students. Give each student one of the paragraphs from the article, which they must summarize to their group. In addition, the students are responsible for any unknown words or phrases from their respective paragraphs.

application idea #1: Before the lesson, write five or ten discussion questions. Students work at their own pace, discussing only the questions that they find interesting.

application idea #2: Again, prepare a series of discussion questions. Assign two questions for the class to talk about in pairs. After five minutes, students switch partners and talk about the same two questions. This improves fluency and accuracy, and student are more likely to use the key ideas and target language from the article in the second discussion. Think of the first conversation as practice.

We've come a long way, and there's been a lot of information introduced. But we're almost done. Although there are many ways to structure a news lesson, consider the following template:

Warm Up. This should be about ten minutes. Most importantly, it should give the students the chance to think about and discuss the topic at hand. In doing so, they activate pre-existing knowledge and language, and are more able to jump into the article from the start.

Pre-reading activities. Before going through the piece, present students with vocabulary, grammar, and/or comprehension questions.

Reading activities. Of course, students may just read through the piece and discuss it. But a richer lesson comes with comprehension questions to discuss, a summarization of the piece, opportunities to explain and clarify difficult points to peers, and so on. This guarantees a better understanding of the article, brought about through reading and re-reading of relevant sections.

Application activities. Now it's time to apply the new information. Discussion questions work very well, as this allows students to reuse the contents of the article, as well as mix it with what they knew before the class. Debate also works well, as they can assume positions and roles contradictory to their beliefs. Imagine how much a student must extend the language and his/her abilities when taking on the position that pollution has no relation to global warming!

News articles offer a wealth of learning opportunities for advanced ESL students. It's sometimes proves a difficult task to get students interested in the lesson, especially when they take the class as a requirement for school or business. News lessons easily tap into the interests of the students, offer challenges, and provide flexibility.

Give them a try, and good luck!